You forget that allied NATO nations like Canada, France, Germany, Denmark and others together took more than a 1000 losses to help the U.S defeat the taliban and occupy Afghanistan. And for what?
I think if the U.S asked for assistance before a well planned attack on another country (not an unplanned wishful thinking mess like we now experience) you would get none. For the next 20 years, at least, probably longer, the U.S will get no help from what you refer to as ”allies and partners” to restore peace or prevent war. Because the leadership status crafted since 1941 is gone.
In two years the U.S has managed to go from leader of the free world to an embarrassment. From the natural center of the west, to a clown, and an evil clown at that. One must admire the speed though.
Honestly, I'm not sure what to say. You are smart and informed enough to understand that Trump and those who control the GOP today are not on the side of democracy and freedom. This is a party that Reagan would be repulsed by. Trump likes and admires Putin and Kim because he wants to be a despot like them. I don't know if you are capable of admitting this, or you have just convinced yourself, ensconced at Hoover, that progressive taxes on the rich and a social safety net are so terrible that it's worth taking a very serious risk of making the United States of America like Putin's Russia, and you'll take your chances that you can control the authoritarians. This is what people on the right like yourself in Germany in the 1930's thought of the Nazis. We'll take our chances that we can control them.
All I can do is hold up the mirror and hope you will take a good look. I also ask that you look at another three star, Mark Hertling. See what he's doing at the aptly named Bulwark.
I’m not sure what leads you to such certainty that Trump and the GOP oppose democracy and freedom. The evidence I’ve seen points in the opposite direction. My understanding is that Trump’s agenda is aimed at restoring constitutional limits, strengthening individual liberties, and reinforcing a culture of personal responsibility. You may disagree with his policies or his style, but that’s different from claiming he’s aligned with authoritarianism. If you want to discuss specific actions or policies, I’m willing to do that — but sweeping comparisons to historical dictators don’t reflect the information I have.
I don’t know what are your sources of information, but I encourage you to read a credible and professional newspaper, like the news section of The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times. The evidence that he is trying to end democracy along with his party is overwhelming, and I think obvious, if you read a credible and professional news source. He made several concerted attempts to steal the 2020 election. He constantly uses the power of government to punish, often severely, people and orgnizations who oppose him, or speak out against him, and he is constantly trying to spread pretexts to allow him to rig future elections. He even went so far as to rip out multimillion dollar postal machines to slow the delivery of mail votes until it was too late. If you care about democracy and freedom, I hope you will make an effort to become informed on this. Even asking an AI, a good one, so obviously not Elon Musk’s, but Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT, would give you a long list of evidence.
I do stay informed, including through the sources you mentioned. I simply don't draw the same conclusions you do. If you want to discuss specific actions or evidence, I'm open to that. But broad claims about "ending democracy" or "rigging elections" need more than repetition, they need clear examples and a willingness to look at them objectively.
And if we're going to talk about using government power against political opponents, I think we should look at the full picture. For example, the Ney York Attorney General ran on a campaign promise to "get Trump", and the Manhattan DA revived a case after declining it earlier, and the Fulton County DA coordinated indictments with a grand jury that included charges even legal scholars on the left have questioned. Whether one agrees with these actions or not, they show that this isn't a simple one-sided issue.
I'm happy to have a grounded conversation about specific events if we can keep it respectful and focused on facts.
With all due respect, I have my doubts about how well read you are from credible professional sources like those I mentioned. But just to give you some examples:
Trump fomented an insurrection on January 6th, asked that the metal detectors be removed so they could use firearms, let it go on for 2 hours after they breached the capital without calling in the military to protect lawmakers trapped within and in serious danger, so that those lawmakers would not be able to certify the vote against him, or would be too scared to. He encouraged threats to the life of his Vice President, so he would cooperate in overturning an election he clearly lost, and later pardoned even those who most violently were involved in the insurrection, to send a very clear message that if you help him overthrow democracy, he will make sure there are no legal consequences. and he went even further, trying to create a two billion dollar legal fund to reward them, and encourage future violent aid, and he had his "Justice" department pay millions of dollars to the family of Ashley Babbitt, with clearly no legal justification, to obviously send the message that you will be rewarded if you help Trump and his party end democracy.
He is also on tape pressuring the Secretary of State in Georgia to give him enough votes to win that state, and he helped orchestrate a plot to submit false electors. Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue recorded Trump’s instruction: “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen.” Trump considered replacing acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, so DOJ could send unsupported letters encouraging state legislatures to intervene
Hundreds of mail sorting machines were decommissioned, while operational rules reduced overtime and transportation flexibility in an attempt to prevent mail ballots from being counted in time.
And he constantly spreads and promotes lies to justify stealing any future elections he or his party might lose.
I could go on.
The severe use of government power to punish people and organizations who opposed him, utterly unprecedented, and create a climate of fear of exercising free speech and political rights against him, so great that you have Google and Apple too scared to not call Lake Ontario, Lake America, is far too long to go into at this point. If you are not well aware of it, then you are only doing token reading from credible sources.
And no, there is not the equivalent on the Democrat side. Jaywalking and murder are not equally bad just because both are violations. The charges against Trump were based on serious, or extremely serious, crimes with overwhelming evidence, that anyone else would be prosecuted for, without a doubt, with the one possible exception of the NY case, and even that one, many reasonable experts have called justified. The violation of the law was clear and egregious; the only thing you might claim is that as much as that kind of thing should have been persecuted, how often was it. But to me it's clear with the history and brazenness, in a high profile case, you, of course, prosecute anyone like that.
The point is that the evidence is overwhelming; it’s not just one or two things, and the worst of it is not contested among credible and expert sources. It is only contested amongst propaganda and other non-credible sources. There is a real difference between The Wall Street Journal’s new section and the Gateway pundit. This is not just some difference of opinion; it is basic true facts versus falsehoods.
I do think it would be very illuminating to have a discussion about this with a good AI. This means either Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude, and really at the $20 per month level is much more powerful and better than the free versions. There are certainly still flaws to AI, but gathering basic facts they’re extremely good at, and especially ChatGPT and Claude are designed to get their facts from credible sources, or to weight such sources more heavily, and you can always ask it about the source. This is something you could do at your leisure, one piece of evidence at a time if you would like.
The entire content of your blog post -- with which I completely agree -- is simple, US interests are best served by a strong, decisive military that identifies risks and eliminates them with conclusive ends. Fight and win.
What has always puzzled me is how the US in 20 years of war was unable to fashion a winning strategy against a third world undergunned, light infantry in the Taliban.
Civilians have no appreciation for how well educated and trained the US officer corps is -- military academy (full disclosure VMI '73), basic course, Airborne/Ranger schools, advanced course, C&GSC, War College, grad school, and 2-3 GO charm schools as well as exquisite command and staff experience.
In spite of that, there was never a clear, decisive, and winning US strategy in the Graveyard of Empires. Why?
We had more people, better weapons, unlimited ammunition, pervasive communications, an umbrella of intel, complete air dominance, and a free hand, but somehow we ended up with an opponent who wintered over in Pakistan and it took 10 years to understand the tribal networks of that part of the world.
My father, retired CSM, WWII battlefield commission, and the best read soldier I ever met, upon learning the US was going into A'stan said, "Does anybody in the Pentagon know A'stan is called the Graveyard of Empires?"
How with all that package and 20 bloody years did we fail to just come up with a strategy that could defeat what was clearly not a peer army?
I can find no other answer other than the GOs had no idea what they were doing.
A very fascinating article. Went well with my morning coffee. The entire withdrawal reminded me of the fall of Saigon. Just the rambling thoughts of an old hermit.
In the aftermath of 9/11, while the dust of the WTC was still settling, I would tell anyone that listened to me that W should have gone to Congress and demanded a declaration of war against terrorism. If he had done that and was given free rein to pursue the enemy wherever he resided, then this mess would’ve ended a long time ago. But I was just some dumb Master Chief. WTF did I know?
Have a Great Halloween Month. Halloween, the only holiday worth celebrating for a whole month.
With MkUltra and 200 related projects the CIA tried to create a CIA Assassin that would forget everything they had done and could not be traced back to the CIA, and now DARPA and the CIA continue to work on that.
Naturally The CIA has to try to get Ghosts and Demons to work for them, because if it can be done, China, Russia, and the nations with Islamic Law will do it.
Our Politicians are all liars and do not give a shit about anything but power and money, like every politician and Religious leader in our world.
Today's Smart glasses, Smart watches, Smart rings, and VR Googles are tomorrow's Fidget Spinners, Beanie Babies, and Hula Hoops for people with more money than brains.
I am amazed how relevant you try to be, considering that you are still completely irrelevant. Your analysis is weak, illogical, and shames real politicians. It would be nice to see you and your frayed and dated efforts just fade away.
You forget that allied NATO nations like Canada, France, Germany, Denmark and others together took more than a 1000 losses to help the U.S defeat the taliban and occupy Afghanistan. And for what?
I think if the U.S asked for assistance before a well planned attack on another country (not an unplanned wishful thinking mess like we now experience) you would get none. For the next 20 years, at least, probably longer, the U.S will get no help from what you refer to as ”allies and partners” to restore peace or prevent war. Because the leadership status crafted since 1941 is gone.
In two years the U.S has managed to go from leader of the free world to an embarrassment. From the natural center of the west, to a clown, and an evil clown at that. One must admire the speed though.
Until after World War 2 England and Europe played the Great Game against the Entire World.
After World War 2, the United States stole the Great Game from them and wages war against the entire world.
Thank you for that astute analysis.
Trump could not read nor understand it.
Honestly, I'm not sure what to say. You are smart and informed enough to understand that Trump and those who control the GOP today are not on the side of democracy and freedom. This is a party that Reagan would be repulsed by. Trump likes and admires Putin and Kim because he wants to be a despot like them. I don't know if you are capable of admitting this, or you have just convinced yourself, ensconced at Hoover, that progressive taxes on the rich and a social safety net are so terrible that it's worth taking a very serious risk of making the United States of America like Putin's Russia, and you'll take your chances that you can control the authoritarians. This is what people on the right like yourself in Germany in the 1930's thought of the Nazis. We'll take our chances that we can control them.
All I can do is hold up the mirror and hope you will take a good look. I also ask that you look at another three star, Mark Hertling. See what he's doing at the aptly named Bulwark.
I’m not sure what leads you to such certainty that Trump and the GOP oppose democracy and freedom. The evidence I’ve seen points in the opposite direction. My understanding is that Trump’s agenda is aimed at restoring constitutional limits, strengthening individual liberties, and reinforcing a culture of personal responsibility. You may disagree with his policies or his style, but that’s different from claiming he’s aligned with authoritarianism. If you want to discuss specific actions or policies, I’m willing to do that — but sweeping comparisons to historical dictators don’t reflect the information I have.
I don’t know what are your sources of information, but I encourage you to read a credible and professional newspaper, like the news section of The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times. The evidence that he is trying to end democracy along with his party is overwhelming, and I think obvious, if you read a credible and professional news source. He made several concerted attempts to steal the 2020 election. He constantly uses the power of government to punish, often severely, people and orgnizations who oppose him, or speak out against him, and he is constantly trying to spread pretexts to allow him to rig future elections. He even went so far as to rip out multimillion dollar postal machines to slow the delivery of mail votes until it was too late. If you care about democracy and freedom, I hope you will make an effort to become informed on this. Even asking an AI, a good one, so obviously not Elon Musk’s, but Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT, would give you a long list of evidence.
I do stay informed, including through the sources you mentioned. I simply don't draw the same conclusions you do. If you want to discuss specific actions or evidence, I'm open to that. But broad claims about "ending democracy" or "rigging elections" need more than repetition, they need clear examples and a willingness to look at them objectively.
And if we're going to talk about using government power against political opponents, I think we should look at the full picture. For example, the Ney York Attorney General ran on a campaign promise to "get Trump", and the Manhattan DA revived a case after declining it earlier, and the Fulton County DA coordinated indictments with a grand jury that included charges even legal scholars on the left have questioned. Whether one agrees with these actions or not, they show that this isn't a simple one-sided issue.
I'm happy to have a grounded conversation about specific events if we can keep it respectful and focused on facts.
With all due respect, I have my doubts about how well read you are from credible professional sources like those I mentioned. But just to give you some examples:
Trump fomented an insurrection on January 6th, asked that the metal detectors be removed so they could use firearms, let it go on for 2 hours after they breached the capital without calling in the military to protect lawmakers trapped within and in serious danger, so that those lawmakers would not be able to certify the vote against him, or would be too scared to. He encouraged threats to the life of his Vice President, so he would cooperate in overturning an election he clearly lost, and later pardoned even those who most violently were involved in the insurrection, to send a very clear message that if you help him overthrow democracy, he will make sure there are no legal consequences. and he went even further, trying to create a two billion dollar legal fund to reward them, and encourage future violent aid, and he had his "Justice" department pay millions of dollars to the family of Ashley Babbitt, with clearly no legal justification, to obviously send the message that you will be rewarded if you help Trump and his party end democracy.
He is also on tape pressuring the Secretary of State in Georgia to give him enough votes to win that state, and he helped orchestrate a plot to submit false electors. Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue recorded Trump’s instruction: “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen.” Trump considered replacing acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, so DOJ could send unsupported letters encouraging state legislatures to intervene
Hundreds of mail sorting machines were decommissioned, while operational rules reduced overtime and transportation flexibility in an attempt to prevent mail ballots from being counted in time.
And he constantly spreads and promotes lies to justify stealing any future elections he or his party might lose.
I could go on.
The severe use of government power to punish people and organizations who opposed him, utterly unprecedented, and create a climate of fear of exercising free speech and political rights against him, so great that you have Google and Apple too scared to not call Lake Ontario, Lake America, is far too long to go into at this point. If you are not well aware of it, then you are only doing token reading from credible sources.
And no, there is not the equivalent on the Democrat side. Jaywalking and murder are not equally bad just because both are violations. The charges against Trump were based on serious, or extremely serious, crimes with overwhelming evidence, that anyone else would be prosecuted for, without a doubt, with the one possible exception of the NY case, and even that one, many reasonable experts have called justified. The violation of the law was clear and egregious; the only thing you might claim is that as much as that kind of thing should have been persecuted, how often was it. But to me it's clear with the history and brazenness, in a high profile case, you, of course, prosecute anyone like that.
The point is that the evidence is overwhelming; it’s not just one or two things, and the worst of it is not contested among credible and expert sources. It is only contested amongst propaganda and other non-credible sources. There is a real difference between The Wall Street Journal’s new section and the Gateway pundit. This is not just some difference of opinion; it is basic true facts versus falsehoods.
I do think it would be very illuminating to have a discussion about this with a good AI. This means either Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude, and really at the $20 per month level is much more powerful and better than the free versions. There are certainly still flaws to AI, but gathering basic facts they’re extremely good at, and especially ChatGPT and Claude are designed to get their facts from credible sources, or to weight such sources more heavily, and you can always ask it about the source. This is something you could do at your leisure, one piece of evidence at a time if you would like.
The entire content of your blog post -- with which I completely agree -- is simple, US interests are best served by a strong, decisive military that identifies risks and eliminates them with conclusive ends. Fight and win.
What has always puzzled me is how the US in 20 years of war was unable to fashion a winning strategy against a third world undergunned, light infantry in the Taliban.
Civilians have no appreciation for how well educated and trained the US officer corps is -- military academy (full disclosure VMI '73), basic course, Airborne/Ranger schools, advanced course, C&GSC, War College, grad school, and 2-3 GO charm schools as well as exquisite command and staff experience.
In spite of that, there was never a clear, decisive, and winning US strategy in the Graveyard of Empires. Why?
We had more people, better weapons, unlimited ammunition, pervasive communications, an umbrella of intel, complete air dominance, and a free hand, but somehow we ended up with an opponent who wintered over in Pakistan and it took 10 years to understand the tribal networks of that part of the world.
My father, retired CSM, WWII battlefield commission, and the best read soldier I ever met, upon learning the US was going into A'stan said, "Does anybody in the Pentagon know A'stan is called the Graveyard of Empires?"
How with all that package and 20 bloody years did we fail to just come up with a strategy that could defeat what was clearly not a peer army?
I can find no other answer other than the GOs had no idea what they were doing.
How do I have that wrong?
Cheers.
What about memorials for September 2019, when trump, Khalilizad, and Mike Pompous surrendered to the Taliban?
Stupid comment, Tom. Don't get what that has to do with my comment. It's not about politics.
Meanwhile we are doing it again, with trump flinging Ferraris at Frisbees.
Indeed, Bad Trump. Happy?
A very fascinating article. Went well with my morning coffee. The entire withdrawal reminded me of the fall of Saigon. Just the rambling thoughts of an old hermit.
In the aftermath of 9/11, while the dust of the WTC was still settling, I would tell anyone that listened to me that W should have gone to Congress and demanded a declaration of war against terrorism. If he had done that and was given free rein to pursue the enemy wherever he resided, then this mess would’ve ended a long time ago. But I was just some dumb Master Chief. WTF did I know?
Have a Great Halloween Month. Halloween, the only holiday worth celebrating for a whole month.
With MkUltra and 200 related projects the CIA tried to create a CIA Assassin that would forget everything they had done and could not be traced back to the CIA, and now DARPA and the CIA continue to work on that.
Naturally The CIA has to try to get Ghosts and Demons to work for them, because if it can be done, China, Russia, and the nations with Islamic Law will do it.
https://tubitv.com/movies/100027391/the-atticus-institute
Organizations like the CIA.
https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/589487/s01-e07-secret-societies?autoplay=true
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7xriwQ3-_w
Our Politicians are all liars and do not give a shit about anything but power and money, like every politician and Religious leader in our world.
Today's Smart glasses, Smart watches, Smart rings, and VR Googles are tomorrow's Fidget Spinners, Beanie Babies, and Hula Hoops for people with more money than brains.
https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/589503/s01-e05-shadow-people
I wondered what they would do with the warehouses full of Fidget Spinner bearings.
What is your perspective on the Administration’s actions to reduce U.S. Military leadership?
I am amazed how relevant you try to be, considering that you are still completely irrelevant. Your analysis is weak, illogical, and shames real politicians. It would be nice to see you and your frayed and dated efforts just fade away.
We have President Convicted Criminal Don-OLD tRUmP and had President BuyDumb; our country is screwed