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Wednesday, January 8, 2020
URGENT PETITION: Let Arline Lester live...Don't Pull the Plug!
Iran won’t hand over black boxes from airliner that crashed, killing 176
https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-wont-hand-over-black-boxes-from-airliner-that-crashed-killing-176/
Amid speculation that accident was linked to
missile barrage, Tehran officials insist engine trouble was the cause,
but Boeing says 737 was in good condition with experienced crew
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
The Executive Branch Is Staffed Entirely With People Who Tell a Half-Crazy Guy What He Wants to Hear
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a30418742/six-trump-pentagon-officials-leave-in-a-month/
Mr. Mattis said then that he had resigned in protest of President Trump’s decision to withdraw American forces from Syria and in protest of the president’s rejection of international alliances. Mr. Mattis had originally said he would step down at the end of February, but angered by Mr. Mattis’s criticism, Mr. Trump said he was removing Mr. Mattis from his post two months early.
Top Military Officers Unload on Trump
I. HE DISDAINS EXPERTISE
Trump has little interest in the details of policy. He makes up his mind about a thing, and those who disagree with him—even those with manifestly more knowledge and experience—are stupid, or slow, or crazy.
II. HE TRUSTS ONLY HIS OWN INSTINCTS
Trump believes that his gut feelings about things are excellent, if not genius. Those around him encourage that belief, or they are fired. Winning the White House against all odds may have made it unshakable.
III. HE RESISTS COHERENT STRATEGY
If there is any broad logic to Trump’s behavior, it’s Keep ’em confused. He believes that unpredictability itself is a virtue.
IV. “HE IS REFLEXIVELY CONTRARY”
General H. R. McMaster, who left the White House on reasonably good terms in April 2018 after only 14 months as national security adviser, is about as can-do a professional as you will find. He appeared to take Trump seriously, and tailored his briefings to accommodate the president’s famous impatience, in order to equip him for the weighty decisions the office demands. But Trump resents advice and instruction. He likes to be agreed with. Efforts to broaden his understanding irritate him. McMaster’s tenure was bound to be short. Weeks before accepting his resignation, the president let it be known that he found McMaster’s briefings tedious and the man himself “gruff and condescending.”
V. HE HAS A SIMPLISTIC AND ANTIQUATED NOTION OF SOLDIERING
Though he disdains expert advice, Trump reveres—perhaps fetishizes—the military. He began his presidency by stacking his administration with generals: Mattis, McMaster, Kelly, and, briefly, Michael Flynn, his first national security adviser. Appointing them so soon after their retirement from the military was a mistake, according to Don Bolduc, a retired brigadier general who is currently running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire. Early on, the biggest difference Bolduc saw between the Trump administration and its predecessors, and one he felt was “going to be disruptive in the long term,” was “the significant reliance, in the Pentagon at least, on senior military leadership overriding and making less relevant our civilian oversight. That was going to be a huge problem. The secretary of defense pretty much surrounded himself with his former Marine comrades, and there was, at least from that group, a distrust of civilians that really negatively affected the Pentagon in terms of policy and strategy in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq, by following the same old failed operational approaches.” Trump’s reliance on military solutions is problematic because “there are limits to what the military can solve. I think initially the Trump administration held this idea that general officers somehow have all the answers to everything. I think the president discovered in short order that that’s really not the case.”
Pentagon Officials Reportedly “Stunned” by Trump’s Decision to Kill Soleimani
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/pentagon-officials-reportedly-stunned-trump-kill-soleimani.html
Although top U.S. national security officials continue to insist that
the killing of Soleimani was in response to an imminent threat against
Americans, there continues to be skepticism
about that claim as the administration has failed to provide convincing
evidence to make its case. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley
also made clear that the attacks could still happen, meaning that
killing Soleimani did not get rid of the supposed imminent threat.
Several Democratic lawmakers have expressed skepticism at the
president’s claims. “My staff was briefed by a number of people
representing a variety of agencies in the United States government and
they came away with no feeling that there was evidence of an imminent
attack,” Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico said.
Pentagon rejects Trump threat to hit Iranian cultural sites
The Pentagon on Monday distanced itself from President Donald Trump’s assertions that he would bomb Iranian cultural sites despite international prohibitions on such attacks.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the U.S. will “follow the laws of armed conflict.” When asked if that ruled out targeting cultural sites, Esper said pointedly, “That’s the laws of armed conflict.”
The split between the president and his Pentagon chief came amid heightened tensions with Tehran following a U.S. drone strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force. Trump had twice warned that he would hit Iranian cultural sites if Tehran retaliates against the U.S.
Esper’s public comments reflected the private concerns of other defense and military officials, who cited legal prohibitions on attacks on civilian, cultural and religious sites, except under certain, threatening circumstances.
how to start a war
Berachos (3b) He said to them: Then go out in troops and attack [the enemy for plunder]. They at once took counsel with Ahithofel and consulted the Sanhedrin and questioned the Urim and Tummim.21 R. Joseph says: What verse [may be cited in support of this]? And after Ahithofel was Jehoiada, the son of Benaiah,22 and Abiathar; and the captain of the King's host was Joab.23
iN OTHER WORDS first discuss the plans for war with close advisors then consult with Sanhedrin (congress) for permission and prayers and then the urim vTumim to know whether it would be successful
Trump says since I am a stable genius and I need to distract from impeachment, stir up my base to get me more attention and I need to show Iran that they can't challenge me - I will start war for my political benefit without concern to consequences to others as he accuse Obama of planning in 2011
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