Category: Defense and Security

Will We Learn Any of Them?

The Delta Force mission that ended the life of terrorist leader al-Baghdadi is good news. Credit is due all around for making it happen. Such missions are never easy and always full of risks in every way imaginable. This is one of those moments made for presidential afterglow. Everyone from the president on down can look good, usually justifiably so. Yet, Donald Trump, in his inevitable manner, managed to screw it up. The press conference he held after the mission was cringe-worthy.

His announcement displayed everything wrong with how Donald Trump sees the world.

Join the discussion at: The Death of al-Baghdadi is FULL of Lessons

The Kurds Suffered Over 11,000 deaths in Our Shared Fight against ISIS.                    Trump Thrashed That Sacrifice as an Afterthought

Let’s be clear about two things up front. First, the Kurds fought hard – are still fighting – for their own, valid reasons. They were not just helping us. Second, there are ties between the Syrian Kurds and the PKK, a shadowy group of Turkish Kurds fairly described often as Marxist terrorist. All of that is true. None of it justifies what Trump has done.

Trump’s precipitous decision (Whim? Reaction?

Join the discussion at: This is What Betrayal Looks Like on a Grand Scale

Many Crossroads are Ahead. Oh, Yeah- and Elections are Next Year

Well, quite the week last week, wasn’t it? Impeachment went from a remote possibility with vague parameters to a fast-moving train. Looking around us now, we see interesting landmarks on our journey.

Two of these are strangely familiar.

One, it seemed that the move to impeach was stuck well short of enough votes to move forward. What happened? Seven House freshmen, all with military and national security service backgrounds, stood up and called for impeachment. Five of them are from tough,

Join the discussion at: Impeachment: Familiar Ground, New Territory, and the Pull of History

Let’s review a few of the specifics.

EUROPE

• President Trump has trash talked NATO from the beginning. The only time NATO activated its “attack on one is an attack on all” clause was when we are attacked on 9/11. Our allies responded, including with many deployments to Afghanistan at our request. Now our allies wonder if we would answer when called. Border states in Eastern Europe certainly wonder. So too the Russians. We are now the weak link in NATO. That was unthinkable for over 50 years.
• Trump more than once tried to insert himself into the British elections.

Join the discussion at: With Friends Like Us, Who Needs Enemies?

This Story is a Many-Layered Cautionary Tale

This past week was, to put it mildly, quite the week for the Trump administration and foreign affairs. It is, in all candor, difficult to sort out. Let’s take a look at what we are hearing and see what we can make of it all.

First, it appears that a military strike was decided upon, then cancelled at the last minute. The Administration says it was cancelled because the president learned at the last moment that the strike would result in about 150 casualties. That seemed to him to be excessive as a retaliation for shooting down a drone.

Join the discussion at: The Iran Almost-Strike – Good News, Bad News, Non-News

Key points in our history that came upon us this week – and looming conflict.

Before reviewing armed conflict, a few notes on the news of recent days.

Michael Cohen– In the future we will look back on last week as key. We will note this was when fate began turning on Donald Trump with terminal velocity. An unconscionable number of Republicans have excused him on a host of issues for far too long. As Russian ties come into focus, such support will become untenable. Trump is becoming more isolated and less powerful within his own party.

Join the discussion at: Russia and China Smell Weakness. This Will Not End Well.