Tag: Forgein Policy Advisers

Chaos: US Foreign Policy

I have said numerous times that the Trump White House has no other policy in foreign relations than that of knee jerk BS and CHAOS…..I have made my thoughts known on the stupidity on foreign policy….

https://lobotero.com/2019/05/20/feeding-the-lord-of-chaos/

https://lobotero.com/2019/07/29/political-chaos-theory/

To say that I approve of any of our international entanglements would be an out right lie.

One of the best examples of the chaos spread by the Trumpian foreign policy….this time it is a simple letter…..

Top Pentagon leaders said Monday that the US has no plans to withdraw troops from Iraq, despite a draft letter from a senior military officer that appeared to suggest a withdrawal was being planned. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the US is “moving forces around” Iraq and neighboring Kuwait. He said a draft letter circulated internally by a Marine commander was “poorly written” and should never have gotten out, the AP reports. The draft letter appeared to suggest the US was preparing to pull troops out of Iraq in response to a vote by its Parliament over the weekend. The draft said troops would be “repositioning over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement” and warned of an increase in helicopter travel around the Green Zone. It added, “We respect your sovereignty decision to order our departure.”

Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, however, said the US has been repositioning troops, largely due to increased security threats from Iran. The letter was meant to coordinate with the Iraqi military on an increase in US helicopter and troop movements. “There’s been no decision whatsever to leave Iraq,” Esper said. Some language in the letter “implies withdrawal,” Milley acknowledged. “The long and the short of it is, it’s an honest mistake.” Esper said the US remains committed to defeating the Islamic State group in Iraq and the region. Pro-Iran factions in the Iraqi Parliament have pushed to oust American troops following the killing of a top Iranian general in Baghdad in a US drone strike last week. A three-ship US naval group that includes 2,200 Marines and a helicopter group is on its way to the Persian Gulf region, per Bloomberg.

This back peddling is normal for the Trumpian toads dishing our our foreign policy……

In case you want to see the original….then look no further.

View image on Twitter

https://www.thenational.ae/world/the-americas/pentagon-says-iraq-withdrawal-letter-a-mistake-1.960854

This is just one small example of the inept leaders this country is depending on to keep us safe…..

Here is a quick look at where our troops are stationed around the Middle East……

the Pentagon announced that it was sending an additional 3,500 soldiers to the region, stationed between Kuwait and Iraq, while troops in Italy were put on standby, according to defense officials. The troop escalation came just days after President Trump ordered an additional 750 U.S. soldiers to the Middle East and 3,000 more to be on alert for future deployment, after pro-Iranian forces stormed the U.S. Embassy as part of a worsening cycle of violence.

The United States has tens of thousands of military personnel at bases and aboard ships across the Middle East, as well as arrangements with various countries to move soldiers and military equipment through airstrips and ports. Here’s a look at some of these places, which could now be targets.

https://outline.com/k9f4Hf

Every day I feel less safe with this admin in place…..and every day I feel we inch closer to a larger war in the Middle East.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Bolton Is Out Excuses

Let me say here and now….I did not like the ideas and policies that John Bolton spent decades pushing…..and he should have known better than go to work for a person that takes NO advice but his own.

The president has lots to say about Bolton now that he is gone…..

The Hill calls it a “public rebuke of a top aide that would have been extraordinary before the Trump White House”: The president on Wednesday elaborated on his firing of John Bolton in an Oval Office meeting with reporters. Five standout things he said about his former National Security Adviser:

  • 1. “He made some very big mistakes.”
  • 2. “Frankly he wanted to do things—not necessarily tougher than me—you know John’s known as a tough guy. He’s so tough he got us into Iraq … but he’s actually somebody I had a very good relationship with. But he wasn’t getting along with people in the administration that I consider very important.”
  • 3. “As soon as he mentioned that, the Libyan model, what a disaster. Take a look at what happened to Gadhafi. I don’t blame Kim Jong Un for what he said after that. And he wanted nothing to do with John Bolton. And that’s not a question of being tough. That’s a question of being not smart to say something like that.” (Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake notes that comment was made 16 months ago. See this story for more context.)
  • 4. “John wasn’t in line with what we were doing and actually in some cases he thought it was too tough what we were doing. Mr. tough guy, you know, you had to go into Iraq.”
  • 5. “I hope we left on good stead, but maybe we haven’t,” the Guardian quotes Trump as saying.
  • CNN sees Trump as keeping his eye on the prize, and needing Bolton out of his way: “Trump’s first term, while succeeding in traumatizing US allies and causing global disruption, is largely bereft of the big wins the great dealmaker promised back in 2016.” With Bolton gone, “US diplomacy is likely to reflect its principal author even more closely. It will be more impulsive, less strategic, and more geared to creating iconic moments, like the President’s stroll into North Korea with Kim Jong Un.”
  • The Wall Street Journal similarly frames Bolton as a now-departed “counterweight” to Trump, and predicts his “exit could remove a barrier to a meeting at the United Nations with Iran’s president later this month, or to talks with members of the insurgent Afghan Taliban movement.”
  • Robert Schlesinger echoes that, writing at NBC News: “Bolton had become a foreign policy Dr. No, tamping down Trump’s desire to go for big, showy deals with North Korea, Iran and the Taliban. Whoever replaces him will know to cheer on Trump’s ideas, no matter how ill-conceived.”

Like I have said…I did not agree with much Bolton had to say but at least he was a professional in a White House staffed with amateurs.

Not all conservatives thought Bolton was a good hire for Trump……

It took far too long to happen, but Bolton’s firing is undeniably good news. Bolton is the embodiment of everything wrong with hawkish Republican foreign policy, and his role in the administration has been without question a purely destructive one. I have to admit I didn’t think it would happen. Bolton had prevailed again and again on policy, and despite pushing his own agenda and doing an abysmal job as National Security Advisor he remained in place. Whatever Trump’s reason was for getting rid of him, it was the right decision. Bolton ends his career as one of the worst National Security Advisors in U.S. history. He should never have been hired, but at least he is out of government. Now he can go shill for the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) full-time.

Good Riddance, Bolton

Now we have another “interim” staffer…..

President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, that joy is likely to be shortlived due to the character of Bolton’s acting replacement, Charles M. Kupperman.

Kupperman has been a member of the boards of a number of defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin and Boeing. He served in the Ronald Reagan administration and boasts a decades-long relationship with Bolton.

The rumor mill is working over time with the departure of Bolton and the newest one involves Pompeo….

…administration officials are discussing the possibility of replacing Bolton with his chief rival, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Under this scenario, the country’s top diplomat would absorb the national security adviser role and do both jobs, according to a senior administration official and a source familiar with the possibilities.

That would make Pompeo the second person in history to have both jobs at the same time. The first, Henry Kissinger, was already President Richard Nixon’s national security adviser when he was appointed secretary of state in 1973, and filled both roles for two years.
 
(cnn.com)
As a foreign policy wonk I will be watching this situation as the results of the firing of Bolton unfolds.  The media likes to state that this is the 4th NatSec adviser in 3 years and they keep emphasizing the point…but keep in mind that them GOP God Reagan had 6 in 8 years….so this is nothing new for a Repub president to go through multiple advisers (that is my history lesson for the day)
 
“Lego ergo Scribo”

The Ins And Outs Of DC: The Saga Continues

For the last year the advisers to Pres. Trump have been caught in the continuous revolving door that is the White House…….and guess what?  Another one bites the dust…..McMasters is out and the war monger Bolton is in…….

President Trump is getting his third national security adviser in the first 14 months of his presidency, Reuters reports. Current national security adviser Lt. Gen. HR McMaster is resigning, to be replaced by John Bolton on April 9. “I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will always remain my friend,” Trump tweeted Thursday. McMaster, who replaced Michael Flynn as national security adviser, is also resigning from the military, the New York Times reports. While McMaster and Trump butted heads both publicly and privately during his tenure at the White House, officials say McMaster’s resignation is amicable and has been in the works for weeks. Officials say Trump wanted to finish a shakeup of his national security team before a planned meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.

McMaster’s replacement was US ambassador to the UN under the second Bush administration and is “one of the most radically hawkish voices in American foreign policy,” according to a Vox explainer on Bolton. The incoming national security adviser has said the US should declare war on both North Korea and Iran. Bolton, notably, has also been a longtime contributor on Fox News. In the past, he’s been accused of abusing his subordinates and manipulating US intelligence ahead of the Iraq War and has connections to anti-Muslim groups. His appointment to national security adviser was met with concern from some areas. “I operate on the assumption that John Bolton should be kept as far away from the levers of foreign policy as possible,” says the vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.

He has been a cheerleader for attacking Iran and North Korea…..how will he fit into the Trump White House?

Our troops will pay the price for this decision.

And in the mean time we Americans will hear lots of accusations, innuendoes, lies and just plain bullshit from this person….typical for today’s White House……

Another One Bites The Dust

Trump has just past his first 100 days in office….and there will be mixed emotions on whether he is a success or if he is failing…..

The admin has had a helluva time keeping national security advisers…..the two women from FOX as deputies on the NatSec team have come and gone…..the biggest failure was that of Michael Flynn as national security adviser….he lasted 24 days I believe…then there was Bannon who has been kicked off the NatSec team and now yet another adviser on national security is set to split from the team……

Insiders say a former Breitbart editor with links to the far right will be leaving the White House in the days to come—and it isn’t Steve Bannon. According to CNN‘s sources, former Breitbart national security editor Sebastian Gorka, who has been serving as a national security aide in the White House, will be leaving the administration this week. An administration official tells the AP that Gorka, a dual British-US citizen with Hungarian roots, had been hired for a role on White House strategist Bannon’s Strategic Initiatives Group, a national security panel that group “fizzled” in the early months of the administration.

Gorka was charged with taking a gun through a TSA checkpoint at Reagan National Airport last year, which made him unable to get a security clearance to serve on the National Security Council. The Guardian reports that Gorka’s links to the far right in Hungary, where he attempted a career in politics before moving to the US, had been under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the Guardian reported that Gorka, known for his hardline stance against radical Islamists, had been seeking the role of special US envoy to Libya, though sources say foreign diplomats were alarmed by a partition plan for the country that he drew up on a napkin during a meeting

The president is having a really hard time finding and keeping national security advisers….why is that?

Is it the people that are not experienced enough?

And what does all this chaos in the NatSec team do for the country’s security?

What’s The Syrian Endgame?

For many years I have been asking just what was the policy endgame for Syria.

Anyone that is a regular follower of IST will know that I have been questioning the US approach to the situation in Syria since the very beginning…..and now people are listening……

We know that we are arming rebels but no one is sure who of these groups is on the side of the world….plus we have been told the “Assad must go” and yet how will that be accomplished if he does not go willingly?

Obama was vague….Trump has been vague….but after the airstrike on Syria there is a bit more clarity…..

Seeking support from abroad, the U.S. struggled Monday to explain a hazy Syria strategy that has yet to clarify key questions: whether President Bashar Assad must go, how displaced Syrians will be protected and when America might feel compelled to take further action.

Successive attempts by top Trump administration officials to articulate a plan have only furthered the appearance of a policy still evolving, even after the U.S. broke with precedent last week by attacking Assad’s forces. In the absence of answers, other countries seem to be moving ahead on their own terms.

Source: What exactly is US Syria policy? Big questions for allies – ABC News

But wait there is so much more……

At a White House presser, Spicer, elaborated on the new Syrian policy…….when pushed by reporter……

“The goal for the United States is twofold,” Spicer explained. “It’s, one, to make sure we destabilize Syria — destabilize the conflict there, reduce the threat of ISIS. But then, secondly, is create the political environment, not just within the Syrian people, but I think you can have — work with Russia in particular to make sure that they understand that Syria, backed up by Russia’s own accounting, should be held accountable for the agreements that its made with respect to its international agreements on chemical weapons alone.”

“Destabilize Syria”?  Seriously?

What the Hell has been going on for years there if not a destabilization?

“Create a political environment”?  Seriously?

Who would be part of this “political environment”?  Name one person, please.  (A post from a few days ago from IST)

Source: On Syria–Please Enlighten Us – In Saner Thought

The situation on the ground in Syria is complex…..more complex than DC wants to admit…….

On the night of Apr. 6, the US opened a third air campaign in Syria, targeting Bashar al-Assad’s air force. The US has been bombing the Islamic State and select al Qaeda targets in Syria since 2014. But the Syrian regime, which is responsible for most of the civilian casualties in the country, was not hit with America’s air power until President Trump drew a new red line over Assad’s use of chemical weapons.

Two days earlier, on Apr. 4, Assad’s airmen dropped a chemical agent on citizens living in the town of Khan Shaykhun, which is in the northwestern province of Idlib. Trump expressed horror the following day. “It crossed a lot of lines for me. When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, little babies, with a chemical gas that is so lethal—people were shocked to hear what gas it was—that crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line, many, many lines,” Trump said, during a press conference alongside King Abdullah II of Jordan in the Rose Garden on Apr.

Source: Syria Policy Must Reflect the Complex Reality on the Ground | RealClearDefense

Eventually someone will admit that they have NO damn idea on what to do in Syria…..then the real work can begin.

 

Finally! Some Sanity!

Breaking News!

It appears that someone has finally shown that there is some semi-intelligent thinking in DC.

The little toad from Breitbart, Bannon, has been kicked off the National Security Council….

Steve Bannon, the controversial former head of Breitbart News who now serves as the chief political strategist for President Donald Trump, has been removed from his post on the National Security Council.

Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs reports that Trump reorganized his NSC on Tuesday to remove Bannon, while also “downgrading the role of his Homeland Security Adviser, Tom Bossert.”

The move also puts Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford — the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — back as :regular attendees” of the NSC’s principals committee.

On Twitter, Jacobs also claimed that Bannon “never” went to meetings, while noting that his original role as an NSC member was to “look over Gen. Flynn’s shoulder.”

This says a lot about the functioning of the NSC….now maybe it will do the job it is suppose to do….advise the prez on national security questions.

But will Trump listen?

The only downside to this is that Bannon has not been shown the door for good.

In Like Flynn

This whole Russia debacle around the president and his entourage is just amazing…I mean this plot could not be thought of by the likes of James Patterson or John LeCarre….and it just keeps getting better and better….

The news now centers around disgraced National Security Adviser, Gen Flynn….it is getting more an more interesting…..Flynn is President Trump’s former national security adviser. He was forced to resign after admitting he wasn’t truthful with White House officials about phone calls with the Russian ambassador.

In a move that is likely nowhere near as significant as it sounds, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has told the FBI and Congress that he is willing to testify about Trump campaign ties to Russia in return for immunity from prosecution.

Flynn is the shortest-serving National Security Adviser in American history, holding the position for less than a month before resigning in the face of controversy about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador ahead of the inauguration. After his resignation, Flynn also registered as a foreign agent for his lobbying activities on behalf of Turkey.

Flynn’s lawyer Robert Kelner issued a statement downplaying the significance of the offer, saying that the “witch-hunt environment” was leading Flynn to seek pre-emptive assurances against an unfair prosecution, and that the testimony itself was likely to be anti-climactic.

Officials familiar with Flynn’s offer of testimony say that so far he has found no takers in his quest for immunity, which may suggest that they don’t believe they’re going to get the sort of juicy information out of his testimony that would make such immunity worthwhile.

(Jason Ditz)

Like I said this is playing out like some cheap novel made for TV movie….I love it!

Closing Thought–10Mar17

The evil that is a think tank!

I have written about what I think of so-called “think tanks”….these are organizations that are contracted to present policy options and analysis…..

When I graduated from college I was recruited by 3 think tanks as an analyst…I turned them down….why?  The pay would have been excellent…then why?

Most of them are partisan and work for a certain group and their “analyses” reflects what the group wants it to reflect….I other words analysts are given a conclusion and we are told to make the research fit the conclusion…I would not be part of this lie and deception.

I read an article that covers “think tanks”……

Think tanks have the ability to influence government policy and legislative debates because of their perceived independence from corporate interests. But the need for donor funding is causing some think tank scholars to support agendas backed by their corporate donors, blurring the line between independent research and corporate lobbying.

Source: How Think Tanks Amplify Corporate America’s Influence |

One of the worse offenders is the Heritage Foundation….it is pure bullshit from the first inked word.

I would suggest that one do not accept the words of these “tanks” without doing some research on your own…..I know that is asking much these days when actual research is limited to one’s limited mental capacities….so….just do not believe everything you read…..NO matter where it originates.

That be it for the week…I start my weekend and hopefully you will do the same…..I shall return Monday with more stuff of interest……be well, be safe…..chuq

Who Da Boss?

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

There has been a debate among some of us here in the Blogosphere about the Trump presidency…..some think that our prez is nothing more than a puppet of some of his advisers and cabinet…like Bannon and/or Pence are the ones most pointed to as the problem.

Recent problems within his, Trump’s, closest advises have been brewing for a few days now, in the media that is, over a phone call that National Security adviser, Gen. Flynn, had with the Russian ambassador over US sanctions.

Like a black head all that back and forth came to a head last night….Flynn resigns!

Michael Flynn has stepped down as national security adviser less than a month into the Trump administration. Flynn abruptly resigned Monday night after coming under increasing pressure over his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the US while Trump was president-elect, CNN reports. “I inadvertently briefed the Vice President-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador. I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology,” Flynn said in his resignation letter, adding that he has performed his duties “with the utmost of integrity and honesty” in his White House role and during his 33 years in the military.

Sources tell the New York Times that Pence told others in the White House that he believed Flynn had been lying when he said he hadn’t discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador in a conversation that would have broken the law as well as protocol. The Washington Post reports that President Trump accepted Flynn’s resignation and appointed retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg as acting national security adviser. An insider tells the Post that Flynn’s resignation after 24 days in the job was his own decision, and that Trump had been planning to wait at least a few days before deciding whether to fire him. “I think Flynn just figured, if it’s imminent to the boss, then let’s make it immediate,” the source says.

Flynn was one of Trump’s first supporters so I feel that the resignation was the plan from Pence and others…..

First “loyal soldier” falls on his sword!

I have the feeling that Flynn will NOT be the last.

Is this a newer version of the Valentine’s Day massacre?

Closing Thought–29Nov16

The Adviser……….

All of his bluster during the campaigns lead many to think that Trump as president would lessen our footprint in the Middle East….but watching the people that is naming for the foreign policy slots that will be open leads me to believe something different…..

He has named people like Flynn, a big mouth that is a war monger from the get go….and now his announcement of his Terrorism adviser is another big mouth warmonger….

In naming KT McFarland his deputy national security adviser Friday, Donald Trump is adding another person with “hard-line views on the fight against terrorism” to his team, the New York Times reports. According to Bloomberg, McFarland served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affair under Ronald Reagan. She also worked for the Nixon and Ford administrations, spent time as a national security analyst and adviser to Henry Kissinger, and is a frequent guest on Fox News. She also unsuccessfully ran for Hillary Clinton’s senate seat in 2006. In her new position, McFarland will work with Trump’s new national security adviser, former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

McFarland has been a frequent critic of President Obama’s approach to terrorism and says the threat of global Islamism needs to be addressed. “She has tremendous experience and innate talent that will complement the fantastic team we are assembling, which is crucial because nothing is more important than keeping our people safe,” CNN quotes Trump as saying in a statement. In a statement of her own, McFarland says: “Nobody has called foreign policy right more than President-elect Trump, and he gets no credit for it.” Flynn added in a tweet that McFarland “will help us #MAGA.” Her appointment doesn’t require senate confirmation.

Many have overlooked this person’s lies in the past….when she was running for office…..she lied about being a speech writer, a Pentagon big wig and other stuff…..once a liar…always a liar.

These appointments do not bode well for the US foreign policy……more conflicts are at hand….

Abu Omar Khorasani, an Isis leader in Afghanistan, is quoted as saying that “our leaders were closely following the US election, but it was unexpected that the Americans would dig their own graves.” He added that what he termed Trump’s “hatred” towards Muslims would enable Isis to recruit thousands of fighters.

The Isis calculation is that, as happened after 9/11, the demonisation and collective punishment of Muslims will propel a proportion of the Islamic community into its ranks. Given that there are 1.6 billion Muslims – about 23 per cent of the world’s population – Isis and al-Qaeda-type organisations need to win the loyalty of only a small proportion of the Islamic community to remain a powerful force.

Source: Trump’s Team Will Start New Wars in the Middle East | Alternet

As an international analyst….I do not see much change in foreign policy direction at this time….but I will admit it is early and things could change…I will watch and rant.