“Surely the George W. Bush experience taught us something.”
Let me push back. I opposed the Iraq war, but to me the public seems to have absorbed the wrong lesson — that military intervention never works, rather than the more complex lesson that it is a blunt and expensive tool with a very mixed record.
.. Yes, the Iraq war was a disaster, but the no-fly zone in northern Iraq after the first gulf war was a huge success. Vietnam was a monumental catastrophe, but the British intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000 was a spectacular success. Afghanistan remains a mess, but airstrikes helped end genocide in the Balkans. U.S. support for Saudi bombing in Yemen is counterproductive, but Bill Clinton has said that his worst foreign policy mistake was not halting the Rwandan genocide.
.. I wonder what would happen if Aleppo were full of golden retrievers, if we could see barrel bombs maiming helpless, innocent puppies. Would we still harden our hearts and “otherize” the victims? Would we still say “it’s an Arab problem; let the Arabs solve it”?
He was one of the most respected intel officers of his generation. Now he’s leading ‘Lock her up’ chants.
Flynn, who was no longer in government but received a DIA briefing on Russia before the trip, said the invitation and payment came through his speaker’s bureau.
.. Asked why he would want to be so closely associated with a Kremlin propaganda platform, Flynn said he sees no distinction between RT and other news outlets.
.. Mullen provided a written statement saying that “for retired senior officers to take leading and vocal roles as clearly partisan figures is a violation of the ethos and professionalism of apolitical military service.” Officers are sworn to execute orders without regard for political positions, an oath to the Constitution that “is inviolable and presidents must never question it or doubt it,” he said.
..“This is not about the right to speak out, it is about the disappointing lack of judgment in doing so for crass partisan purposes. This is made worse by using hyperbolic language all the while leveraging the respected title of ‘general.’ ”.. “Retired senior officers should not take lightly the impact of public commentary in a political environment,” Allen said. “I chose to do so because I believe that Trump was proposing policies and orders to the U.S. military as a potential Commander in Chief, which I believed would create a civil-military crisis. This is a matter of conscience for me, because in moments of crisis such as these, credible voices must speak out.”.. Flynn dismisses his critics as closet Clinton supporters or misguided colleagues who have put their pursuit of corporate board seats and lucrative consulting contracts ahead of their concern for the country. Most retired generals “are afraid to speak out,” he said, because they use their stars “for themselves, for their businesses.”.. Trump is a “very serious guy. Good listener. Asked really good questions,” he said.
.. He sees the nation as beset by darkness and corruption, with voters split between “centrist nationalists” and “socialists.”
.. The divide has weakened the nation’s ability to grasp what he considers an existential threat from “a diseased component” of Islam.
.. Throughout his career, he was viewed as a charismatic and unconventional officer with a talent for mapping terrorist networks
.. his hard-charging approach was at times considered disruptive or undisciplined.
.. helping to co-write a 26-page article, “Fixing Intel,” that depicted the intelligence-gathering mission in Afghanistan as a failing endeavor that was too focused on finding targets rather than understanding cultural complexities.
.. an allegation that he had inappropriately shared highly classified intelligence with Australian and British forces. “I’m proud of that one,” Flynn said in an interview. “Accuse me of sharing intelligence in combat with our closest allies. Please!”
.. In public remarks, he warned any employees who resisted his agenda that he would “move them or fire them.”
.. Former subordinates at the DIA said Flynn was so prone to dubious pronouncements that senior aides coined a term — “Flynn facts” — for assertions that seemed questionable or inaccurate.
.. Asked for evidence, he said, “I just know!”
.. “This decision to kill bin Laden . . . so what?!” he said. “What did it really do?”
Donald Trump Risks Alienating Military Communities in Swing States
He attacked Gen. John R. Allen, a retired Marine who endorsed Hillary Clinton, as a “failed general” over the weekend, and he joked at a campaign event on Tuesday about receiving a Purple Heart, the military decoration for soldiers wounded in combat.
.. In several important states, his most realistic path to victory hinges on areas with close ties to the military, including northern Florida, coastal Virginia and New Hampshire, and a cluster of towns near military bases in North Carolina, Colorado and Arizona.
.. “He’s basically a loose cannon,” Mr. Palmer said of Mr. Trump, adding that he voted for Senator Ted Cruz in the New Hampshire primary. “I don’t really want the mainstream establishment, but I do believe you should look presidential — like a leader.”
.. Now, Ms. Quast said, she resents Mr. Trump’s disrespectful language about the military, including his response to the Khans and his joke about the Purple Heart. She said she trembled at the thought of her son serving under such a volatile president.
“I’d honestly worry about a third world war. All those poor kids still serving. God forbid we elect Trump,” Ms. Quast said. She added, “Clearly Trump has no respect for veterans, no matter what he says.”.. And the former commanding officer of Humayun Khan, the slain captain, wrote in The Washington Post that Mr. Trump’s words were an “attack on all patriotic and loyal Americans who have sacrificed.”.. About half viewed him positively and half in unfavorable terms. Mrs. Clinton fared far worse: Only 27 percent of veterans had a favorable impression of her, according to the poll... The Romney campaign, he said, found in its polling that about one in eight registered voters had served in the military... Richard Smith, 67, a Vietnam veteran from Tucson, said he believed the Khans were “radical Muslims and they should be kicked out of the country.”
Israel and U.S. are close to a deal on the biggest military aid package ever
According to U.S. and Israeli analysts familiar with the negotiations, the Obama administration is insisting on phasing out a special arrangement that has allowed Israel to spend 26 percent of U.S. aid on its own defense research, development and procurement.
..With Israel’s defense industry now thriving, the administration wants to pare that back and require that more U.S. aid go to American companies providing goods and services.
The possibility that Israeli defense companies could lose hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts is already causing controversy. Critics say they fear it could impair Israel’s ability to maintain equipment that is the most advanced in the region, known as its qualitative military edge.
.. “Though he has been a strong supporter of Israeli security throughout his term, there’s clearly a difficult relationship between Netanyahu and Obama,” said Ilan Goldenberg, director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. “For them to agree on this would send a signal to the world that although their personal relationship is not great, here Obama is making a down payment on 10 years of deep U.S.-Israeli security cooperation. That’s a powerful message.”
.. Makovsky also cited the “unpredictability factor” of Donald Trump as a potential successor to Obama.