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2021-08-19 Home Front: Politix
Epic Fail -The 780 Top National Security Advisors who supported Biden appear to have gotten it all wrong.
[Breaking Defense OCT 2020] Speaking publicly and in alarming terms about a partisan political issue does not come naturally to retired generals and former senior national security leaders. These public servants, many of them wartime commanders and leaders, are not given to histrionics or hyperbole. So when hundreds (it’s now up to 780) of national security leaders — including 22 retired four-star general officers and five former Defense Secretaries who’ve served in both Republican and Democratic administrations — put their names on a public letter supporting former Vice President Joe Biden’s run for the White House, Breaking Defense contributor James Kitfield interviewed a cross section of them to find out why.

"All of us who spent careers in the military were raised on the notion that you lead by example, and President Trump has been the antithesis of that in dealing with this pandemic," said Charles "Steve" Abbot, former commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet and deputy Homeland Security Adviser. "Instead of taking steps that I would call ’Crisis Management 101,’ President Trump shirked his duty to the nation by failing to provide the central leadership necessary to get our arms around the problem, and he continues to mislead the entire nation about this terrible threat. The result of that failure of leadership was that his administration committed an unrelenting string of missteps, and the American public has lost trust in what the president tells them."

The final straw for Abbot was President Trump’s attack on mail-in balloting during a general election beset by a pandemic, insisting without evidence that it will lead to "the most rigged election in history." That sustained attack on the legitimacy of a presidential election could all but portend a constitutional crisis in a close contest.

"If you want to know why hundreds of us who devoted our lives to service signed a letter saying we feared for our country, look no further than the spectacle of a commander-in-chief threatening not to support a peaceful transition of power if one is required. That’s an effort to undermine our democracy," Abbot said in an interview. "So, as a Navy man, I would tell you that the ship of state had already taken on a bad list during this pandemic. And President Trump’s insistence that he may not accept the results of the election is a torpedo in the water."

The signatories criticisms fall into some broad categories:

BELITTLING AND BULLYING ALLIES
President Trump’s America First foreign policy does not mesh with the worldview of most senior military and national security leaders. Trump is strictly transactional on the matter of burden-sharing and other issues related to our allies, and he has repeatedly expressed a view of alliances as little more than protection rackets. He also frequently goes out of his way to belittle and bully venerable allies, variously calling the Canadian prime minister "dishonest" and "weak," Germany’s chancellor "stupid," and the French prime minister "very, very nasty."
Posted by Besoeker 2021-08-19 07:13|| || Front Page|| [11154 views ]  Top

#1 We know what's good for you...
Posted by M. Murcek 2021-08-19 07:29||   2021-08-19 07:29|| Front Page Top

#2 Time to do away with civil service protections and lifetime gummint employment. The "stability" and "years of expertise" are just costing us too much.
Posted by M. Murcek 2021-08-19 07:32||   2021-08-19 07:32|| Front Page Top

#3 Top men and Washington experts, ALL !
Posted by Besoeker 2021-08-19 07:33||   2021-08-19 07:33|| Front Page Top

#4 The adulation of experts and now of all times. Because now anybody can go online and find authoritative voices that prove not just anything but everything. 'Experts!', mostly self titled, too.

It's as though some impenetrable cloud of intellectual fart gas has descended on this great country. We don't need another politician.

We need some kind of nationally approved Moe Howard to line the bleeding lot of them up and slap them into some form of coherence.

The denouement would be the confrontation with that blithering idiot Milley, 'Come here, Porky-pine.' followed by a quick shovel to the forehead.

Posted by Cesare 2021-08-19 07:58||   2021-08-19 07:58|| Front Page Top

#5 Miley is a product of the personnel management system that practices 'equity' over capabilities. We dragged a peacetime promotion and selection system into a 20 year war. War is the ultimate test of warriors. There is no fair, there is no equity in war. The promotion system was suppose to be a process to find the leaders to fight in war during times of peace, instead it displaced the actual purpose of finding true combat leaders during war. We've ended up with bureaucrats and politicians who play the system instead of warriors. Get your boxes checked.
Posted by Procopius2k 2021-08-19 08:31||   2021-08-19 08:31|| Front Page Top

#6 But they got their mask mandates that were going to save the world, SO...
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2021-08-19 08:44||   2021-08-19 08:44|| Front Page Top

#7 Sure, we just sacrificed millions of people, but trust us about the next wave of mandatory vaccination!
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2021-08-19 08:45||   2021-08-19 08:45|| Front Page Top

#8 BTW, Trump as president gave the order to execute a withdraw. The GOs refused to carry through. -

10 U.S. Code § 892 - Art. 92. Failure to obey order or regulation

Any person subject to this chapter who—
(1) violates or fails to obey any lawful general order or regulation;
(2) having knowledge of any other lawful order issued by a member of the armed forces, which it is his duty to obey, fails to obey the order; or
(3) is derelict in the performance of his duties;

shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Posted by Procopius2k 2021-08-19 08:50||   2021-08-19 08:50|| Front Page Top

#9 The credential issuing agencies - universities and think tanks - are going to be working overtime to protect their phoney baloney jobs.
Posted by M. Murcek 2021-08-19 08:51||   2021-08-19 08:51|| Front Page Top

#10 Does the order include
this guy (?)
Commander-in-Chief
Military Rank = Top Guy

Posted by Ulash B. Hayes3287 2021-08-19 08:55||   2021-08-19 08:55|| Front Page Top

#11 ..only applies to uniform military.
Posted by Procopius2k 2021-08-19 09:09||   2021-08-19 09:09|| Front Page Top

#12 We really should not worship politicians, generals, celebrities or media mouthpieces.
Posted by M. Murcek 2021-08-19 09:14||   2021-08-19 09:14|| Front Page Top

#13 Well Buy Dung is an impersonator president, put him in a uniform, lets get the court-marital going...

Everything else has been - forget the law, constitution, fake democrat leadership and Big Lies for the last 7 months... why stop now ?
Posted by Jack Slusorong4848 2021-08-19 09:18||   2021-08-19 09:18|| Front Page Top

#14 So when hundreds (it’s now up to 780) of national security leaders.....

Group-think. That's what happens when you operate inside an Echo Chamber.
Posted by Mullah Richard 2021-08-19 09:37||   2021-08-19 09:37|| Front Page Top

#15 President Trump’s America First foreign policy does not mesh with the worldview of most senior military and national security leaders. Trump is strictly transactional while they are all leeches.
Posted by Dron66046 2021-08-19 11:28||   2021-08-19 11:28|| Front Page Top

#16 The good news is now we know we could fit them all into a C-17.
Posted by swksvolFF 2021-08-19 13:09||   2021-08-19 13:09|| Front Page Top

#17 SOTD ^ ☺
Posted by Dron66046 2021-08-19 13:23||   2021-08-19 13:23|| Front Page Top

#18 #13^^^^
“Buy Dung”,I prefer “bite-one” but I like yours also.
Posted by Grampaw Cooky 2021-08-19 21:32||   2021-08-19 21:32|| Front Page Top

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