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| Silverfiddle Rant! |
Through successive Democrat and Republican regimes our nation has fought other nation's wars for them, allowed China to rape us blind economically, failed to stanch the flow of thousands of metric tons of drugs flowing across our borders every year, and failed to get reckless deficit spending under control.
Welcome to the Potemkin Village of Washington Power
What American constitutional government most urgently needs at present is for our Madisonian institutions—the presidency, the Congress, and the courts—to wrest back control of national security policy from an unelected and increasingly rogue national security establishment.9/11 amped up that bureaucracy on steroids, but it also caused millions of us to realize the "experts" were dime store knockoffs.
That ominous challenge to constitutionalism was on full display with the recent op-ed piece in the New York Times by retired Admiral William McRaven, in which he brashly warned that unless Trump jumped aboard the Forever War bandwagon, he must be removed, and “the sooner the better.”
[...]
Tufts law professor Michael Glennon points out in a recent essay in Humanitas that the Cold War brought something new and ominous in military-civilian relations.
The national security bureaucracy became so large and omnipotent that the Madisonian branches of government became something like the British House of Lords, symbolically important but in reality without much power.
The executive, legislature, and judiciary became a kind of Potemkin village, with real national security power lodged in, as Glennon describes it, “a largely concealed managerial directorate, consisting of the several hundred leaders of the military, law enforcement and intelligence departments.”
Please read the linked article and tell us what you think.
*** Comments Closed. Please see latest post on government lies on Afghanistan ***
*** Comments Closed. Please see latest post on government lies on Afghanistan ***
Not a bad article once one gets past the now politically correct conspiracy mongering. I’m unsure what the author proposes as a solution though, place unitary power in the hands of the Chief Executive, a position that could one day be a Bernie Sanders?
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, he makes a fine corollary case regarding political parties......
SF - Who do you think is steering the ship is State with regard to our inexorable march to war with Iran.....the White House or the military/intelligence apparatus?
ReplyDeleteI don't believe there is any conspiracy. My take on this is an overwhelming body of unelected "expertise" has built up over the decades, and the Executive and Legislative branches have become too deferential to it.
DeleteTo answer your question, I don't know. All indications point to Trump people, since the Experts were fawning over Iran during the Obama years.
DeleteObama failed to close Guantanamo, and I chalk that up to the Experts (a case where I agree with them).
President Trump wants us out of the Middle East, but he's sending troops to Saudi Arabia.
There are forces more powerful than the President at work.
The "Experts'" greatest weapon, I conjecture, is the implicit threat to a President and Congress: "If you don't listen to us, horrible things will happen, and you will get the blame."
Lost in all this, when Presidents and Congress do what the Experts tell them, horrible things happen anyway. We are a stupid and unimaginative nation destined for the garbage heap of history.
I also blame a craven, pusillanimous congress afraid to stand up on its hind legs and challenge a president's foreign policy decisions. We have a few people in congress, usually on the left, brave enough to stand up and ask hard questions, but they always get shouted down by a howling bi-partisan pack of summer soldiers and armchair generals.
DeleteHas there been any pushback on troop deployments to Saudi Arabia?
Appreciate the response.....and am in agreement. On my phone currently, so won’t say much more than that for now. Outside of Libertarian circles, I haven’t seen much pushback against our increasing posturing against Iran, much lesss the surge in presence and money to KSA.
DeleteI quit reading at, "The U.S. must have a policy," McRaven said, "that protects the Kurds, the Iraqis, the Afghans, the Syrians, the Rohingyas, the South Sudanese and the millions of people under the boot of tyranny.”
ReplyDeleteThat is utter nonsense. If all of those people want to be out from "under the boot of tyranny" it is up to them to get themselves out. We are not responsible for the freedom of people of the world. We are responsible first for the ethics of our own acts and second for what we want for our own people. Period.
That's my view of Afghanistan. The Taliban live and travel freely throughout the country, living cheek by jowl with their fellow Afghans. Meanwhile, US and allied troops are hunkered down behind hesco barriers and travel at great peril in up armored convoys.
DeleteA rational person can only conclude that the Afghans don't like us but are OK with the Taliban. We need to leave.
There’s literally a parallel system of justice and governance that exists anytime the Kabul regime doesn’t have is armed presence in any particular area.
DeleteOur occupation is about 18 years beyond its sell-by date.
The problem is MUCH worse than stated.
ReplyDeleteThe Legislature is also corrupt, on BOTh sides of the aisle. The watchers AND their watchers are corrupt. Let's hope Rudy Giuliani can expose the Pay-to-Play swamp.
from the link above:
DeleteU.S. senators write foreign aid policy, rules and regulations thereby creating the financing mechanisms to transmit U.S. funds. Those same senators then received a portion of the laundered funds back through their various “institutes” and business connections to the foreign government offices; in this example Ukraine. [ex. Burisma to Biden]
The U.S. State Dept. serves as a distribution network for the authorization of the money laundering by granting conflict waivers, approvals for financing (think Clinton Global Initiative), and permission slips for the payment of foreign money. The officials within the State Dept. take a cut of the overall payments through a system of “indulgence fees”, junkets, gifts and expense payments to those with political oversight.
If anyone gets too close to revealing the process, writ large, they become a target of the entire apparatus. President Trump was considered an existential threat to this entire process. Hence our current political status with the ongoing coup.
Rudy's about to step into the lion's den.
DeleteCalled it. Trump will throw Rudy Guiliani under the bus.
Delete:P
DeleteOf course (((Thought Criminal))). That is what Trump does. It is his MO.
DeleteWith luck America throws Trump under the bus in November 2020.
:P
DeleteKakistocracy is rule by the worst. We're not there yet. Honey Boo Boo isn't old enough to run for President.
ReplyDeleteSilver... the article you cited is chafa when seen in the context of the WAPO article exposing the lies and misdeeds of three administrations during our war in Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteIf reading that doesn't make your blood boil and drive you to only support politicos who are serious about limiting the power of the military industrial complex Ike warned us about, nothing will.
Korea, Vietnam, and now the Middle East. Pure disasters all the way around.
It seems Bush the Elder and Sec Powell were right... get in heavy, get the job done and get out.
I read that, and my blood is boiling. That's tomorrow's post
DeleteWell, seems we're all on the same page on this one. Too bad there is no Ike around today when we REALLY could use one!
ReplyDeleteIke, gave up and went golfing. I think we need more than that.
DeletePerhaps. But Trump,contrary to the popular belief of a 40% minority ain't it.
ReplyDeleteBTW, who did the most golfing? Trump or Ike? I'm betting Trump.
DeleteIke, abdicated his duties because he was log rolled by both sides. The good ol'boy system, complete with it's kickbacks and nepotism was already in place. It seems to be he threw up his hands and played golf almost everyday until his first heart attack.
DeleteI know you have trouble focusing on anything but "orange man bad" but you ought to read some real history instead of the constant agipropt that passes as ... gas - that would be the best anology -. Of course your persverations are a constant source of distraction.
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DeleteActually, every administrator at this blog can read your comments even when you delete them. I know more about you than you think and your inability to focus is evident in your comments and the petty tantrums you throw when you are caught out in your BS.
DeleteAre you going to leave us and never return (again)?
Silver... boiling doesn't begin to describe it.
ReplyDelete