Thread: Good King Trump
View Single Post
  #2573  
Old 08-22-2018, 01:27 AM
chunksmediocrites's Avatar
chunksmediocrites chunksmediocrites is offline
ne plus ultraviolet
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Portland Oregon USA
Gender: Male
Posts: VCCXXX
Default Re: Good King Trump

A couple thoughts on the linked opinion piece above.
It paints former intelligence chiefs as unsung heroes who Keep America Safe(TM);
Quote:
They are telling us this is a dark and dangerous time. And they have spent their lives, devoted their entire careers, to protecting the country from just these sorts of events overseas.
That's Michael Hayden, who approved the NSA's illegal warrantless domestic wiretapping program in the NSA in 2003; openly supported torture, requested and supported drone strikes based on the behavior of ground vehicles (without any other intelligence basis), who lied about the CIA torture program to Congress in 2007.

That's James Clapper, who lied to the US Senate, under oath, about NSA domestic spying, in 2013; the same James Clapper who in 2003 defended the Iraqi invasion by stating publicly that the WMDs- the false justification for invasion- had been secretly transferred to Syria, right before the invasion.

That's John Brennan, who publicly supported "Extraordinary Rendition"- world-wide kidnappings to move suspects to secret overseas prisons for torture, with no judicial oversight. Brennan oversaw much of the use of drone warfare and wrote the Kill Lists. He publicly claimed there were no known civilian casualties from drone strikes in 2011, which was demonstrably false; He was in charge of the CIA when they hacked the Senate Intelligence Committee's computers to spy on the senators and their staff.

William McRaven is more of a soldier than a spy chief, and he retired to go on to focus on education, which is great. I don't have much criticism for him, other than that I don't think of the Osama bin Laden raid and execution in Pakistan (that McRaven planned and executed) as a moment of glory for our nation, as some seem to think; I am confused as to why he lionizes Brennan.

Quote:
These officials are not—repeat not—monetizing their security clearances by being on cable TV.
Possibly; I'm pretty sure they still get paid when they go on TV; and as well when for example they go speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference(CPAC), like Hayden did in 2015.

My argument is this: former military and intelligence chiefs should have their security clearance sunset exactly the same as the rest of the military; and I have every reason to never believe the former head of the CIA, NSA, or any other spy agency is doing anything but spreading propaganda, and furthering their own agendas.

I also think that half of the criticism of Trump from the intelligence chiefs is because Trump does a couple simultaneous things that piss them off:
1. He doesn't package his lies the way former intelligence chiefs and former administrations have; they want to give a shine of legitimacy and jingoism and gravitas to the war machine of America; Trump's fucking up their good thing.
2. Trump doesn't read off the same script regarding our foreign occupations and wars, and openly suggests things that scare the shit out of these war hawks- Democrats and Republicans alike- things like removing the 30,000 US troops from Korea, that have been stationed there for six decades, or pulling the US entirely out of Afghanistan, where the US has had troops for 16 years.
3. Trump scares them because he is deeply, profoundly ignorant person who doesn't understand basic concepts about warfare and diplomacy and chooses to remain ignorant; in this I am in agreement- that's scary as fuck.

I'm likely missing a couple other angles, but the Trump Administration's open corruption PLUS their lack of respect for the government mandarin class, makes the "Deep State" strangely sounding the same alarms as Obama/ Clinton liberals, and I find it deeply disturbing when these spy chiefs- or Mueller, or Comey- get presented as bastions of truth and justice; those fuckers are not your friends and not even really your allies; and after Trump they will still be involved in nefarious shit that will more than likely help keep the War on Terror and the US war machine in continual forward motion. They will continue to target muslim citizens in the US, continue to saber-rattle about Iran, continue to support Israel unquestioningly, continue to support Saudi Arabia killing children with US-supplied weapons in Yemen- don't buy what they are selling.

__________________

Last edited by chunksmediocrites; 08-22-2018 at 01:37 AM.
Reply With Quote
Thanks, from:
BrotherMan (08-22-2018), But (08-22-2018), Crumb (08-22-2018), Ensign Steve (08-23-2018), fragment (08-22-2018), godfry n. glad (08-23-2018), JoeP (08-22-2018), Kamilah Hauptmann (08-22-2018), lisarea (08-22-2018), Pan Narrans (08-22-2018), Qingdai (08-22-2018), Sock Puppet (08-22-2018), specious_reasons (08-22-2018), The Man (08-22-2018)
 
Page generated in 0.27418 seconds with 11 queries