Jump to content

President Donald Trump: The Thread


Steve9347

Recommended Posts

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 09:19 AM)
From the NYT front page.

 

Not sure how Trump (or Obama) are to blame for this. At some point some general had to tell either or both of them, "this is the plan, it's going to work."

 

I won't pretend to know exactly how these sorts of raids get planned, vetted and approved, but this is from the Reuters article posted earlier:

 

U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.

 

As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 7.6k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 10:38 AM)
I won't pretend to know exactly how these sorts of raids get planned, vetted and approved, but this is from the Reuters article posted earlier:

While this isn't one thing we can say with certainty...stop and ponder how people honestly think the Administration would have reacted had it gone well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While its hard not to laugh about the absurdity of the American president dressing down the Australian PM, one of our best allies, in basically an introductory call, it is really scary and reenforces that we will have to be incredibly lucky to avoid unneccessary military action due to Trumps temper/ego. Remember when we heard he offered Kasich the VP and that he would have great power to run the country? I was hoping like hell that would be the case, that he would just be some weird chearleader and he let competent people run things. But if he gave up reigns it's going to Gen. Flynn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 09:19 AM)
From the NYT front page.

 

Not sure how Trump (or Obama) are to blame for this. At some point some general had to tell either or both of them, "this is the plan, it's going to work."

 

Jenks,

 

Without being there it is really hard to ascertain what if anything could have been done differently. That being said, I think this type of "leak" is a by-product of Trump's previous attacks on the intelligence community. When you say how smart you are, how much better you are, how dumb they are, it breeds this type of finger pointing.

 

Its possible someone in the military community wanted to get out ahead of the potential Trump tweet about how the "military failed him."

 

But again, impossible to know. For all we no the military told him "dont attack yet, they are waiting" or it could have been Trump saying "I dont think its a good time, do you really think we should?"

 

Unfortunately Trump's own actions have caused my immediate belief to be that it is the former (he insisted against their opinion) as opposed to the latter.

 

Thats the price you pay for what Trump is doing. And it is why most successful leaders dont act like him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 09:38 AM)
I won't pretend to know exactly how these sorts of raids get planned, vetted and approved, but this is from the Reuters article posted earlier:

 

Right, but again, to me that just screams that the DoD screwed up. That's their area of expertise. You can't fault a President for relying on his generals. If it came out that the generals kept advising Trump the plan wasn't going to work and they needed better intel, fine, but we don't really have that yet.

 

I mean yes, to SB's point, at the end of the day the guy that gives the order is responsible. But it's not some negligence on his part that the operation didn't go off without a hitch, which seems to be the implication in the article.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 11:42 AM)
Jenks,

 

Without being there it is really hard to ascertain what if anything could have been done differently. That being said, I think this type of "leak" is a by-product of Trump's previous attacks on the intelligence community. When you say how smart you are, how much better you are, how dumb they are, it breeds this type of finger pointing.

 

Its possible someone in the military community wanted to get out ahead of the potential Trump tweet about how the "military failed him."

 

But again, impossible to know. For all we no the military told him "dont attack yet, they are waiting" or it could have been Trump saying "I dont think its a good time, do you really think we should?"

 

Unfortunately Trump's own actions have caused my immediate belief to be that it is the former (he insisted against their opinion) as opposed to the latter.

 

Thats the price you pay for what Trump is doing. And it is why most successful leaders dont act like him.

 

Totally agree. My first thought was he claimed to know more than the generals, so he opened himself up to this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 12:17 PM)
Right, but again, to me that just screams that the DoD screwed up. That's their area of expertise. You can't fault a President for relying on his generals. If it came out that the generals kept advising Trump the plan wasn't going to work and they needed better intel, fine, but we don't really have that yet.

 

I mean yes, to SB's point, at the end of the day the guy that gives the order is responsible. But it's not some negligence on his part that the operation didn't go off without a hitch, which seems to be the implication in the article.

Why would Trump rely on his Generals? He has already said he knows far more about ISIS than they do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 12:17 PM)
Right, but again, to me that just screams that the DoD screwed up. That's their area of expertise. You can't fault a President for relying on his generals. If it came out that the generals kept advising Trump the plan wasn't going to work and they needed better intel, fine, but we don't really have that yet.

 

I mean yes, to SB's point, at the end of the day the guy that gives the order is responsible. But it's not some negligence on his part that the operation didn't go off without a hitch, which seems to be the implication in the article.

 

I would imagine that there are all sorts of plans on the table/in the works all the time, and that ultimately it's the President's decision on if and when to execute them. For example, I know with the Bin Laden raid, there were some who thought the planned operation was too high of a risk at that time, and others who thought that the risk levels were acceptable.

 

Maybe we're just seeing the disgruntled side who said "this plan isn't ready yet" or "this plan is a dumb idea" and were proven right, but it's also possible that the operation wasn't fully ready yet but could have been improved via more intelligence. edit: I think what's unstated but clearly visible in the way it was phrased was that Trump didn't actually spend any time thinking about or evaluating this, either. Which, honestly, would anyone be surprised to learn he glanced it it once and then approved it before going off to watch cable news for hours?

Edited by StrangeSox
Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 01:39 PM)
I would imagine that there are all sorts of plans on the table/in the works all the time, and that ultimately it's the President's decision on if and when to execute them. For example, I know with the Bin Laden raid, there were some who thought the planned operation was too high of a risk at that time, and others who thought that the risk levels were acceptable.

 

Maybe we're just seeing the disgruntled side who said "this plan isn't ready yet" or "this plan is a dumb idea" and were proven right, but it's also possible that the operation wasn't fully ready yet but could have been improved via more intelligence. edit: I think what's unstated but clearly visible in the way it was phrased was that Trump didn't actually spend any time thinking about or evaluating this, either. Which, honestly, would anyone be surprised to learn he glanced it it once and then approved it before going off to watch cable news for hours?

The real trick is - part of the reason why US Special Forces have, over the past 20 years, built up the reputation they have is - the command at the top has been reliable. The command at the top was professional enough to be able to contribute to risk evaluations on their own. The soldiers get all the deserved credit for their life being on the line, but if the top line command puts them in untenable situations because they fail in their job of assessing risk, people die.

 

Edit: Oh, and you know what might be a reasonable response to this type of report, even if driven by leaks to the press? This is the kind of thing the Congressional Armed Services Committees should look into. They have access to classified intel and it's their job to double check the executive branch on things exactly like this. Somehow I do not have a lot of confidence in that happening.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 12:00 PM)
http://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/...-lands-backlash

 

Some good news today on Public Lands. This is definitely one of those rare areas where voters on the right and left of aisle can see eye to eye.

 

I love how Chaffetz threw that bill onto Clintons lap in withdrawl

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 11:25 AM)
While its hard not to laugh about the absurdity of the American president dressing down the Australian PM, one of our best allies, in basically an introductory call, it is really scary and reenforces that we will have to be incredibly lucky to avoid unneccessary military action due to Trumps temper/ego. Remember when we heard he offered Kasich the VP and that he would have great power to run the country? I was hoping like hell that would be the case, that he would just be some weird chearleader and he let competent people run things. But if he gave up reigns it's going to Gen. Flynn.

Also kind of disconcerting that he can't see relieving 1200 or so of the most absolutely destitute people on the planet of having to live in an internment camp as some sort of waste of time because there is "nothing in it for us" and it's "such a dumb deal"... zero empathy. And he's making these comments on a day he was supposed to be going to a prayer breakfast. Wew, lad. As the kids on 4chan would say.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (Nixon @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 06:03 PM)
Also kind of disconcerting that he can't see relieving 1200 or so of the most absolutely destitute people on the planet of having to live in an internment camp as some sort of waste of time because there is "nothing in it for us" and it's "such a dumb deal"... zero empathy. And he's making these comments on a day he was supposed to be going to a prayer breakfast. Wew, lad. As the kids on 4chan would say.

He truly is a despicable mongrel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 3, 2017 -> 06:18 AM)
Thoughts and prayers to all the victims of the Bowling Green massacre. :pray

 

So far, the two major things they've used to justify their Muslim Ban are

 

1) A Canadian Trump supporter murdering 5 Muslims at a mosque in Quebec City

2) A thing that didn't actually happen

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...