Month: March 2017

Contrast in Failure: Kennedy and Cuba, Trump and Yemen

Two Presidents, two parallel military tragedies, two entirely different standards of personal responsibility.

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From nojo at Stinque:

The State of the Union address is one of our grandest political traditions.

It is also one of the silliest.

It begins with Honorable Congresscritters jockeying for aisle position where the Preznident walks in, the better to be caught on camera in the presence of American power. It continues with the ritual standing ovations from one half of the room or the other, plus the obligatory cutaways to Humble Citizens mentioned in the laundry-list speech. Finally, everyone sits on edge to hear whether the State of our Union is, indeed, strong, which would be the only surprise of the evening if it wasn’t.

Not only is it silly, it’s completely unnecessary

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From PZ Myers:

Ed Yong has written about a common assumption that scientists must be ‘objective’: Do Scientists Lose Credibility When They Become Political? (the answer is “NO”, by the way), and ThinkProgress is also concerned about it.

Scientists have historically stayed above the political fray, but now that researchers face regular attacks under the Trump administration, many are planning to fight back.

TP cites the same study to say that it does no harm for scientists to be politically active.

I’m curious, though, where this odd notion that scientists are or should be apolitical comes from, though, because it’s never been true. Never. Not once in the history of science. When scientists have socially relevant information in their field of expertise, they tend to speak out — even when they’re wrong.

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From conservative writer T. Paine at Saving Common Sense:

It is a very sacred time where Christians repent for their sins and focus on trying to live by God’s will.

Sadly there are some Christian churches that have taken this sacred day as an opportunity to advance an earthly agenda. In the Chicago area there are several churches including Unity Lutheran Church in Edgewater, Holy Covenant Metropolitan Community Church in Brookfield, and Berry United Methodist Church in Lincoln Square, that have decided to partake in the “Glitter Ash Wednesday” initiative.

This initiative was created by the New York faith based organization “Parity”. Parity focuses on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. Their goal is to combine the message of solidarity and support with the traditional symbol of lent – repentance. These three churches will offer the option of “glitter ash” in which purple glitter is mixed with traditional ashes to be placed on each Christian’s forehead in the sign of the cross.

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From Capt. Fogg at Human Voices:

All people caught up in a huge drama and no longer the people we knew only moments ago with motives, and positions and goals and explanations and narratives. They all jump up, they all sit down.

He inherited, lies the man at the podium, a chaotic mess. He’s the last US president since James Madison to wear a wig, although it’s died and not powdered. He lies outright about it, making up figures, contradicting himself when he mentions a recovery albeit slow, he says, neglecting to mention that it was a recovery from the biggest recession in nearly 90 years and caused by policies he again proposes. We’ve had a rarely equaled economic expansion, rarely achieved employment levels and wage growth is accelerating, but that’s fake news. The real news is bad. He needs it to be. The real news comes from me and none else. And you will believe.

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Wondering why a few conservative friends see our former President as “an arrogant buffoon”.

As details emerged, it became clear that our new Commander-in-Chief had initiated a military failure. Enemy resistance had been severely underestimated. People had died. The President immediately acknowledged the disaster, labeling it what that it was.

There’s an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.

It was a failure. Cuban refugees had been armed and trained by the United States. But Castro and the Cuban military quickly isolated and overwhelmed the small force.

The reference to defeat as an orphan was apt. Behind the scenes, agencies and individuals were speaking off the record, attempting to deflect responsibility away from themselves and their parts of government.

Later military historians put Allen Dulles, head of the CIA, at the center of the disaster. The agency had guaranteed the insurgents that the United States would send military backing to ensure victory.

At the same time, Dulles was assuring the President that no military backing would be needed, that the CIA knew for a fact that a large scale uprising of the Cuban people would be ready as soon as the invasion began.

Kennedy could have allowed reports about Allen Dulles to leak out. He could have let it be known that the military operation had been conceived and endorsed by the Eisenhower administration, members of which privately urged the new President to pick up where they had left off.

But Kennedy quietly demanded that the internal blame game stop. He issued directives that nobody put even a whisper of blame on the previous administration of Dwight Eisenhower.

He publicly targeted one, and only one, individual for all of the blame for the disaster.

I’m the responsible officer of the government … and that is quite obvious.

It is an inescapable part of human nature, I suppose. You always wish for what you once had. John F. Kennedy set a very high bar, even in failure. He admitted a major disaster and acknowledged it right away. He refused to assign blame, even when he could have been entirely truthful in doing just that.

Times are changing.

Details of the recent disaster in Yemen have come to us in official statements later contradicted as facts become known. Unexpected fire came from a heavier than anticipated force of radical fighters. A Navy Seal was killed. Civilian casualties were high. Bystanders died. Nine small children were among the dead.

The first version of the story presented by the administration was that the operation had been planned by President Obama who then left it to President Trump to carry out.

From Presidential Press Secretary Sean Spicer:

The conclusion was at that time to hold for what they called a moonless night which, by calendar, wouldn’t occur until then President-elect Trump was President Trump.

Mr. Spicer mentioned an operational meeting with a specific time and date.

Those at that specific meeting were surprised. And they were unanimous. There had been no such authorization. In fact, there had been no mention of the operation in Yemen.

There had been no authorization for any similar operation before President Trump took office. The statement that President Obama or any of his staff or anyone at any meeting or session had authorized, or even been presented with, any such military plan was simply false.

The new plan, the plan for Yemen, was presented by son-in-law Jared Kushner and advisor Steve Bannon to President Trump over dinner. The President gave the okay for the raid as he enjoyed his meal.

Military sources made clear that the disaster could have been avoided.

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.

Reuters News Service

Despite the tragic losses, the administration insisted that the operation had been a success.

An unbelievable amount of intelligence that will prevent the potential death or attacks on American soil.

– Press Secretary Sean Spicer, February 1, 2017

The administration showed video of the raid. An enormous amount of captured computer equipment and data record material was shown.

The identical video was later discovered from a raid years ago. It was not connected with the failed attack at all.

It was fake.

Military analysts have gone public:

Last month’s deadly commando raid in Yemen, which cost the lives of a U.S. Navy SEAL and a number of children, has so far yielded no significant intelligence, U.S. officials told NBC News.

Administration representatives began attacking critics. Anyone who criticized the President for the military action was dishonoring the sacrifice of the Navy Seal who died in the raid.

Anybody who undermines the success of that raid owes an apology and a disservice to the life of Chief Owens.

– Sean Spicer

That sort of talk ended when it turned out that one of the unpatriotic critics the Trump administration was attacking was the father of that Navy Seal.

Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration? Why? For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen — everything was missiles and drones — because there was not a target worth one American life. Now, all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?

– Bill Owens, father of Ryan Owens

Finally the President has spoken publicly about the debacle. In spite of the facts that have finally been established, he repeats the earlier assertions, the alternate facts that have been repeatedly shown to be false.

The mission was actually begun by the Obama White House. President Trump simply allowed the Obama raid to go on as planned. The raid was a great success. It was a treasure trove of actionable intelligence.

More than half a century after the loss of President Kennedy, the contrast is especially stark.

President Kennedy explained who was responsible.

I’m the responsible officer of the government.

President Trump explained who was responsible.

Well this was a mission that was started before I got here. This was something that was, uh, you know, just, they wanted to do. Ahhh, they came to see me. They explained what they wanted to do, the Generals.

President Kennedy was unyielding, determined that nobody else share in the blame. He insisted that the path of responsibility was clear.

…and that is quite obvious.

President Trump was gracious toward those whom he identified for blame.

The generals, who were very respected. My generals are the most respected that we’ve had in many decades, I believe.

None-the-less, facts were facts. As Mr. Trump instructed us:

And they lost Ryan.

They lost Ryan.

He did explain his role in the tragedy.

And I was at the airport when the casket came in, the body came in, and it was a very sad with the family and it’s a great family: incredible wife and children. I met most of the family.

He is a compassionate President. He can understand resentment, misguided as that resentment is.

And, I can understand people saying that, I’d feel, you know, I’d feel, what’s worse? There’s nothing worse, there’s nothing worse.

But again, this was something they were looking at for a long time doing.

President Kennedy described the anxious temptation of some officials to divert blame, but he insisted that he alone was responsible for his decision to move forward.

Victory has a hundred fathers. Defeat is an orphan.

President Trump explained that what looked like disaster was actually victory.

According to General Mattis, it was a very successful mission.

We should not believe military officials who say otherwise.

They got tremendous amounts of information.

President Kennedy later observed, in ironic sorrow, that his popularity had gone up after the terrible defeat on the sandy shores of Cuba.

It could be that the public saw what we still see:
the public courage that we continue to associate with him today:

• His frank acknowledgement of military disaster
   
• His refusal to place public blame on those who had privately misled him
   
• His firm instruction that nobody in his administration place any blame on the previous President
   
• His insistence that all public responsibility for the disaster stay solely with him

For many of us who lived during those times, losing President Kennedy was a hard and bitter experience.

Well this was a mission that was started before I got here. This was something that was, uh, you know, just, they wanted to do. Ahhh, they came to see me. They explained what they wanted to do, the Generals.

It is an experience we are forced to revisit by this season’s inescapable contrast.

And they lost Ryan.

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From Julian Sanchez:

A few nightmare scenarios haunt the dreams of civil libertarians—scenes drawn from our long and ignominious history of intelligence abuses. One—call it the Nixon scenario—is that the machinery of the security state will fall into the hands of an autocratic executive, disdainful of the rule of law, who equates “national security” with the security of his own grip on political authority, who is all too willing to turn powers meant to protect us from foreign adversaries against his domestic political opponents, and who lacks any qualms about quashing inquiries into his own illegal conduct or that of his allies. Another—call it the Hoover scenario—is that the intelligence agencies anxious to protect their own powers and prerogatives will themselves slip the leash, using their command of embarrassing secrets to intimidate (and in extreme cases perhaps even select) their own nominal masters.

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From Dave Dubya:

We got what we expected in Dear Leader’s speech to Congress tonight.

We saw him pointing his finger at Democrats, blaming them for everything wrong with America. He glowered at them for not following his agenda, and promised he could fix every major problem we face if Democrats would just join together with him.

The usual “depleted military” will get more money…and win wars. Drugs and crime and chaos were invoked. Law and order is coming. Cops and law enforcement got special praise.

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