"Franklin D. Roosevelt relied heavily on a kitchen cabinet. Harry S. Truman created the National Security Council to formally weigh options and coordinate among departments fighting the Cold War. Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter turned the N.S.C. into an idea generator. In the Obama administration, members of the N.S.C. staff talked about 'death by Situation Room meeting' and compared the process of policymaking to watching a python swallow a pig."
From
"Trump Follows His Gut. His National Security Advisers Try to Keep Up. Decisions come fast, even if contradictions and inconsistencies abound. But without much of a process, there is little preparation for how things can go wrong" (NYT).
And Trump? He has, we're told, "reduced the size of the N.S.C. staff by at least two thirds.... And when debates take place, the number of players often shrinks to a tiny group.... Not much leaks from those sessions, a major change from, say, the early Obama era, when Situation Room conversations sometimes appeared on news websites before the meetings were over."
So then we don't really have a way of knowing what goes on. Well, the NYT writer, David Sanger, presents us with a quote from Thomas Wright, "a scholar at the Brookings Institution who worked on long-term strategic planning in the National Security Council during the Biden years," who purports to tell us what "Trump seems to think," which is that "he doesn’t need options or contingency plans. He just wants a small team to execute his instincts."
Posts
144 comments:
No one is leaking to sanger so he has ti make stuff up (more than usual
He wrote that ridiculous hagiogrsphy of the biden team that was worse than woodwards
Everything in the business world for 30 years has been lean, lean, lean. Yet we're shocked when someone finally brings that approach to government. CC, JSM
Our boy Trump is running the show. Most everyone else -- worldwide -- are observing and reacting. All that lawfare pissed him off and this time around he knows the game.
Well, it's best to only hear the pros of the orders that we receive from foreign countries, who wouldn't even be powers if we didn't make them so. If you start hearing the downsides, well, you might chicken out!
Anyone who think the autopen was a model to do anything
Certainly witkoff is the good cop along with barracks and rubio and hegseth are the bad cop
I wonder which one of this crack team of advisors told him that we could prevent the Iranians from shutting down the Persian Gulf to traffic by putting our Navy into a shooting gallery.
The Israelis have been caught in the Gulf states with teams of saboteurs to set the whole region aflame, which is the plan, so that Israel can rule over the rubble. I am sure the Gulf states are quite pleased to have sent their air defenses to Ukraine, too.
This was supposed to be a "Viking Raid," I remember reading here, sounds like this is looking more like a drawn out war. This tight group of advisors has fucked up.
Oh yeah, and their were three candidates the US had in mind to replace the leader we assassinated, and you know what? Israel killed all three of them in the same strike where they killed the 150 schoolgirls. Israel wants Iran to collapse into a collection of squabbling warlords, like Syria and Libya.
Trump is a butcher.
The Deep State loves paralysis by analysis.
Maybe Wright would like to tell us about the contingency plans and options that were laid out before Biden ordered the Afghanistan bug-out.
So much of NYT writing is like this one, presenting an inability to understand the plain speech of Trump and his team. The template was set when we took out Suleimani. Like El Mencho. Maduro and VZ is the template writ large: take out the head, disarm the regime and make their military irrelevant. Expect cooperation and encourage reform in the new leadership.
This is not occupation and nation building. This is decapitation and allow a new person to assume control on condition of cooperative economic and social reform done by the people themselves not us. Not a governor or temporary poobah but a local who gains the support of his own people.
It’s new. It’s different. It’s working in Venezuela so far. Maybe it’s working in Mexico. Perhaps it will work in Iran. The whole region is on our side this time too, which is also different also new, also speaks to excellent preplanning.
"anyone who think the autopen was a model to do anything"
He was just as bad. Why I feel so betrayed is that Trump convinced me that he was different, and he's not. The only allies I have now are the Democrats, but I am under no illusion that they would be any better, but the Republicans have to be punished.
Gotta love that weasel verb “seems.” In retort I would point out that if this outrageous mind reading was true then Trump’s instincts this year are 100% improvement over all the preplanning and execution of every operation under Biden.
That’s impressive!
"The whole region is on our side this time too,"
You do know that Fox News is heavily censored, right? Some of the most interesting commentators on the war are former Fox personalities like Judge Napolitano, or Tucker Carlson, or Rich Sanchez, (he may have been CNN) who talk all the time about stuff that is not allowed to be said on Fox or CNN.
And Trump? He has, we're told, "reduced the size of the N.S.C. staff by at least two thirds...
Not much leaks from those sessions,
a major change from, say, the early Obama era, when Situation Room conversations sometimes appeared on news websites before the meetings were over."
a) you can see WHY Trump made the changes
b) you can see WHY the mainstream media hates him
So I would be a better thinker if like you, I said I knew things certainly? Or used words like "100%"?
Sorry, but careful thinkers always keep in mind the possiblity that they could be wrong in complex situations where all variables are not known, and anyboy who is certain of anything in a situation like this is either working at a troll farm, or not very bright.
If Pete Hegseth cannot effectively manage America’s war in Iran, insiders expect President Trump will replace him with a weekday—or even a prime time—Fox News host.
"Trump seems to think," which is that "he doesn’t need options or contingency plans. He just wants a small team to execute his instincts."
Trump’s team literally said there were contingencies and that the first decapitations were “ahead of schedule.” Not to mention the highly proficient execution of the VZ and IR strikes in which our casualties were extremely low.
If your expert opinion is dumb luck you might be the biggest retard ever quoted by the NYT.
But you guys enjoy the more selective fanbase of Trump's and cheer on things like sinking a ship in international waters without a declaration of war, and without a warning and offering a chance to surrender, and not bothering to even try to rescue survivors, and killing 150. Admit it, those 150 deaths make you feel good. Just like the 160 school girls.
My hometown boy rick is as he at russian tv now every network has dropped him
"Trump’s team literally said..."
Then it must be true!
You guys are too stupid to engage.
The story was written as the daily feed for the anti-Trump core readership of the Times, regardless of whether the content is actually hard-sourced.. It's why their readers subscribe.
A review of the coverage of the Iran action by the Times over the past 5 days makes it pretty clear that they would prefer to lose this war, whatever the consequences, than for Trump to get a win.
This is not occupation and nation building.
Yes and the rest of Mike’s take is great, far better than the turtle paced dullards complaining Trump ignores white papers and doesn’t allow the swamp to slow him down. They are right to feel threatened as it is hard to pump out the trillions in Treasury when there aren’t ugly regimes to launder the ‘aid’ packages. The Mary Byrd problem…
Sanger i should remind was leaked the western alproach in 2002 was selectively leaked the 2007 nie that misrepresented the iranian nuclear program was leaked stuixnet by gen cartwright
Kak and Jaq - Do you want the USA to lose? Seems that way.
"My hometown boy rick is as he at russian tv now every network has dropped him"
Yes, because our news is censored, all of it. I suspect that this goes back to Pelosi gutting the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act, which made propagandizing the American people illegal, after seeing what happened in Europe. I don't know why you think that giving a factoid that backs my position helps your argument.
Tucker is not employed in the news business. He works for Qatar, a country also supporting this endeavor. All corporate news sucks and must be cross referenced with known facts. No one I know takes ANY news at face value anymore.
"Do you want the USA to lose? Seems that way."
I want us to stop doing stupid, murderous things. Do you want the US to keep starting wars across the world? Seems that way.
And Russian TV isnt but they have theif interesting takes
“So then we don't really have a way of knowing what goes on.“
Exactly. Sanger effectively debunks its own article. The Trump team is small, trusted, loyal, streamlined, and agile. Look at how much Trump has done already? You can’t get so much done when bogged down with dead weight, people that put superfluous obstacles in the way of decision-making. It’s simply lean business savvy brought to government.
Of course, it’s critical that the leader can state the goal clearly to all stakeholders so that it has unequivocal backing. The small team then plans and executes the program to that end. Example, “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”
Well, you can't get a better recommendation that you are probably spitting truth than to be denounced by necrosis here.
France has had to pull its carrier group from the Baltic, where they were keeping an eye on Russia, to try to bail Trump out of this debacle. And now Russia has cut off gas to Europe, and European countries are begging for permission to buy Russian oil.
I am sure that his tiny crack team of advisors anticipated all of this, and it's all "ahead of schedule."
Well the Times is likely to be consistently wrong in any contest
Maple Syrup Maricon Thursday… yay!
/sarc
An axiom of committee meetings: The larger the group, the more timid and conventional and slow the decisions. This is a very, very old observation. Those who increase the size of a team are usually handing out ego-promotions or patronage jobs, and creating a social club.
Many organizations have a 12-member board. Some years ago, the Pentagon cut the number of on-site "Senior Executives" from 200 to 150 and called it a win. The NRA had serious management issues when leadership packed a weak 75-member board with rubber-stamp supporters.
Consider "Byzantine" politics.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/the-iranian-ink-blot
So vibes then.
“The president had a feeling, again, based on fact, that Iran was going to strike the United States, was going to strike our assets in the region, and he made a determination to launch Operation Epic Fury based on all of those reasons,” ~ Karoline Leavitt
I had a feeling, again, based on fact, that pizza has the same calories as lettuce.
"“Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”
The Omanis, who were mediating, said that they had agreed to a permanent program of intrusive inspections and severe limitations on enrichment, which is when Bibi saw his plan for war melting away, if Trump made the deal.
It's just like when Russia thought that we hated them because they were communist, and they became democratic, and yet we still hated them. It had nothing to do with anything we said in that case either.
He dropped large hints at rhe state of the union but the frog anf giraffe caucus wasnt interested (i cant believe i had ti spell that out)
Kak reminds me of soldiers defending a fort with a cannon. When they have cannonballs, they fire cannonballs, when they have grape shot, they fire grape shot, and if all they have is confetti, they fire that, hoping to just confuse things, and Kak has been firing confetti for so long that he doesn't have any credibility when he actually could use some.
What does JD Vance think about Trump’s Iran war?
“Trump’s Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars.” ~ J.D. Vance
Well, best campaign strategy. Fooled the MAGA gang.
Attempting to gaslight the whole world:
“The president has clearly defined what he wants to accomplish. There’s just no way Donald Trump is going to allow this country to get into a multiyear conflict with no clear end in sight and no clear objective." Vance told Fox on Monday night...
Iran fancies itself an empire so it extends itself into north africa with the polisarios as far west as nicaragua and cuba
Iran was not permanently giving up enriching uranium beyond 5%. That is a fact. That leaves nuclear weapons on the table. Trump is hell bent on not allowing that, ever, for the sake of all of our families. The hell the regime has reigned on its own population is what it would do everywhere.
Pastor Necrosis keeps repeating what he wants us to think, never providing any sane arguments beyond, "We have been telling you they are evil forever, don't you believe it by now?" Repetition is his best argument.
The whole reason behind the "Axis of Evil" bit is that Iran sits on a global choke point, and this condition can't be allowed to stand because we want to sit on that choke point, so that the friends of whoever is president can get extremely wealthy. But normal people don't think that way, so we have to be lied to, Our own assessments said that Iran was not working on a nuclear weapon, but that didn't fit Bibi's plan.
Now standup comedy is when one tries to commend french policy in the middle east (without a laugh track)
“Our own assessments said that Iran was not working on a nuclear weapon.”
Not true. Iran admitted to enough nuclear material for 11 nukes ready in a matter of 3 weeks.
"Iran was not permanently giving up enriching uranium beyond 5%. That is a fact."
Iran agreed during indirect talks with the United States never to stockpile enriched uranium, said Oman’s top diplomat, who described the development as a major breakthrough.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi also said on Friday that he believed all issues in a deal between Iran and the US could be resolved “amicably and comprehensively” within a few months.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/28/peace-within-reach-as-iran-agrees-no-nuclear-material-stockpile-oman-fm
But I know, the US can't fire journalists they don't like from al Jazeera, so they can't be trusted to only tell you the stuff the US regime wants you believe, but go ahead and google it, you will see it reported elswhere.
I am surprised that people still assert Trump’s style is chaotic when his team has systematically racked up a lot of wins in reforming the Federal Government and reversing crime trends and implementing the geostrategic changes that are isolating Russia and China, choking their access to oil and arms from their allies.
As in the dark knight 'many wallets are getting light' if the reforms succeed
They pretended the scorpion didnt sting or they could be far away
Jaq said...
"Trump’s team literally said..."
Then it must be true!
You guys are too stupid to engage.
Yet here you are, with 14 posts among the first 43 on this thread.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/americas-spies-say-iran-wasnt-building-a-nuclear-weapon-trump-dismisses-that-assessment
I guess his tiny crack team knows better than our intelligence agencies, so we should probably cut that down to a half dozen stenographers who can write down Trump's feelings, and maybe he can dictate the contents of his dreams to them too.
Pentagon eyes Ukrainian interceptor drones to counter Iran ~ FT
"Kyiv has pioneered cheap and mass-produced machines to battle Russian versions of the Shahed attack drone"
The irony is absolutely extraordinary. Maybe Vance could take this opportunity to say thank you.
This is the new age of warfare...drones are the great equalizer. Using $4MM patriots that take forever to build to down a $30k drone is not sustainable. Surprised nobody has come up with a drone-killing drone that loiters over potential targets.
I remember when Reapers were THE drone and it was the US's great advantage. Seeing the world change in real time is surreal.
"We'll swap you -- ten of our drones for each of your Patriots. Provided that is you actually put pressure on Putin to stop attacking us, rather than telling us to stop defending ourselves."
"Oh, and JD Vance had better tell us how incredibly grateful he is for our help. And Trump had better wear more appropriate clothes. Shorten the length of his tie for a start. So disrespectful. You're welcome.".....
Mike (MJB Wolf), He's causing chaos in their ranks so of course that's what they will assert.
Just look at the Kak and Jaq show here.
Jaq said...
Trump is a butcher.</b.
This is what happens when a moral retard gets on the internet.
More people would die if Tim was in charge than what Trump is doing.
But Tim is OK with people dying if he gets to feel good about himself.
"the geostrategic changes that are isolating Russia and China, choking their access to oil and arms from their allies."
Wait, wut? You are admitting the real reason that we have gone on this murder spree has nothing to do with "imminent threats"? It's all about conquering the whole world, so the next Joe Biden that becomes President can get a cut of every deal that's done anywhere in the world?
Need more coffe.
Al jazeera does have a cleaner presentation than say msnow but that doesnt mean its not the al thanis boy band
Sure, Chief, we are destroying Iran, carpet bombing Tehran, in order to protect the protesters, whose businesses we just bombed, BTW.
Well, Jaq. To be fair. All we're getting from you is; "But , dad! You promised!" And "I know more than you do! All your news comes from liars! You doodyheads!
The reason I often don't comment is because I don't have enough information to comment. I notice that doesn't stop you.
I see you're still afriad of Russia and Putin. Let me put your mind at ease. France hasn't deployed it's considerable carrier strike force in fear of Russian aggression. It's in the eastern Med. for obvious reasons. It's other carrier strike force is headed to the Pacific.
You're wildly misinformed.
Jaq said...
Wait, wut? You are admitting the real reason that we have gone on this murder spree has nothing to do with "imminent threats"? It's all about conquering the whole world, so the next Joe Biden that becomes President can get a cut of every deal that's done anywhere in the world?
Yes retard. The world is a dangerous place with other countries that have interests that they kill millions of people to achieve.
People are going to die no matter what Trump does. War is going to happen no matter what Trump does.
Your plan is more people die so you can pretend you are a good person. It is a stupid plan and people are tired of your garbage.
You spam these boards with your stupid moral preening. The people of Iran would love to have the freedom you don't deserve. They are dancing in the streets while you pine for a world that doesn't exist.
Are you dutch are the thai itenerant
Unfortunately, the tiny clique making decisions at the top are part of a cult who believes that this is literally true:
he Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
2 The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
4 The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
Bibi has convinced this tiny cult that whoever helps Israel shall be blessed by the lord, that is the doctrine that Hegseth gets in his Bible Study classes from his wackadoodle pastor.
Jaq: "Israel killed all three of them in the same strike where they killed the 150 schoolgirls." You know that's a lie, but you still post it.
Iran foreign minister admitting and stating demand to continue to enriching uranium 10 days ago. (CBS Face the Nation)
How we can trust them not to use nukes if things go bad, I don't know. They believe that Trump is anointed by God to bring on the Apocalypse, and thus "prepare the way of the Lord" Jesus, to return. These cults are worse that pizzagate, worse than Epstein, and they focus on centers of power.
Huckabee just said it out loud in a televised interview.
Jaq said...
Bibi has convinced this tiny cult that whoever helps Israel shall be blessed by the lord, that is the doctrine that Hegseth gets in his Bible Study classes from his wackadoodle pastor.
You are a morally deranged loser making shit up.
You took a story made up by a reporter who knew nothing and you expanded out your most grotesque straw man of people who you disagree with.
The Iranian people were starving and dying of thirst. They were ruled by a corrupt and evil regime that was killing more of its people than we are.
People were going to die if we did nothing. People are going to die now the we are doing something.
You wanted more people to die of repression, starvation and thirst.
You are willing to make shit up about people who disagree with you to get your jollies.
You are just morally deranged at this point.
Remember the "kidnapped Christian schoolgirls" stories in Africa during the Obama administration? Roaming bandits/ISIS/Al Queda/Boko Haram were responsible and wanted brides or sex slaves.
Well...they didn't mention that these groups had killed off the male students. "Boys killed. Girls suffer more."
EVERY mention of schoolgirls for political sympathy is inherently suspect and borderline propaganda.
Sure, go back to before they changed their position and pretend that their positions could never change in a negotiation. The reason all of those leaders were in the room to be killed was to discuss a proposal of the United States presented to them by the Omanis, which they were, according to the Omanis, preparing to accept.
There are at least seven times in the past couple of decades when we have assassinated leaders in the middle of negotiations, using the pretense to get them to lower their guard. We even tried it with Putin, when Trump told him "hold on, I'll get back to you." and we sent a drone swarm to his house.
Johnny One Note (Jaq) seems to think Trump started this war.
“Just like the bully on the playground, the only thing that gets through to them is a good ass whippin. That’s what the Punitive Expedition is. It’s coming into their country, breaking their war machine, killing the guys whose idea it was to fuck with the USA, and then walk away, while saying “You need to find a new government. One that doesn’t attack our interests and our people. What you chose is up to you, but understand, if you attack us again, we’ll be back, and we ain’t going to be so nice, next time.”
This "management approach" article could have been written as is, substituting Churchill or Eisenhower for Trump.
Jaq with the drone swarm method of commenting. Send out a bunch of cheap, ineffective crap with the hopes of getting anything through. Time to go to class, son.
Jaq said...
Oh yeah, and their were three candidates the US had in mind to replace the leader we assassinated, and you know what? Israel killed all three of them in the same strike where they killed the 150 schoolgirls. Israel wants Iran to collapse into a collection of squabbling warlords, like Syria and Libya.
Wow you are still running with that lie even though you know it is a lie.
You need to go to a therapist.
"EVERY mention of schoolgirls for political sympathy is inherently suspect and borderline propaganda."
Why murder them then? Why, if it was a "surgical strike," did we murder them? It's going to make it very hard for us to get rioters out on the street, now that they are going to be on the side of these murders.
I watch a podcast by an Iranian expat, who wanted the regime gone, but he is honest enough to present a lot of voices, and his opinion on this operation has clearly changed,
What is borderline propaganda is lying to us about what we are really doing.
‘The idea that “the only way we can use force, is if we then take responsibility for that nation, and re make it in our image” is a sure and certain way to keep us from ever using force, except in a war of annihilation. We have only been successful twice in “making a nation over in our image” and both of those were as a result of the afore mentioned “war of annihilation.” I speak of course, of WWII where Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan had decided “we’re going to be the only nations left on earth, then we may fight it out to determine who rules the world.” ‘
Jfarmer i suspect the latter
@Jaq --
Why did Israel target the Palestinian military hideouts placed underneath hospitals? Use. Your. Brain.
Jaq said...
"EVERY mention of schoolgirls for political sympathy is inherently suspect and borderline propaganda."
Why murder them then? Why, if it was a "surgical strike," did we murder them? It's going to make it very hard for us to get rioters out on the street, now that they are going to be on the side of these murders.
You know it was an Iranian missile that struck that school. You know the IRGC has admitted it themselves.
You are here in bad faith. You are morally deranged and fundamentally dishonest.
Yeah i didnt like powells cracker barrel as if the baathisth had nt broken it (they protected khomeini from harm)
‘There is, was, and always will be, a need to make it clear to those who would kill Americans, take our stuff, and bully our people that “we speak softly but we carry a big stick” and it’s not just for show.’
No more “Pottery Barn Rules”.
If not for the Times the vietnam would not have started (thhe diem coup) central america would have had a modicum of stability and there would be too generations of iranian woken which wouldnt live under burkas
Some interesting insight can be found here:
https://wlehman.substack.com/p/ive-seen-some-shit?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
In the Obama administration, members of the N.S.C. staff talked about 'death by Situation Room meeting' and compared the process of policymaking to watching a python swallow a pig.
In reality, he had to ask Biden’s opinion and do the opposite.
They should be spat on with every opportunity
Comments could be edited for Repetitiveness....
I'm sympathetic to some of the opinions above, less so once they start getting bold text, which is one step below ALL CAPS.
What's really going on here is that we've become accustomed to non decisions, made by unnamed people we've not elected to make decisions. Trump is, if nothing else, Decisive. He's been on a roll of late, at least regards short term outcomes. Long term results? Harder to call. But the previous admin consistently avoided making any difficult decisions. It's not that I was ever a fan of Joe Biden, but when his response to the October 7th massacre in Israel was tacit support of Hamas....well, it was a non decision in one sense. Or...lives of civilians murdered by butchers was of less import that Michigan's electoral votes. Which he lost anyway. Trump. Actual Hope and Change. In that he's changed the world. And we hope for the best. Non decisions are decisions. Usually bad ones.
More than that they had givens millions to hamas through unwra through sanctions relief (they were accessories)
I have heard some stupid takes but thai itinerant takes the cake
For well over four decades, Iran’s rulers have openly demonstrated that "Death to America" is not merely a slogan but the nation's foreign policy goal. It’s about time we end that.
@Jaq -
Please read Machiavelli's "The Prince" before you comment further. Pay close attention to the deception and trickery stuff. Close attention. Welcome to our realpolitik world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realpolitik
I am interested in seeing how China moves forward. Their entire foreign policy regime has been upended over the last 3 months.
They have completely purged the top military leadership. They have lost their 2 cheapest sources of oil.
Their entire foreign policy paradigm hinged on using state/non-state actors like Iran/North Korea to destabilize regions and maintain their belt and road clients.
Parallel to this attack on Iran Hezbollah is being removed from Lebanon and Pakistan is shooting at the Taliban instead of India.
Hearing how Trump got Pakistan to go after the Taliban instead of India would actually be interesting.
’Trump is a butcher.’
Blow it out your ass, pussy.
Yeah that waa an interesting twist
https://youtu.be/D0hvULC1JSc?si=rVB_nHtEP4YdBDVt&t=621 —Marjorie Taylor Green
Don't worry, though, you can win the mid-terms without us!
Enjoy your circle jerk.
You sound like an emotional jilted woman Jaq.
Perhaps you should look into TRT, it might clarify your thinking.
Apparently the decision making process in the Biden years involved pretending Biden was making the decisions.
Trump wants to concentrate on success. More people involved makes that harder. A lot of people in a meeting are Iike a blog. Many will have no connection to executing success and will fill a role of disagreement and worry (or as they would say "concern"). If your style is to concentrate on managing the failure you have larger groups, and in the end you spend more time on the failure than the success, and you get what you concentrate on. Smart capable people don't spend much time on failure. They have contingencies, but they are simple and direct just like their successes.
“ What is louder than the condemnations of the establishment now is what they failed to do over the previous four decades. They never deployed the same aggressive democratization strategies toward Iran that they’ve applied across the Middle East and Africa. Instead, successive administrations released billions in frozen Iranian assets, negotiated the infamous Iran nuclear deal, and—as Politico’s 2017 Project Cassandra investigation documented—deliberately limited prosecution of Hezbollah drug trafficking networks operating inside the United States to protect those negotiations.”
https://americanmind.org/salvo/the-fall-of-the-ngo-administrative-complex/
If your main objective (conscious or not) is to avoid guilt or shame, you will not accomplish anything, not even avoiding the shame.
Any "expert" from "Biden Administration" is not an expert. Brookings Institute is Ivy League-repository of Deep State DC Bettway country policies, and revolving-door NGO employer of politico RINOs and Dems alike, same pro-establishment talking points. Not reliable source of factual information, not anymore.
I'm glad I picked today to start skimming Jaq's comments. I never thought I would get so much satisfaction out of watching him melt into a puddle of incoherence.
How and why did Trump come to the decision that Montanans don't need to vote for who their Senate candidate will be?
If there's not a good explanation, I think this move over Steve Daines' seat is going to piss a lot of people off.
Trump is President because the Republican Party kept shafting their voters and saying, in effect, "who cares if they're unhappy? Where else are they going to go?"
Now it seems Trump is doing that himself or at least endorsing it.
Jaq throws down with the crumb bum MTG… film at 11.
From the PBS article linked by Jaq:
"An earlier intelligence report, compiled in November under then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat, also said Iran "is not building a nuclear weapon."
However, it said the country has "undertaken activities that better position it to produce one, if it so chooses," such as increasing stockpiles of enriched uranium and operating more advanced centrifuges."
If I grab my car keys and start moving towards my car, I am not driving. However, since I am better positioning myself to do so, it follows that my intent is to do so.
All this blablabla about "imminent threats" is entirely immaterial. Intent is what matters.
Commenter with a couple dozen spam comments so far tells the rest of us to 'enjoy our circle jerk' after admonishing everyone for not engaging with him.
This plaintive mewling for attention. Sad !
So if Trump says, "the Strait of Hormuz is too narrow!," these guys will just set about widening it?
Jaq said...
Enjoy your circle jerk.
You should try Bluesky.
Well it is the NYTimes so it is bull****. The NSC. Is the deep state and they will try to undermine Trump every chance they get.
The assumptions you haters make is incredible. I've had the exact same view of America and Israel along with Canada and Mexico my whole conscious existence. The more I learn the more it reinforced what I expected with few exceptions.
The assumption that Jaq and others make that someway Israel has hypnotized us recently or Bibi sweettalked us into some belief is THEIR fantasy, not the reality. Neither Israel nor America is an outlier or extreme in regards to their actions compared to other nations, but we are in our industriousness and advanced technologies rather alone among "advanced democracies."
The beauty of the Abraham Accords is it requires signatories to keep religion and government separate, the way Israel and the USA do. The Gulf states that signed onto it are the same ones willing to rebuild Gaza if they adhere to it and the same ones that joined us against Iran this time. That alone, the fact every neighboring state to Iran (and Kurdish non-state actors) have joined with us and Israel to put down the Baseeji and Mullahs, is an outstanding difference from all prior regional wars.
Anybody remember the "Signalgate" thing?
Several commenters suggested that it was an op designed to expose leakers. It apparently worked.
Spiros said...
"So if Trump says, "the Strait of Hormuz is too narrow!," these guys will just set about widening it?"
Holy crap Spiros, you may be on to something. A canal cutting across that Hormuz peninsula creating some defendable distance from Iran. Just crazy enough to work!
It's illuminating that Jaq obviously doesn't even know what “carpet bombing” is. (Hint: none is going on in Iran.)
If Trump puts "boots on the ground", I will be seriously disappointed. But at this point, I am 100% in favor of what he has done. The liberal set will never admit it, but Trump is a game changer in foreign policy
Trump explicitly declared, more than once, that the only road to safety (“immunity”) for Iran's armed and security forces was to surrender and defect. If they don't do that, they'll be dead, very dead. “It won't be pretty,” Trump said. Well, it's not pretty, but it is dramatic.
In the glare of that publicity, Trump is merely fulfilling his promise in this regard. If members of Iran's military were treated with kid gloves after that declaration, the incentive for them to defect would be reduced. Incentives matter.
Any of Iran's ships still afloat out there should defect if they don't want to end up on the bottom of the sea.
Ann, I propose a new posting rule for your blog: a maximum of two comments per thread for any poster. Otherwise, "Althouse" is becoming the "Jaq and Kak Therapy Session".
Pipelines running along the coast of the Saudi penninsula, over that bit of Oman, and to an oil terminal on Omans south coast are not too much of a problem I think. It cant be blocked at the narrows. It could be attacked but pipelines/terminals are easily repaired.
Long term insurance against one type of human failure.
It does not pre-empt screwy politics developing on the Arabian penninsula, in which someone else may be tempted to blow that up.
Better would be a more redundant pipeline system, several pipelines, to the Med and the Red Sea.
Theres always an engineering solution to geography problems.
planetgeo said...
"Ann, I propose a new posting rule for your blog: a maximum of two comments per thread for any poster. Otherwise, "Althouse" is becoming the "Jaq and Kak Therapy Session"."
I second that emotion geo. Although I'd raise the number to five or six, as sometimes there is room for a bit of back-and-forth.
Two in a row or two total? A 300-word limit would be more practical. Narciso could all day and not meet quota.
But seriously, no. Althouse has set the terms and as long as we abide by them there's no problems that aren't solved by quick scrolling or eye rolling.
You will never be an expert if you can't make stuff up.
Trump reduced the size of the NSC because the first term showed he couldn't trust the foreign policy/intelligence establishment. They were the ones that caused the 1st impeachment. That, and constantly leaking so their friends didn't think they agreed with that horrible dumb Trump. Who of course gave them a job.
Look at the Congressman who was the first NSC Advisor in 2025, before Trump knows it the dummy is leaking to Altantic Magazine and including Goldberg in NSC group chats!
Poor ol' Trump tried to stock his 1st Adminstration with "Tough Generals" "Experienced CEOs" and "Foreign policy experts" and they all turned out to be egomaniacs, leakers, turncoats, or just plain stupid. He's stocked his 2nd administration with loyalists. He learned.
The real question is how many keyboards Jaq goes through in a given year.
Watching the Israel monomaniacs post is like watching a monkey frantically humping a football: at first it's kind of funny and ridiculous, but as it goes on and on getting more and more frantic you start to feel sorry for the monkey, and then, when there are absolutely no signs of slowing down, much less stopping, you start to feel sorry for the football.
Sanger — and most of you upthread — seem to have forgotten that the NSC Trump inherited from Obama was the source of the first, bogus impeachment against Trump. No question that in his second term he would set out to clean out the trash.
Sanger and Wright are looking at a black box from outside and trying to infer how it works. Since their starting point is that it cannot possibly function, no matter what the evidence to the contrary might be, they are unlikely to succeed.
But without much of a process, there is little preparation for how things can go wrong"
I was hearing this morning news that oil shipment is held up at the Straight of Hormuz. I'm thinking... Nobody thought that might happen? Nobody thought to send a convoy of ships to make sure it remained clear?
Lem Vibe Bandit said...
I was hearing this morning news that oil shipment is held up at the Straight of Hormuz. I'm thinking... Nobody thought that might happen? Nobody thought to send a convoy of ships to make sure it remained clear?
Nobody in the administration cares if it stays clear, and really that stopped being much of an issue a couple of decades ago. Take a look at this graphic(Visual Capitalist, Oil Trade Through the Strait of Hormuz by Country). The vast majority of the oil going through the Strait goes to China (almost 40%) with some impact to India, South Korea, and Japan. However, take a look at the note at the bottom of the producer side. The Saudis (the top producers) and the UAE have pipelines that can bypass the Strait. It'll cost more to ship oil to the three major consumers we care about but they'll still be able to get oil.
Also, per Bloomberg via Instapundit, China just announced they are halting all oil and gas exports.
FDR during WW 2 and its runup, relied on set of advisors who were unique in their lack of any background or knowledge of the situation. They included Hopkins - a social welfare worker. His buddy Henry Mogenthau the secretary of the treasury. Felix frankfurter, SCOTUS judge. And Robert Sherwood and Sam Roseman, his speech writers. Of his 3 three most important cabinet members involved in the war effort, Hull, Stimson, and Knox, he completely ignored two of them, and listened to Stimson only on Army/AF matters.
A complete clown show!
I am interested in seeing how China moves forward. Their entire foreign policy regime has been upended over the last 3 months.
BREAKING: Bloomberg reporting that China has just halted all exports of diesel and gasoline. 🚨🚨🚨
A lot of the people in the large meetings were likely political experts, or policy advisors - more interested on how it looks rather than real results.
The only down side I can see is a future administration using the 'devastation of Iran' to filter aid money to their pet non-profits-that-they-have-no-connection-to.
jaydub said...
"I'm glad I picked today to start skimming Jaq's comments. I never thought I would get so much satisfaction out of watching him melt into a puddle of incoherence."
When you start quoting scripture to make your political point you've lost.
China is hoarding it's fuel resources.
All Democrats and leftmediaswine know what goes on in Trump’s mind. Remarkable, considering it took them four years to recognize QuidProJoe’s dementia.
And Trump? He has, we're told, "reduced the size of the N.S.C. staff by at least two thirds.... And when debates take place, the number of players often shrinks to a tiny group.... Not much leaks from those sessions, a major change from, say, the early Obama era, when Situation Room conversations sometimes appeared on news websites before the meetings were over."
So Trump's firing all teh Democrats who would leak and lie. Good.
So then we don't really have a way of knowing what goes on.
Sure we do: we look at the results and choices.
Well, the NYT writer, David Sanger, presents us with a quote from Thomas Wright, "a scholar at the Brookings Institution who worked on long-term strategic planning in the National Security Council during the Biden years," who purports to tell us what "Trump seems to think," which is that "he doesn’t need options or contingency plans. He just wants a small team to execute his instincts."
If there's anyone in the world less likely to know what Trump is actually thing wanting, thinking, or doing than Thomas Wright, I can't imagine who it is.
Someone who'd never heard of Trump or the US would still be better off than "a scholar at the Brookings Institution who worked on long-term strategic planning in the National Security Council during the Biden years."
It may be time to hide the bunnies.
Admit it, those 150 deaths make you feel good. Just like the 160 school girls.
You really need a nice, steaming cup of shut the fuck up.
Great idea, in the 80s I was the chief of the medical staff in a 300 bed hospital. When I took over I reduced every medical committee to 3 members and kicked out all of the hospital administration hangers on - told them that if I needed them in a meeting I'd call them but otherwise they were to be about their duties to make patient care better. FWIW, the hospital administrator hated me.
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