'POTUS went rogue': Trump's Syria move blindsides national security leaders

[highplainsdem]

Source: Politico

The White House announcement upended military and State Department plans to deter a Turkish offensive with a system of safe zones and joint patrols that were getting underway. And it bucked views by top officials that the Turks’ threat of an incursion against the Kurds was a bluff, according to current and former defense officials and people familiar with the U.S. government’s efforts to forestall a new Turkish military operation.

"Everyone was absolutely flabbergasted by this. I tell you that as a fact," retired Adm. James Stavridis said Monday on MSNBC, describing what he saw as the view from the Pentagon. "Nobody saw it coming, and that is a real problem when you're trying to conduct not only foreign policy ... but also military operations. That kind of whipsawing effect is extremely detrimental, not only in this tactical situation, but strategically as our planners try and prepare in other theaters, from North Korea to Afghanistan."

A person familiar with the U.S. government’s policy deliberations on the issue said Trump is operating against the advice of his national security leaders — noting that Sunday night's announcement came just three days after Defense Secretary Mark Esper spoke by phone with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

“POTUS went rogue," the person said. "It’s not too surprising for those of us who’ve been following him, but it was a surprise and went against what Esper was talking to Akar about.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/07/trump-syria-turkey-national-security-leaders-037958

---

Long article, well worth reading in its entirety.

Trump completely destroyed all the work being done by the Defense and State departments to handle this better.

[Newest Reality]

1. Which makes me wonder...

What would it take for military leaders to break ranks and perform a military coup d'état here?

That's an odd one, because I have no idea what would happen after that, (because it is a vulnerable place to be in a country like this) but what if it came down to no other option? Imagine more scenarios like the current one where Trump ends up burning the World down? Would that be any kind of incentive? If he pulled out the nuclear codes and demanded the football, would that do it?

I am just speculating.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Here is a good article about the NSC to add

and the issues it faces - https://www.npr.org/2019/09/18/761200819/once-a-rocket-ship-national-security-council-now-avoided-by-government-pros

[PatrickforO]

3. The poop is really hitting the fan on this today!

Moscow Mitch has even come out against this decision. And that's saying something.

And Lindsey Graham has come out against it. That's saying even more.

When the Articles of Impeachment pass the House and get plopped onto the Senate floor, Trump might find himself out in the parking lot with a pink slip (AND a whole bunch of subpoenas!).

[erronis]

7. I can't believe anything they, or any (R)epuglicons say anymore. Like dump, the more they say

the less they mean. Public pronouncements are meant for the body pubic.

[PSPS]

4. "against the advice of his national security leaders" - what national secutiy leaders? Hannity?

From Saturday:

Trump Wants to Shrink the National Security Council
He “ordered a substantial reduction in the staff.”

In the wake of the whistleblower complaint at the heart of the biggest threat to his presidency to date, President Donald Trump has “ordered a substantial reduction in the staff” at the National Security Council, Bloomberg reported late Friday night. Some officials told Bloomberg that the reductions were part of an effort to increase efficiency following the departure of former National Security Adviser John Bolton. This point was underscored in late September, days after Trump named Robert O’Brien—a lawyer, United Nations delegate under George W. Bush, and, most recently, a State Department hostage negotiator—to be his new national security adviser. But the scandal underlying the whistleblower complaint certainly isn’t bolstering attempts to protect the job security of those working there.

The NSC is a national security planing and coordinating group within the White House that has been staffed, in part, by officials detailed from other agencies such as the FBI or CIA. Once a prestigious career booster, under Trump “some of the brightest minds are turning down” NSC assignments, while “others are avoiding the place altogether,” according to NPR, which detailed some of the morale issues in mid-September in the wake of Trump’s ousting of Bolton after disagreements over how to handle North Korea and Iran.

From: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/10/trump-wants-to-shrink-the-national-security-council/

[PSPS]

5. Two days ago, he ordered the evisceration of the National Security Council

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/10/trump-wants-to-shrink-the-national-security-council/

[ancianita]

6. Shit dictators say and do. Defense and State gotta see that by now.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

11. But I guarantee you,

They NEVER expected to see it come out of the Oval Office.

trumpie is becoming dangerous. It is unprecedented for the Executive to shoot from the hip in this manner.

This is not going to end well.

[ancianita]

13. And yet,

nothing is done to the dictator.

Sure, something will happen, yet there is every day that he plays powerful and above the law that dictatorship is normalized, drip by drip.

We're just not his audience. Though other dictators and authoritarian followers are, to see him abandon his troops in the field must leave them in contempt of a country whose people have to stand by, talking their faces off, waiting for The Law to get him.

The Law won't enforce itself. Someone in this government will have to move faster than glacially on this dictator.

Every single day, the image hardens into a generation's idea of power and strength.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

14. I agree.

What trumpie has done here though is unconscionable.

ISIS has been defeated, but not killed. The Hydra has many heads. It was only the Kurds who stood up to ISIS and brought their reign to an end. Now they have been brutally betrayed by trumpie. He knows that Erdogan WILL attack them, and now they are abandoned to whatever horrors and brutality the Turks cook up.

Remember that Erdogan has his own crew of thugs attack and beat AMERICANS who opposed his rule, across from the Embassy in DC and trumpie did NOTHING about it. NOTHING.

I hope that when the dems take back the WH, that LAWS with TEETH are put into place that prohibit anything like a trump to ever come to power again.

I NEVER EVER AGAIN WANT TO SEE A US PRESIDENT WIPE HIS ASS WITH THE CONSTITUTION. People have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend that document and what it represents. This incompetent shitfuck and his paralyzing stupidity have damaged us to the point where it will take years to remove the stench.

[ancianita]

17. That thing about

"LAWS with TEETH" is our current problem. I seldom read an actual U.S.C. code that stipulates what the enforcement range can be. Or when there is are stipulated "teeth," that government uses them.

Taxpayers want enforcement of LAW their leaders take an oath to -- the "protect and defend" part.

It's not too much to expect.

[ffr]

8. WAG the DOG

It's a diversion, albeit an outrageous one that should put more Axis of Evil republicans on notice, but a diversion nonetheless.

[yardwork]

9. I don't think it is a diversion. This is Putin telling Trump what to do.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

15. You think this is a diversion ?

Ask the Kurds if they think this is a diversion.

[ffr]

16. The timing of some extraordinarily weird foreign policy move while under Impeachment

yeah, probably some heavy handed disgraceful move that will make us less safe. The diversion comes in the form of dividing our resources and attention to many battles, all of his evil doing.

[Beartracks]

10. More Trumpian quid pro quo going on with Turkey? It's sad that one has to wonder... n/t

[rockfordfile]

12. A distraction