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TrevorLoudon: National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster: A legend or a lie?
Trevor Loudon's New Zeal blog ^ | August 29, 2017 – 4:08 pm EST | James Simpson

Posted on 08/29/2017 4:36:11 PM PDT by wtd

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To: blueunicorn6

You are so right. It’s total BS.


21 posted on 08/29/2017 7:02:44 PM PDT by Strac6 ("Mrs. Strac, Pilatus, and Sig Sauer: All the fun things in my life are Swiss!")
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To: AndyJackson

Exactly right. All “Obama holdovers” are not political appointees but career bureaucrats who were there under Bush, etc.

You cannot just fire them. Firing a government non-political appointee is very, very difficult, as Milton Friedman once showed in which a BAD secretary went through almost 100 steps before they could actually terminate her. There is no evidence that these people are either incompetent or in any way obstructing Trump.

Second, it amazes me that George Washington seemed to manage just fine with Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton-—exactly as far apart as Bannon & McMaster-—in his administration, and Lincoln worked with 5-6 cabinet appointees who strongly disliked him and all thought they were smarter than him. Yet both were terrifically successful. And Trump somehow isn’t capable of getting advice that isn’t 100% MAGA? He can’t deal with it? Give me a break.


22 posted on 08/29/2017 7:05:54 PM PDT by LS ("Castles Made of Sand, Fall in the Sea . . . Eventually" (Hendrix))
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To: Strac6

God bless you and thank you for your service brother.


23 posted on 08/29/2017 7:43:57 PM PDT by PJammers (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: Strac6

#12. I agree with your assessment. During some of our worst weeks in Vietnam, we lost about 267 men during a week, which included action in some or all 44 provinces.

The casualties were listed in a weekly DoD/DDI handout on Thursdays. I used these to coordinate American casualties with the Hanoi Lobby protests in 1969/70. Thus I was able to keep a running tabulation on KIA/WIA/MIAs per week and match it against monthly or yearly summaries.

No way we lost 240 at Tal Afar, esp. 30 Bradley Fighting Vehicles (possibly included destroyed and damaged, but this isn’t stated as such).

However, McMaster is not coming off as a very competent field commander and that spells trouble for us right now.
Not listening to combat veterans in the field, like Mark Clark refused to listen to soldiers and journalists who drove basically all the way to Rome and told him the roads were open. He didn’t believe them, held up the advance, and then had to fight the reinforced Germans at a great cost up the Leg of Italy to Rome.


24 posted on 08/29/2017 11:08:42 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: LS

Thanks for continuing to drill in this point here on FR.

I remember in the 1980s there being a similar preoccupation with the worry that Reagan had to be protected from his non-conservative cabinet. The mantra was “Let Reagan be Reagan”.

The concern was completely absurd then as it is now.

More to the point, it was a sad display of contempt from some who claimed to be Reagan’s supporters, but knew nothing about him. They thought he was weak.

Trump and Reagan both ascended to the presidency in political environments so hostile to their world views, that any doubts about their resolve are simply ridiculous.

Concern about “bad influences” from dissenting Trump cabinet members is the height of absurdity.


25 posted on 08/29/2017 11:54:34 PM PDT by enumerated
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To: PJammers

And you as well, Brother!


26 posted on 08/30/2017 1:10:46 AM PDT by Strac6 ("Mrs. Strac, Pilatus, and Sig Sauer: All the fun things in my life are Swiss!")
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To: wtd; Fedora

bump.


27 posted on 08/30/2017 2:50:46 AM PDT by piasa
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To: blueunicorn6

It’s not his duty to “go public.” There are appropriate channels for whistleblowing, and “going public” is not one of them, even if some creativity has to be called on to get the information into the appropriate investigator’s hands if normal channels fail.


28 posted on 08/30/2017 2:58:07 AM PDT by piasa
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To: blueunicorn6

It’s not his duty to “go public.” There are appropriate channels for whistleblowing, and “going public” is not one of them, even if some creativity has to be called on to get the information into the appropriate investigator’s hands if normal channels fail.

(As for it being BS, though, I’d have to agree. )


29 posted on 08/30/2017 3:03:49 AM PDT by piasa
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

One thing that does bother me, though, is the time the terrorists took out a number of Harriers parked on the ground in Afghanistan. It was noted- barely- in a few news outlets, but that’s it- it was, for all practical purposes, buried under an avalanche of other news items.

Hopefully it wasn’t as lost among those with a need to know as it was to the public , and something of value was learned from that humiliation.


30 posted on 08/30/2017 3:16:07 AM PDT by piasa
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

One thing that does bother me, though, is the time the terrorists took out a number of Harriers parked on the ground in Afghanistan. It was noted- barely- in a few news outlets, but that’s it- it was, for all practical purposes, buried under an avalanche of other news items.

Hopefully it wasn’t as lost among those with a need to know as it was to the public , and something of value was learned from that humiliation.


31 posted on 08/30/2017 3:16:08 AM PDT by piasa
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

One more thing.

The author tried to make readers be impressed with the credentials of the non-existent source for this “story” by claiming he was an SF officer.

Snake Eaters would not have been sources for such info. It would have been a Track Head.

Be well.


32 posted on 08/30/2017 5:14:21 AM PDT by Strac6 ("Mrs. Strac, Pilatus, and Sig Sauer: All the fun things in my life are Swiss!")
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To: piasa

Droit et Avant


33 posted on 08/30/2017 7:27:35 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: blueunicorn6

Yeah huge red flags about the credibility of the whole article. Same with the reported losses of main battle tanks.

This is one of two things. 1. Trash. 2. Evidence of a historical cover up on a truely monumental scale.


34 posted on 08/30/2017 7:28:05 AM PDT by DariusBane (Liberty and Risk. Flip sides of the same coin. So how much risk will YOU accept? Vive Deo et Vives)
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To: wtd

Trump, having no personal experience in the political swamp of Washington D.C., is, to me, showing himself very naive in too many of his administration choices. He seems to have depended to a fault on taking the word of some one person, and not employed someone independent of the swamp in D.C. to do a real history-vetting process on those he picks. He knows many of them not and takes too many of them at face value. Bad news.


35 posted on 08/30/2017 7:47:37 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: wtd

When anti-American, anti-military, George Soros-funded, extreme leftist smear operations like Media Matters go to war to defend a Trump political appointee, it casts a shadow on everything about the man.


36 posted on 08/30/2017 9:34:55 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
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To: wtd

When the anti-American, terrorism-supporting, Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated CAIR defends an American general, the alarm bells drown out all other sound. And officers who have witnessed his “leadership” in the unforgiving crucible of combat are now sounding the alarm.


37 posted on 08/30/2017 9:36:10 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
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To: wtd

Now leftists are coming out of the woodwork to defend McMaster against his conservative critics. Newsweek accuses the “alt-right” of attempting to smear McMaster, while genuine slime merchants like Media Matters for America are smearing his critics.

He is even being defended by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the propaganda arm of the Palestinian terrorist group HAMAS.


38 posted on 08/30/2017 9:37:11 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
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To: wtd

McMaster’s Senate champion was and still is Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). McCain advocated replacing Flynn with McMaster. McCain described McMaster as “a man of genuine intellect, character and ability.”


39 posted on 08/30/2017 9:40:49 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
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