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9/11: What Would Trump Do?
POLITICO Magazine ^ | March 31, 2016

Posted on 04/01/2016 6:44:08 AM PDT by McGruff

It’s the totally unthinkable question that Americans find themselves confronting this week: What would President Donald Trump do in a genuine national crisis?

After a series of overseas terror attacks and some startling statements about nuclear weapons and torture, the world’s attention has turned to Trump’s foreign policy—an area where he has few advisers, no experience and a tendency to fire off answers and deal with the fallout later. The reality of a Trump candidacy has begun to set in: If Trump is elected and a major national crisis hits, he’ll be the one with his hands on the button. He’ll be at the head of the table in the Situation Room. His decisions would steer America’s immediate response and could set the course of American policy for years.

What’s hard to project with a normal politician is nearly impossible to guess with Trump. He has no foreign policy or public service experience, which means there’s no official record to consult, and his public statements, while extreme, have been vague. The saber-rattling statements that excite his supporters also suggest he has disregard for linchpins of the global order like NATO, the Geneva Conventions and the hard-won global nuclear-weapons limits

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: New York; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 1stcanadiansenator; 2016election; election2016; globalistcruz; newyork; noteligiblecruz; openboarderscruz; trump
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To: Mr Apple

I would favor taking out the Iranian nuclear program with low yield nukes. An eye for an eye, and a nuke for a nuke.


61 posted on 04/01/2016 7:36:24 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Prayer for Victory is the ONLY way to support the troops!)
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To: wardaddy
FDR ....guilty rich that he was...did not see the Reds as the enemy LBJ did

No doubt about that.

But as a war president (1941-1944), FDR was, IMO, superb. In less than four years he beat both Hitler and Tojo. Of course, the Red Army played a big part as well.

Where FDR faltered was in 1945. As you said, he didn't properly see the threat of Stalin. But I wonder, what could he have done anyway?

Patton could have been allowed to take Berlin, and that would have pushed the Iron Curtain eastward a bit. But no way could Patton have taken, say, Warsaw, unless the Western Allies started the strategic bombing of the USSR. The American public would not have gone for that.

Now consider LBJ. His anti-red stance aside, he was a total, miserable failure as a war president.

(Sorry if this appears like a rant. I so dislike LBJ that everyone else looks good in comparison.)

62 posted on 04/01/2016 7:36:56 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: Roccus

Yes. He learned from Beirut and didn’t repeat it.

Part of that problem was a military that at that time had lost its lessons learned on force security from the Vietnam war.


63 posted on 04/01/2016 7:38:02 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Prayer for Victory is the ONLY way to support the troops!)
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To: xzins

IMO, military STILL hasn’t learned. Tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan were reminiscent of “strategic hamlets” campaigns.


64 posted on 04/01/2016 7:42:10 AM PDT by Roccus (If your vote really counted, our leaders would never allow it to be cast.)
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To: Roccus

Petraeus ran the ‘cordone, clear, control” campaign in the surge correctly. However, I don’t want to be staying and controlling terrain for any length of time in any occupied country.

We should meet objectives and depart.

The ONLY exception to that would be a conflict in which Congress had the actual guts to declare war, and the nation had the guts to have everyone involved to defeat the enemy until they were destroyed and unconditionally surrendered.


65 posted on 04/01/2016 7:47:33 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Prayer for Victory is the ONLY way to support the troops!)
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To: xzins

See my #19


66 posted on 04/01/2016 7:49:40 AM PDT by Roccus (If your vote really counted, our leaders would never allow it to be cast.)
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To: Roccus

Do you think those leaders heard Trump say that nothing was off the table?


67 posted on 04/01/2016 7:50:36 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Prayer for Victory is the ONLY way to support the troops!)
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To: Mr Apple
Perhaps you have forgotten 9/11 already? The attack on the World Trade Center in 93? The various attacks made in much smaller fashion, like the Boston Marathon, San Bernardino, Fort Hood, recruiting stations and others?

Same exact principle here. No country and no terror group will attack our country or our citizens again ---for fear of what the new President might do! Period! Case Closed! No Rebutal!

So would terrorists really pay much attention to what a President says? Would that really be an effective ad in this country?

It is just another scare tactic being employed and should just be dismissed as the nonsense that it is.

68 posted on 04/01/2016 7:52:05 AM PDT by Robert DeLong (u)
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To: McGruff

What would Obama do?


69 posted on 04/01/2016 7:53:44 AM PDT by thorvaldr
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To: xzins
We should meet objectives and depart.
The ONLY exception to that would be a conflict in which Congress had the actual guts to declare war

Very true. And to which I'd add: The president must also have the guts to first ask for a declaration of war. Ever since 1945 presidents have been asking for resolutions and authorizations instead. That has led too an almost casual approach to the use of force. That's never good.

70 posted on 04/01/2016 7:54:42 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: xzins

Yes, but I doubt they believe it considering past U.S. performance....proportionality, ya know.

The U.S. has not been sufficiently brutal in war since August 1945.


71 posted on 04/01/2016 7:55:21 AM PDT by Roccus (If your vote really counted, our leaders would never allow it to be cast.)
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To: Leaning Right

We’re together on this.


72 posted on 04/01/2016 7:55:29 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Prayer for Victory is the ONLY way to support the troops!)
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To: Roccus

What message do you think Reagan sent to Tehran that had them release those captives immediately upon Reagan’s taking office?

I’ve always thought it had to be so overwhelming that feared him and believed him.

My guess would be a declaration of war or a threatened nuke attack.


73 posted on 04/01/2016 7:57:53 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Prayer for Victory is the ONLY way to support the troops!)
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To: Mr Apple
Your proposal would work with nation states but not the kind of terrorism depicted in this book:

 photo image.jpg1_zpsvtce9e25.jpg

.

Read it. You can buy several on Amazon and send to others to read and forward.

74 posted on 04/01/2016 7:59:32 AM PDT by Cobra64 (Common sense isn't common any more.)
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To: xzins

I wish I could remember who said it, but some wise person once said that democracies should go to war reluctantly, but fiercely.

The U.S. hasn’t been following that piece of advice for quite some time.


75 posted on 04/01/2016 8:02:16 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: xzins

Personally, I believe holding the hostages had become an untennable situation for the imams. The vitriolic rhetoric against Carter had run its course and saying that the release was due to Carter leaving office gave them a face saving solution. I do not believe they specifically feared Reagan.

jmho


76 posted on 04/01/2016 8:04:16 AM PDT by Roccus (If your vote really counted, our leaders would never allow it to be cast.)
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To: Leaning Right

We did the shock and awe part of IRaq correctly and the hunt down of the leaders.

We should have left at that point with mission accomplished.

Let the next sorry SOB in charge decide whether he wants to play games with the US.

That would have sent such a powerful message that it could easily have calmed the mid-east for years.


77 posted on 04/01/2016 8:04:29 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Prayer for Victory is the ONLY way to support the troops!)
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To: McGruff

He’d try to make a deal with the jihadists to NOT hit any of HIS buildings.

Hmmm. Maybe that deal has already been made?


78 posted on 04/01/2016 8:05:22 AM PDT by wildbill (If you check behind the shower curtain for a slasher, and find one.... what's your plan?)
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To: McGruff

How about nuking that rock in Mecca? Thereby proving Islam to be a false religion.


79 posted on 04/01/2016 8:10:05 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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To: McGruff

Please correct me if I’m wrong. I just can’t find proof of it, but I swear I remember that it was Donald Trump on Bill O’Reilly. Yes, I have to admit I was watching BOR at some time in my life. I’ve learned my lesson. This was some time ago. Long before he announced that he would run for President.

Donald was rambling on about George Bush being incompetent and that he was at fault for Afghanistan and Iraq II. BOR asked Donald what he would have done if he was in the Oval Office. If he was looking at the same reports from the CIA, MI5, MOSSAD, Russia, France, etc. and they indicated that Saddam had WMDs, what would he do?
His response was, “I’d get more information”.

I may be completely wrong, so please correct me. Or if someone can find the video, I would appreciate it.


80 posted on 04/01/2016 8:10:27 AM PDT by mirvin
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