SEAL Commander Who Killed Bin Laden Just Saying The Republic Is Under Attack, From Donald Trump
Admiral William McRaven, who commanded the SEAL team that killed Osama bin Laden, has not been shy about criticizing Donald Trump when he sees fit. This sets him apart from, say, former Defense secretary Jim Mattis, who did the Al Smith dinner last night and LARFED LIKE A CLOWN at Trump calling him overrated, saying he guesses he is the "Meryl Streep of generals," hahahahahaha funny joke, Jim Mattis, MAYBE YOU SHOULD FUCKING SPEAK OUT RIGHT ABOUT NOW.
Last time we visited Bill McRaven, he was all up in the newspaper when Trump was threatening to take security clearances from former CIA director John Brennan and others, saying if you're going to rip the security clearance from those patriots, please take his too, sir, as it would be a motherfucking honor coming from a shithole president such as Trump. (Not his exact words.)
Unsurprisingly, McRaven is back this week with a blistering op-ed (yes, it's blistering!) in the New York Times, which explicitly says America is under attack from within, by our criminal president Donald Trump. He's just saying. The decorated admiral who led the SEAL team that killed Bin Laden. Says America is under attack. And that the invading power is Donald Trump.
McRaven sets the scene by recalling a couple of very military, very #patriot events he recently attended, one recognizing the passing of authority from one general to another, the other recognizing intel and special ops people. You can read his descriptions of all those who were honored, all of whom sound wonderful, but here's how he caps off his description:
For everyone who ever served in uniform, or in the intelligence community, for those diplomats who voice the nation's principles, for the first responders, for the tellers of truth and the millions of American citizens who were raised believing in American values — you would have seen your reflection in the faces of those we honored last week.
McRaven is clearly setting up a contrast between people who actually serve America and love America and the lazy authoritarian shitwaffle currently squatting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
He says the events, while wonderful, also featured "an underlying current of frustration, humiliation, anger and fear that echoed across the sidelines," and that "The America that they believed in was under attack, not from without, but from within."
These men and women, of all political persuasions, have seen the assaults on our institutions: on the intelligence and law enforcement community, the State Department and the press. They have seen our leaders stand beside despots and strongmen, preferring their government narrative to our own. They have seen us abandon our allies and have heard the shouts of betrayal from the battlefield. As I stood on the parade field at Fort Bragg, one retired four-star general grabbed my arm, shook me and shouted, "I don't like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!"
Emphasis ours. You know, when a retired four-star general -- who we are guessing has voted for Republicans all his damn life, from back in the day when they were perceived as the party of FREEDOM! and NATIONAL SECURITY! -- is saying Trump is "destroying the Republic," we should probably listen.
Clearly McRaven wrote this at least partially because of how Trump recently obeyed orders from Turkey to move America out of the way so Turkey could massacre and ethnic-cleanse our allies the Kurds, and then yesterday "negotiated" a fake-ass "ceasefire" wherein Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo gave Turkey everything its heart desires, in exchange for nothing, which is the usual Art Of The Deal in these Trump years.
If our promises are meaningless, how will our allies ever trust us? If we can't have faith in our nation's principles, why would the men and women of this nation join the military? And if they don't join, who will protect us? If we are not the champions of the good and the right, then who will follow us? And if no one follows us — where will the world end up?
President Trump seems to believe that these qualities are unimportant or show weakness. He is wrong.
McRaven doesn't mention Trump very much until the end, because he doesn't need to. All the good and honorable people he writes about, the values of their service and our own American values, they are living rejoinders to every breath Donald Trump takes.
McRaven's conclusion:
And if this president doesn't understand [the importance of our values], if this president doesn't demonstrate the leadership that America needs, both domestically and abroad, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office — Republican, Democrat or independent — the sooner, the better. The fate of our Republic depends upon it.
SPOILER, he doesn't understand our values, he is an enemy to our values, he couldn't lead his way into a paper bag full of Big Macs, and he never will. We all know that. McRaven knows that. And he's saying -- without much subtlety -- that it's time to remove the fucker already.
While you're here, if you haven't, you should read the op-ed in Foreign Affairs this week from William Burns, who is proooobably the most respected American diplomat alive, about Mike Pompeo's campaign at the State Department to lick Trump's balls and fire all the respected career people standing in the way of Trump extorting Ukraine to give him a reacharound in the 2020 election. He says, "Not since Joe McCarthy has the State Department suffered such a devastating blow." It's a good history lesson, comparing McCarthy's State Department purge and loyalty oaths to Pompeo's State Department purge and loyalty oaths.
Hey, remember who Joe McCarthy's lead lawyer was? That's right, ding ding ding, it was Donald Trump's mentor and former BFF Roy Cohn! Indeed, of the actions of Pompeo and Rudy Giuliani and of the treason phone call where Trump shat upon Marie Yovanovitch, the esteemed now-former ambassador to Ukraine, Burns concludes, "The ghost of Roy Cohn was smiling somewhere." And you know where that "somewhere" is? Hell, because that's where Roy Cohn lives now.
Anyway, that is just some more more light reading for your TGIF, because you deserve to relax.
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Evan Hurst is the managing editor of Wonkette, which means he is the boss of you, unless you are Rebecca, who is boss of him. His dog Lula is judging you right now.
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