Robert C. O’Brien, who served as Donald Trump’s national security adviser in 2019 and 2020, explains why things were so great under Trump:
When Iran got out of line, we eliminated an Iranian general of some note. We heard, “ISIS is an idea. It can’t be defeated,” but we sure as hell defeated them.
So we weren’t averse to using force, but we wanted to stop using force for nation building and for things that weren’t in American interest. We drew a red line in Ukraine, and Putin didn’t dare cross it. We gave the Ukrainians Javelin missiles, which are the only reason today that Ukraine is free.
We were tough on the Chinese. We let them know that it would be entirely unacceptable to invade Taiwan.
This is some serious revisionist history. The war against ISIS was more than halfway done by the time Trump took office and there was nobody saying victory was impossible. Trump beat ISIS merely by allowing the military to continue Obama's plan.
There was no red line in Ukraine. That's just fantasy. And yes, Trump gave Ukraine Javelin missiles, but only under heavy pressure. He didn't want to do it.
As for Taiwan, sure, a Chinese invasion was unacceptable under Trump—just as it was under every other US president going back to Jimmy Carter. Trump was happy to use Taiwan as leverage in his trade war with China, but more concretely his sales of arms to Taiwan were considerably lower than usual.
Later on, Colby concedes that the Afghanistan withdrawal was entirely planned by Trump, but insists Trump would have executed it far better:
He said the military will stay and be strong. We’re going to bring all the American equipment home. We’ll bring home those who helped us on the ground. And we’re not leaving unless the Taliban comes to a good-faith agreement with the Afghan government on a government of national unity that will keep up the fight against ISIS-K.
This is delusional. When Biden pushed out the withdrawal, Trump explicitly condemned it and said we should just get the hell out. It would have been an unqualified disaster.
These people, even the sober, sane sounding ones, are completely trapped in a bubble of Trump worship. I'm sure O'Brien believes every word he says here, but that hardly makes it any better than Trump's lies. Maybe worse.
Gaslighting is a pillar of the new Republican Party
Trump gave Ukraine Javelin missiles, but (wisely) required them to be stored in Western Ukraine.
Obama didn’t give Ukraine Javelin missiles because he was pretty certain that Russia would be able to capture them quite easily if they were deployed near the Eastern front.
Obama was right. It was only after the Russian invasion collapsed that it was safe to deploy the Javelins.
Ahh, yes, blame Obama. Gotcha.
Dude, it's an anti-tank missile. It would've repelled the attack.
I didn’t “blame” Obama. I specifically said “Obama was right.”
Why is it that you would believe O'Brien believes what he's saying? With a Trumpist, I am prepared to assume bad faith.
No, this isn't a good place for me to be, but A) Trump demands loyalty, and those who can't comply have parted ways with him, and B) Trump lies about everything, all the time. He even lies to contradict his other lies. Maybe because it's more fun that way.
So if someone is still in Trump's orbit, I have to assume that means they are willing to lie their ass off to get Trump re-elected.
+1
yup. maybe he's delusional, but my default assumption with any trumper is if their lips are moving, they're lying.
+1
Yes.
Came here to say the same thing. Kevin is constantly attributing good will to these folks where none exists. They're lying sacks of shit, the whole lot of 'em.
“And I’ve had Germans, at international conferences, come and tell me: Thank you for putting the pressure on us. Sometimes in a family, you have to have some tough love.”
I suppose we should be grateful that he left out “tears in their eyes” and “Sir” in that supposed encounter.
His lies are so pathetically obvious.
And yet there is a cable network, several hundred local TV news stations, and who knows how many right-wing radio talk shows that repeat them uncritically.
Trump lies constantly because it works for him.
It works because no matter how many times anyone calls out his lies his supporters won't believe it. He conditioned them to distrust anyone but him. He has also conditioned the MSM to not call him out on his lies otherwise they'd be labeled fake news or worse.
"I suppose we should be grateful that he left out “tears in their eyes” and “Sir” in that supposed encounter."
Big germans--strong germans!
Mike Pence wants to squeeze those Teutonic shoulders.
talk about revisionist history, let's not forget that trump was impeached over his handling of ukraine, his attempt to extort zelenskyy over those javelin missiles that he was eventually forced to send.
All the stories that come out of North Korea used to be so unbelievable to me. Kim Jong Un personally directs each factory on what to produce, how much of it and how much to price it, and as a result, North Korea is far more prosperous than South Korea and is poised to conquer the world any day now. Kim does all this and he doesn’t even poop or have a butthole! All of it just sounded completely crazy and I figured average Koreans knew it was all bullshit and simply were acting loyal because to do otherwise was death.
Then Trump came down the golden escalator. And his cult has proved impervious to all facts, logic, morality or even self-interest.
I no longer wonder how it is that North Korea is so delusional. We’re about halfway there ourselves. I hate Trumpers so much for destroying things like rational thought, human decency and shared reality… as well as unleashing a good 70-80m Americans to be their worst selves.
+1
+1
Lordy, I hope we never again have to deal with all those stupid, stupid Trump cabinet meetings that would start off with officials bowing and scraping about what an honor it is to be in Trump's presence.
Similar to your revelation about NK, the Trump presidency convinced me that the fascist leaders of the 20th century were not (or certainly didn't need to be) evil geniuses. Evil dumb people (like Trump) may be even more likely to stupid their way into wrecking a country from within than awful people who are competent.
The only one I saw was when Devos was still there. It was very disturbing watching them shower him with over the top praise. Just thinking about it makes me feel disgusted.
There was a particularly cringe worthy one were Reibus, Pence, and a couple others stopped short of proclaiming Trump the 2nd coming of Jesus and how they were not worthy of being in the presence of such a magnificent human being.
It took until then? You should have studied history.
Don't be shitty. Not many of us in this country are old enough to have experienced these things firsthand until Trump, and there are plenty of recent counterexamples (say, Mitch McConnel, or Justice Roberts) of very clever people undermining democracy. And the idea that institutions may be less able to withstand assault by a moron than by smarties is counterintuitive, even if Trump is Exhibit 1 in that category.
++1
So, you're saying Trump doesn't poop or have a butt hole. 😄 Good to know. He really is full of sh*t.
"i am the great cornholio. are you threatening me?"
Trying to bend reality to Trumps delusions and twisting logic into misshapened pretzels to make sense of his word salads is a full time job.
Lets add some actual reality to the Trump sycophant's bullshit:
Trump did nothing after Iran bombarded a US base in Iraq with ballistic missiles. He also left our servicemen (those "Suckers" and "Losers") in harms way, with no anti ballistic missile defense and most of the shelters unable to withstand a direct hit. Just some concussive brain injuries for those "Losers" who got wounded, only small "headaches" according to Trump.
He gave Ukraine Javelin missiles after trying to extort Zelenskyy into opening a bullshit investigation into Biden. Called Putin a genius for invading and told him he could do whatever he wanted with any NATO country that doesn't pay enough for defense. He is now having his "experts" work up some appeasement papers for Ukraine, likely asking for a few golf courses and hotels in Russia as compensation.
Probably will work up a trade deal with China and throw Taiwan under the bus. More golf courses for him and a deal to help Ivanka's businesses.
+1. If elected he will be 100 times worse than the first time, which was bad enough.
"This is some serious revisionist history."
No it is not. It is just lying.
I do not see how these are not synonymous.
I dunno, there's definitely overlap, but I'd say that "revisionist history" implies more a selective interpretation and/or weighting of information about the past in service of a particular narrative (or, if you are being charitable, philosophy or theory). Lying is lying.
Calling something lying is blunter and more direct, and less forgiving to the person doing the lying.
"Revisionist history" means finding new sources or re-evaluating old ones. This can lead to new understanding of history. I can be done well, or poorly, just like any attempt to interpret the past, but it is utterly essential that historians be open to revising the conventional understanding.
That's not revisionist history. That's just history.
"And yes, Trump gave Ukraine Javelin missiles, but only under heavy pressure. He didn't want to do it." They were required to be kept in warehouses in Kiev. (US law required the president to certify they wouldn't fall into Russian hands before they could be take out of the warehouses. Obviously, there was no way for the Ukrainians to guarantee there wouldn't; be battlefield setbacks. Also, the passcodes to enable the software were not provided to the Ukrainians so they couldn't actually be fired even if they were taken to the front. "There was no red line in Ukraine." Specifically, Trump promised to give Russia Ukraine if he was re-elected. "He said the military will stay and be strong. " The agreement explicitly required the withdrawal of all US forces besides embassy guards. " We’re going to bring all the American equipment home. " All US owned equipment was brought home
I must have missed all this standing up to China. When did he fit it in between refusing to condemn the Uyghur genocide, letting them steamroll Taiwain, tearing up the TPP that would have opened Chinese markets, having Xi as his guest at MAL, letting them bring unsecure technology to this country in exchange for patents for his family and praising Xi for his COVID response?
Stop wasting breath on idiots. They cannot stand truth. Please, please let Kamala win the presidency. We need sanity again.
+1
The other quote that stood out to me was this:
“And in the end, you’re probably going to have an armistice somewhere along the line of contact, the military front line, because that’s how wars like this end.”
This is Colby speaking about the Ukraine war and apparently forgetting that the Ukrainian army is in Kursk.
lulz
Only until the 10,000 "crack" North Korean troops arrive on thr battlefield.
I really wonder about this. I'm not sure why North Korean troops would be any good at actual fighting--there's not much about the NK system that would seem to optimize competency in any institutions, and it's not as if NK soldiers actually do any real combat. I normally think of Russia as a big North Korea, with all the corruption, inefficiencies, and incompetences that that entails, so I sorta expect that the NK troops are going to get slaughtered. Maybe that's the point? NK wants to gain some actual fighting experience, and doesn't care how many of their formation-marchers get killed in the process?
If Trump wins… you’ll come to appreciate his skills and abilities as a leader. You’ll have to. Otherwise you’ll be arrested.
Or deported, if you don’t look enough like a Norwegian.
Speaking of Norway, our PBS station just re-broadcasted the Atlantic Crossing:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/atlantic-crossing/#
Melania is Slovenian, not Norwegian. He kicked a Norwegian to the curb for her.
+1
I think the draft-dodger rag could be adapted to Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFFOUkipI4U
Editorials editor of the LA Times resigns because owner bars Harris endorsement: https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/los-angeles-times-editorials-editor-resigns-after-owner-blocks-presidential-endorsement.php
Fucking, excusez-vous mon français, toddlers. We had and possibly will have toddlers in charge.
I don't know why Kevin is sure O'Brien believes his bullshit. It's more likely he wants a position in another Trump administration and knows this is how to get it.
It's astonishing that anyone can take these lies seriously in the face of evidence like this:
" but senior officials never followed through on the plan". This is a complete misuse of the word plan. The Pentagon didn't ignore the plan, they ignored the order because there was no plan.
I remember when I was young and The Brady Bunch was new I said to someone that Cindy Brady seemed like a mental case, or words to that effect, and this caused all kinds of upset --how could I say such a thing about Cindy Brady, what was wrong with me?
Well, take that posterity,
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/brady-bunch-revival-killed-cbs-susan-olsen-trump-support-1236189909/
I see Mel Gibson has also endorsed Trump. Unsurprising of course but funny that he waited until that “Hitler” stuff came out.
Why does 'fired for conservative views' always end up 'fired for saying and being bigoted?'
Like, how are people suppose to interact with someone who turns around and uses slurs and constantly undermines non-bigots?
The similarities between pre-WWII and now are eerie. The party aligned as America First claims peace can be had if we act tough and stay out; some are even aligned with the folks who are our geopolitical adversaries. The party that is pushing to stop the world from descending into a world war is ostensibly losing to a fake populist. All we need now is a black swan event that sends the global economy into a tailspin.
Fox has to take a lot of the blame. Roger Ailes saw that there was a large segment of the population that was largely misinformed and thus unhappy with the news that they were getting from the big 3 and CNN which contradicted their ideological preferences. Ailes and Murdock decided to create a news network that catered to people that wanted to be misinformed. Teaming up with Trump, a career con artist, was a marriage made in hell.
Teddy: "speak softly and carry a big stick"
Trump: "I'm told Arnold was all man and his stick, wow, it was YUGE!"
Anyway, Trump's "I'm fucking crazy" strategy is so thin, half the world rolls their eyes and laughs at him (knowing that "crazy" is actually "stupid") but give credit to him for fooling the other half of humanity -- the gullible idiots -- for falling for his shtick.