I feel the urge to live tweet my reading of "Two Years In, Trump Struggles to Master Role of Military Commander" https://t.co/S7LrCfG1cT So tempted to snark, "Two Years In, Trump Struggles to Be Human Being"— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
Being the most incurious and lazy President ever, it does not surprise me that he does not want to travel to see troops or listen to briefings.— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
"Mr. Trump has not fully grasped the role of the troops he commands, nor the responsibility that he has to lead them and protect them from politics." Not just the military, of course. Just this is high stakes stuff.— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
Belief he would learn/understand better? Wildly optimistic
'“It’s always better to come down and see it for real,” Mr. Mattis said in talking with troops." The irony is rich here--that the mission was and is a stunt despite Mattis's denials— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
The comparisons with Bush, Clinton and Obama are false equivalence-ish. There are always civ-mil tensions, but Trump's behavior is very different. He doesn't even do the easy stuff.— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
"One reason he has not visited troops in war zones, according to his aides, is that he does not really want American troops there in the first place. To visit, they said, would validate missions he does not truly believe in." I would believe this if he weren't so lazy.— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
Obama went to Iraq despite being opposed to that war.— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
And to be clear, I don't really care if Trump goes to visit the troops in war zones. The bigger issue is that he denies responsibility, shifts blame. Who is the civilian in US civilian control of the military?
and if you say Mattis, I say "please." Because Mattis had not been out of the military long enough to develop a civvie mindset. He still thinks like a Marine and it shows in how he treats the media and elsewhere.— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
Trump was far more focused on the border stunt than other military ops--not so surprising. Is he still paying attention now that the election is over?— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
Re Trump suddenly announcing pullout of US troops in Syria, we get classic Pentagon shirking (in principal-agent terms): The response at the Pentagon was a deliberate silence, anticipating Mr. Trump would not follow up and would instead move on to other topics, which he did."— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
Pete chimed in that the real problem is not so much preparendness as continuity. Really sharp clarification.the cancellation of drills with South Korea--what did Trump get for that besides less preparedness?— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
the description of Trump loving the spectacle stuff belongs in @dandrezner 's thread of toddler behavior.— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
I would have liked to seen a bit of explicit text here about how Trump's race baiting/inciting has led to problems within the US armed forces. No reference to Charlottesville and how the service chiefs responded differently than Trump.— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
Overall, not a bad piece, but a bit incomplete. Which is understandable--can't have infinite text in an article.— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
I don't think military leaders should criticize Trump. I do think shirking in the form of slow-rolling is probably not as bad as the alternatives BUT
there is no doubt that the necessity to do so undermines civilian control of the military. Which is foundational to democracy, just like respect for elections (oops). Fin/— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) November 16, 2018
In sum, Trump is worse than I had imagined two years ago, and I imagined it to be pretty bad.
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