I don't know if the President could do that even if he wanted to. He doesn't have all of the positions filled. There are temporary folks in there who don't have the background to give the President informed briefings even if he would listen to them.
In the senses that it's made up of multiple US federal government agencies working on intelligence fx for the US fed gov. If your point is the US fed gov intel sucks, fine, but let's not argue over what's a community. That's pretty silly TBH.
The people he has in there now are more than likely sycophants who would just suck up to him and tell him he’s great.
So what sounds better, trump outright lied about the ten or thirty minute casualty briefing, or that trump didn't understand the earlier casualty briefing?
I honestly trust a large collection of career professionals part of a institution with group decisions much more than a single man with a terrible track record of decision making who lacks experience, doesn’t listen to anyone, and has no moral compass. Yes... the CIA in particular does a ton of unsavory things on behalf of the US. The failed coupe in Venezuela most recently being exhibit A. But in this case I don’t understand what the CIA, NSA, etc. have to do with Iranian strategy or lack thereof. The people at the top in the key decision making roles are- -Secretary of defense(outgoing and incoming) - former Boeing and Raytheon heads -John Bolton- the guy who cooked intelligence for the war in Iraq -Mike Pompeo- Koch funded -Trump- where to begin (start with oil tycoons in UAE and NBS) So don’t divert and start trying to place blame on the deep state. Where do you think those agencies are getting their commands? Do you really think some career agents in the CIA or NSA will put everything on the line in their lives to stage an escalation just to make Trump look bad cause they are mad about Hillary Clinton? Come on man. Yes... Trump backing down was a good thing. And yes, I think his play here is mostly for show. But I do think violence and bloodshed now seems imminent. I don’t think it’s a conventional war we are destined to have but I do think Trump unknowingly by ... yes... being stupid.... will create small proxy wars in Iraq and Afghanistan due to this escalation... even without Trump following through this time. Worst part is he doesn’t seem to have a clue. His ego is blinding the reality here. This isn’t a real estate licensing deal with an upstart commercial developer. Any hope Americans had of the US finally being able to bring troops home from Iraq is pretty much squashed for the foreseeable future. -Trump would have been smart to just re-do Obamacare with a few tweaks and call it Trumpcare but he don’t do that because he’s stupid and has too much ego. -And just like that Trump would be smart to just redo the Iran Nuclear agreement with a few tweaks and call it the Trump Iran agreement but he won’t do that because he’s stupid and has too much ego. There’s no off ramp for this escalation because of Trump. No he doesn’t want bloodshed because of ratings and politics but he’s going to get it. It just isn’t going to be in the way that most Americans think it would be.
Mr trump created this dangerous situation in the Gulf by tossing in the trash a treaty our country and our allies signed with Iran to prevent them from developing a nuclear bomb, which would be very dangerous and very destabilizing in the region and beyond. By all accounts, except trumps’s and Bolton’s, it was working. As best I can tell, trump ditched it because it was created under President Obama’s watch. He’s been methodically dismantling everything Obama had anything to do with, the explanation far too often making no sense at all, except that Obama was involved. trump claimed that he would get “a better deal” from Iran by destroying its economy with severe sanctions after ditching the treaty without consulting our allies, who were ardently against the idea. Bolton? He’s had a hard-on for a war against Iran for years and years. The man has no business being trump’s national security advisor, filling his head with venomous “advice” everyday. So what are we going to do now that Iran, provoked by trump, shot down a drone costing $200 million plus, and packed with cutting edge technology? Nothing? Mr trump’s foreign policy has been a disaster. He seems intent on making it even worse. I’ve been afraid of the guy starting a war since the 2016 election. He’s getting damned close to provoking one, and Iran isn’t a castrated Iraq, assaulted for no good reason by George W. Bush because he got bad advice. The country could cause the United States, our friends and allies, and the global economy a world of pain. Sure, we would defeat them, but at a huge cost far exceeding that of the 2nd war with Iraq. With trump getting advice just as bad as Bush did, or worse, I’m getting more worried by the day.
Then Trump found out what war would do for his re-election chances. His p***y got all grabbed up and he decided to pull out and use the excuse about casualties.
Is there an actual significant point you are trying to make? (Besides pointing out insignificant difference in term usages when it comes to "branches" vs "departments/institutions/cabinets" - which is just a cowardly diversion of the debate from the main argument) You don't care about Libs vs GOP because both parties are now criticizing your guy: "Iran directly attacked a United States asset over international waters," McCarthy, Texas Reps. Mac Thornberry and Michael McCaul, and California Rep. Devin Nunes said in the statement. "This provocation comes a week after they attacked and destroyed two commercial tankers in international waters. There must be a measured response to these actions."
Edifying FOX content. Thanks. Another day, another scapegoat.. Whose fault is it that only psychopaths and crooks seem to be willing to work for Trump and have his ear? (also Dictators of Putin's ilk have his ear too). At the behest of these psychopaths administration has been seen separating kids from parents and is then saving money by not providing soap to the immigrant kids they hold in their camps. And at the same time losing 110 million drones due to other psychopaths looking to start a war. Impeccable taste in advisors he has
There still needs to be some payback in the form of $180 million dollar damage to Iran with 0 casualties. Otherwise Trump will look like a p***y. What will it be?
I think that Trump talks out of both sides of his mouth. In some ways he hates to spend money on stupid wars, but he needs the support of the pro-war Repubs, the majority of the Party, and he cannot tangle with their buds the liars in the CIA. All analysts are not liars, but under Bush-Cheney and even Trump most of the directors have been liars. Much of the mainstream media loves war, both for the ratings and some of the networks are parts of conglomerates like GE that make money off of war. Some ex intelligence officers are not liars and who resent that the CIA and other intelligence agencies have become policiticized. and liars.. Here is the website for Ray McGovern cofounder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. VIPS. https://raymcgovern.com/ He gave Bush I his daily intelligence report as an honest analyst. They resent how Cheney and gang cooked the intelligence for the Iraq War and are against war lovers like Peompeo, Bolton etc.
Even Trump can occasionally do some good things. With Trump you can never figure out his motivation, which is usually based on his immediate perceived self interest. However, Trump should be supported, obnoxious as it is to support or even refrain from criticizing the lying p***y grabber when he does something right. Examples are lowering the tension with N. Korea and now not falling for the trap that the utterly immoral pro-war aspiring war criminals like Pompeo, Bolton, their allies in the CIA and our friends the Saudis and the Israelis who are slobbering for us to attack Iran for them. Of course Trump's anti-war position is discredited for at least so far just threatening to invade Venezuela and Iran and other countries who are not existential threats to the United States.
All the over analysis. Love it. This was about artificially increasing oil prices to prop up the gdp. Iran is Ok with this too. Only oil buying countries are unhappy. You can see the oil price nearly nose dive past the break even point a day before this incident began. Both sides are enjoying the benefits financially. Iran needs money and the energy sector needs oil at a certain price. To ignore this financial reality is foolish partisan hackery.
Oh I agree 100% in the end it’s all about oil as it always is with the Middle East. A little religion but mostly oil. I mean it’s right there...they targeted oil tankers in the primary oil shipping channel of the Middle East. It’s a power play to tell Europe mostly that they are the locals here in this oil game so tell the US to give us our money. It’s like the scene in Point Break where Johnny Utah gets his leash cut by Anthony Kedis’ bro for surfing a local wave. Still that being said I wouldn’t change a thing I said. Trump is dumb when it comes to Iran, and these actions are just going to continue the forever war in Iraq where the US will be fighting proxies for another decade... now because of the Trump regime. Had we stayed in the Iran agreement, yes Iran might have more muscle in the region when the US pulled out of Iraq, but the region would be more stable as long as all the jackasses (SA, Assad/Putin, BiBi, Iran, etc)stayed in their lanes.
