STUFF DONALD TRUMP WANTS STOPPED

Stuff Donald Trump wants stopped until he "figures" them out:

) Entry of Muslims into the United States.

) Negative commentary on himself.

) Rational discourse.

) His receding hairline.

) His growing impotence.

) His declining numbers in Iowa.

) Death.

) The wind.

) The rotation of the earth.

) The U.S. political system.

) The U.S. Constitution.

Who'd You Vote For, Er. . . Against?

Cranky's latest book:

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Whod-You-Vote-Er-Against/dp/1516918258

A TALE OF THREE TROIKAS

America’s major wars of the last half century—Vietnam, the Gulf War, and the Iraq-Afghanistan conflicts—had a common element: the nation’s war leadership in each, at least for a time, appeared principally to be in the hands of three individuals, or to borrow a term of Russian origin, a troika. For Vietnam, the troika was President Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, and General William Westmoreland. For the Gulf War, the troika was President George H.W. Bush, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell, and Central Command Commander-in-Chief General Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf. For the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, the troika was President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

To summarize: Troika One—Johnson, McNamara, Westmoreland; Troika Two—Bush1, Powell, Schwarzkopf; Troika Three—Bush2, Cheney, Rumsfeld.

The identification of the Troikas is not to say that all decision-making was in the hands of just the three members of each Troika. Many others in the bureaucracies had roles of importance. But the big three in each instance became the collective face of the endeavor. For Troika One, the Vietnam War had a “light at the end of the tunnel.” For Troika Two, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait would “not stand.” For Troika Three, Americans would be “greeted as liberators” in Iraq.  

So how did the three Troikas do? Well, One and Three did not fare well. The light at the end of the Vietnam tunnel turned out to be no light at all. The tunnel just ended in murkiness. Greeted as liberators in Iraq? Maybe by some residents for a few months, but then the locals returned to their millennia-old disputes and grievances, with the added fun of turning on the latest group of outsiders who dared to intrude on their paradise.

And Troika Two? Wonder of wonders, it got the job done. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait did not stand. Period.

The quality of the Troikas’ memberships might explain much of the uneven results. Troika One had a superior politician, a tactically adequate but strategically challenged soldier, and a brilliant but tragically flawed manager. Troika Three had an average, at best, politician, an ideologue with significant comprehension limitations, and a brilliant but tragically flawed manager. And Troika Two? Simply, it had three individuals who understood the relationship between objectives and resources.

Perhaps the most interesting components of Troikas One and Three were the brilliant but tragically flawed managers. McNamara and, to a lesser extent, Rumsfeld were certainly brilliant. All one had to do was ask them. But the brilliance was part of the flaws. They appeared too sure of themselves. Staff dissent appears to have been discouraged. This is not to say that there was much in the way of staff dissent. Maybe group think in the Pentagons of the 1960s and the 2000s was a contributor to the situation. The SecDefs had no reason to question their own brilliance because no one seriously disagreed with their pronouncements.

In any case, as smart as they were, neither McNamara nor Rumsfeld understood, at the level of international affairs and in the field of military operations, the relationship between objectives and resources. Each pursued the objective of winning a war with, one, inadequate resources, and two, little understanding of the nature and strength of the enemy. Each was given extraordinary leeway by a President who was beyond his natural element, which was domestic politics.

            
On one occasion, Donald Rumsfeld famously said, in response to a critical question from a low-ranking soldier, “you go to war with the Army you have.” The same can be said about a nation’s leaders: “you go to war with the leaders you have.” In Troika Two, the leaders were up to the challenge. In Troikas One and Three, not so much.

REPUBLICAN ROCK BOTTOM

You know your party has hit rock bottom when:

)  Forty-seven of your Senators sign a high-schoolish statement on foreign policy authored by a first-term goober Senator from Arkansas.

)  Your Speaker of the House of Representatives somehow equates himself with a Prime Minister by initiating relations with a foreign head-of-state.

)  In a spate with the President over the nation’s borders, your Congressional representatives threatened to shut down the agency that protects the nation’s borders.

)  Fox News praises your every move.

)  You have become the party of elderly Caucasians.

)  The Wall Street Journal has begun, mildly and with obvious reluctance, to criticize you.

)  Even the Great Ronnie would have wondered what the hell you're doing.

YOU DON'T LOVE AMERICA

Rudy Giuliani's admirable effort to identify who does and who does not love America needs some fleshing out, some specific criteria. So here goes:

)  Unless you believe that Bill O'Reilly saw combat in the Falklands War, you don't love America.

)  Unless you view slavery as no more than a minor blemish on the nation's otherwise impeccable history, you don't love America.

)  Unless you think that driving Native Americans from their lands and herding them onto reservations was no big deal, you don't love America.

)  Unless you believe that "enhanced interrogation" was a necessary response to 9/11 and was in no way incompatible with American principles of justice and morality, you don't love America.

)  Unless you consider Fox News to be the preeminent voice of fairness, objectivity, and rationality in the American media, you don't love America.

)  Unless you think that the top one percent deserve everything they have acquired by fair means or foul, you don't love America.

)  Unless you think that poor people have no one to blame but themselves, you don't love America.

)  Unless you think that only Christians can be full-fledged Americans, you don't love America.

)  Unless you think that climate change is the figment of some effete liberal's imagination, you don't love America.

)  Unless you think that an appropriate response to policy disputes is to shut down the government, you don't love America.

THE LITTLE WOMAN TAKES A TUMBLE

So Cranky is on the porcelain throne for his morning constitutional. Things are going smoothly, no backups, no traffic jams, no erratic vehicles. The throne room is on the second floor of Cranky’s dwelling, just off the top of the stairs from the first floor.

Suddenly there’s a tremendous crash followed by considerable thumbing and bumping as some sort of disaster descends the stairway. Cranky instantly knows what has occurred: the little woman, who has a bad knee, has taken a tumble. And Cranky knows what he must do: go to her aid.

But there’s the problem of his not-yet-completed effort on the porcelain throne. A vehicle is even then coming around the final curve. Should Cranky leap up immediately and go to provide aid? Should he wait on the descending vehicle? And what about cleaning the highway? Should the effort be limited to a cursory swipe? Should a full clean-up be performed?

Cranky mulls over the alternatives for some moments. Perhaps in his younger days he could have made a quicker decision. But aging affects one’s decision-making ability. Indeed, after a bit and no further noise from the stairs, Cranky begins to lose his grasp on what the issue is. He recovers, however, and settles upon the cursory swipe. Then he is up, out the door, and to the top of the stairs.

The little woman is lying on some soft luggage that had been at the bottom of the stairs. Cranky yells down, "You OK?"

"Ugh," she replies.

 

"OK, let me finish up and I'll be right down," says Cranky, returning to the throne room. He is aware that the highway could use more than a cursory swipe.