reprinted from OpEdNews.com
Trump has made it clear that he has handed decision-making over to his generals.
His supporters probably frame this as the hallmark of a strong leader and great manager.
But military actions are not business decisions. I would frame it differently. A president is the commander in chief and it his responsibility and his alone to make major military decisions, like launching 59 cruise missiles at Syria or dropping the biggest non-nuclear bomb in history, one that costs a third of a billion dollars (150 of them would eat up his entire $50 billion military budget.)
I would say that Trump's claim that he has handed decision making over to his generals is a total abrogation of the one of the most important responsibilities of the president, of the most powerful person in the world.
I would say that it is an act of extreme cowardice to not take responsibility for major military decisions.
I'd say that it is disgustingly crass, gutless political calculation to avoid owning the decisions that only a president should make.
I'd say that this approach, handing such immense power to the military is a pustulant, abominable symptom of Trump's incredibly moronic decision to choose hard power, ie., military force and money) over soft power-- attraction by diplomacy, good will, cultural and literal bridge building.
Using big bombs and restricting political strategy to hard power and big bombs and centrally controlled missiles is an extreme example of top down narrow vision thinking. Top down thinking sees the simple minded solution-- that big bombs and big offensives solve problems. The truth is that the thought or statement "Nuke the bastards" is one of the dumbest, most simple-minded, mental Viagra approaches that can be proposed When my friends suggest it, my response, is always along the lines of "Don't be an idiot."
Unfortunately, if Trump, in one of the most historic acts of leadership cowardice , is delegating the big decisions to his generals, he has removed himself from the possibility of close advisors to tell him that these approaches are idiotic. I fear that Trump, with his childish proclivity to use the big military tech "toys" that he has at his disposal, will, because he can, open up the nuclear football and push the button to launch the first nuclear attack since the 1940s. Or maybe, if you believe him that he's handed decision making over to his generals, one of them will make the decision without consulting with him. How insane is that?
creative commons 2.0 permission to republish with attribution to Rob Kall OpEdNews.com