Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,
President Trump has announced that he is ordering a partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq during the waning days of his administration.
Why only partial? And why now in the waning days of his presidency? After all, when Trump campaigned in 2016. his expressed aim was to bring all the troops home from those two countries. He repeatedly vowed to bring an end to America’s “forever wars.”
There is a simple explanation for Trump’s failure, one that unfortunately so many Americans are loathe to consider: It’s not the president who is in charge of foreign policy. Instead it is the Pentagon and the CIA that are in charge.
Trump had four years to bring home those troops. Clearly he wanted to. The reason he didn’t – the reason he still can’t – is because the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CIA won’t let him.
Longtime readers of my blog know that I have periodically referenced a book titled National Security and Double Government by Michael J. Glennon, who is a professor of law at Tufts University and served as counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He knows what he is talking about. I highly recommend his book.
Glennon’s thesis is a simple one:
The real power of the federal government lies with the national-security establishment – namely the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA.
They permit the president, the Congress, and the Supreme Court to maintain the veneer of power.
That veneer is unimportant to the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA.
What’s important to them is who holds the power, not who appears to hold the power.
Trump’s inability to bring the troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq provides confirmation of Glennon’s thesis. Trump wanted to bring them home. He vowed to bring them home. He had four years to bring them home. He was unable to do so. The Pentagon and the CIA simply would not permit it.
In his Farewell Address in 1961, President Eisenhower warned about the danger to America’s democratic processes from what he called the “military-industrial complex.”
That was almost 60 years ago. As we have seen with President Trump, the national-security state has grown ever more powerful since then.
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MIC has also be referred to as the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex, as many a Congresscritter has profited mightily from the endless spending on the war machine. Look at how many have condemned Trump for wanting to pull the troops.
Know your friends by their enemies.
Americans should just sit back and watch the fireworks while trying to avoid the radioactive fallout. Prepare accordingly. It’s been a very interesting year. The Deep State has lost its cover, more so in the last few weeks of an election year as a vindictive Trump damages their power and credibility. This is beyond a domestic 3 or 4D political chess game. It’s now a spectacle of international cronyism involving our own politicians in a very dangerous, expensive game exposed for everyone to see.
A discredited electoral process is going to cause some serious domestic disorder regardless of who wins the Presidency.
Tough times are coming, good luck to all.
ALL wrong. State Department.
Just Sayin’
The CIA was off the rails for years. It operates under the umbrella of Dept. of State.
When Hillary Clinton became First Lady, then Secretary of State, the hiring processes changed and the organization was packed by her ideological thralls.
A very appropriate article one day short of 57th year since the end of democracy in the u.s.
If I understood the court’s ruling on the DACA program set up by an executive order by Obama; Trump can not issue another executive order to end a previous one. If he could, I would like to see him give a parting shot, should the election theft hold up, and terminate the CIA and the FBI which, I believe, were created by executive order. Failing this, I do understand both agencies are part of the Executive branch of the federal government and, as such, work for the President of the United States. Having employees give a boss the “pleasure” of terminating their employment at his discretion or “reassigning” them to other more needed positions. Because of their undoubted involvement in the whole “Russiagate affair”, I would encourage President Trump to do this as payback for their actions toward him. No doubt it would not be a great traumatic affair for the most part, but it would set them on notice for the next time a politician wanted them to do such things again.
I thought that Israel was in charge of our foreign policy. When did the CIA take over from them?
Bill Gates Briefs CIA About Mind Altering Drug in Leaked Video; Here Is the Truth
https://www.ibtimes.sg/bill-gates-briefs-cia-about-mind-altering-drug-leaked-video-here-truth-45524