Perspectives On That National Security Scandal

 

The Daily Beast's David Rothkopf gives us his perspective on the revealing of top secret war plans on a Signal chat, and why it's not the biggest scandal produced by this clown car of "national security" incompetents and Russian tools:

... This incident is appalling in its own right—but it hardly is the administration’s biggest foreign policy blunder. Rather, it is emblematic of a dangerous pattern. Indeed, if doing damage to America’s national security interests is not the primary goal of the Trump team (and I’m not sure it’s not), it is certainly a clear consequence of many of their actions.

In just the past two months, we have seen them systematically undermine virtually every major U.S. foreign policy goal stretching back decades. We have launched trade wars and threatened the stability of an international trading system of which we were the primary architect and champion. We have gone further, threatening to invade and illegally annex the territory of allies like Canada and Denmark and of friends like Panama. We have turned our back on another friend, Ukraine, in its courageous fight to defend itself from Russian aggression.

Top administration officials have parroted Russian propaganda—as in Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff’s recent televised statement that the people of eastern Ukraine had expressed a desire to be part of Russia. The president himself has set the tone for such outrageous lies by suggesting Ukraine was at fault for Russia’s invasion, and with his public humiliation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a disastrous Oval Office meeting. 

Indeed, perhaps the most egregious foreign policy disaster among all those that have taken place under Trump’s malignant, myopic leadership is that the United States has abandoned the North Atlantic alliance it helped create—along with it, the championing of democracy and the rule of law—and, instead, has thrown in with Russia and new axis powers who seek to promote ethno-nationalist, anti-democratic despotism.

In addition, the Trump administration has made a series of decisions to weaken our defenses against our rivals—by shutting down key programs across the government and, essentially, America’s entire foreign aid apparatus, a rollback that will not only lead to the death of millions worldwide but one that will produce hostility against the U.S.

The result of these moves is the most shocking international relations turnabout in our history. (And let’s not get into the dangers associated with firing the people in charge of assuring the security of our weapons of mass destruction, or those who play a critical role in defending us against both epidemics and biowarfare.)  [snip]

Perspective remains critically important, yes, but we must not get too caught up in the story of the day. Rather, let’s be clear: This egregious national security breach, involving virtually every senior natsec official in the Trump administration, is deeply shocking and profoundly stupid. But it is probably only the twentysomething-worst foreign policy move they’ve made so far. (our emphasis)

It's no secret to us and to most sentient observers that the greatest benefactor of all of the above is the war criminal Putin and his anti-American, anti-Western democracy regime.  We don't believe the Malignant Fascist's actions taken that have weakened America and its allies while benefiting Russia are all "blunders."  In our opinion, many are the moves of actors taking their cues directly or indirectly from the Kremlin, actors who've been compromised or who are in ideological agreement with the revanchist, fascist Russian state or are just cowardly, lickspittle MAGAt worshipers of their Golden Calf (or all of the above).  Now that the point's been made abundantly clear, what are those in a position to do something about it prepared to do, or is that going to be yet another task for a grassroots movement?

BONUS:  Christopher Bates ("Z") at Electoral-vote.com adds "consequences":

... We propose above that, with the possibility of someone being thrown under the bus to protect Trump from the consequences of Signalpot Dome, the people involved in this fiasco will suffer no consequences.

That does not mean that we believe there will be no consequences, however. It was already the case that the leaders of other nations believed (with good reason) that Hegseth and Waltz are unqualified buffoons, while Gabbard (and possibly Trump himself) may be Russian assets. They also knew that this president is so lax, he literally leaves highly classified information laying around in his bathroom, where all visitors to his house potentially could see it.

Now, in addition to all of this, foreign leagers know that all (or nearly all) of the highest-ranking defense and intelligence officials in the U.S. government have a careless and cavalier attitude about intelligence, and that they are prone to stupid mistakes. Those leaders also presumably suspect, quite reasonably, that this was far from the only time that sensitive matters were discussed over exceedingly inappropriate and unsecured channels. And finally, those leaders know that when there's a huge screw-up, the response from the White House is a shrug and the observation that stuff happens.

How can any nation share anything sensitive or important with the U.S. right now? It's one thing for Americans to put Americans at risk. It's another thing for Americans to put Britons at risk, or Canadians, or Australians, or Japanese people. And the less the U.S. knows about what's going on in the world, the greater the risk of a military disaster, a terrorist attack, etc.

How, indeed. 

More later today in "Skeets of the Day."

(Image:  keeping him on a short leash)