Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Sounds like a real pro, but issue is whether it will make a difference. Byline with both Peter Baker and Michael Gordon. They write:
General McMaster, 54, made a name for himself as a young officer with a searing critique of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for their performance during the Vietnam War and later criticized the way President George W. Bush’s administration went to war in Iraq.
As a commander, he was credited with demonstrating how a counterinsurgency strategy could defeat militants in Iraq, demonstrating the promise of an approach that Gen. David H. Petraeus adopted to shift momentum in a war the United States was on the verge of losing.
Stocky, smart and soft-spoken with a sense of humor, General McMaster, for all his war-making experience, has little background in navigating Washington politics, which could be a challenge for him in his new role with a fractious national security team to corral.
His task now will be to take over a rattled and demoralized National Security Council apparatus that bristled at Mr. Flynn’s leadership and remains uncertain about its place in the White House given the foreign policy interests of Stephen K. Bannon, the former Breitbart News chairman who is the president’s chief strategist.
Comments
Bruce, you ask if McMaster's appointment will make a difference. I wonder what area of national security a difference might be expected or even hoped for. From the NYT:
Whether the NYT is correct in implying that the credit Petraeus received was due has, again IMO, been proven completely wrong. We may not have "lost" that war that we were on the verge of losing but we certainly haven't won it, and to imply at all that we have is, once more IMO, a common MSM version of "fake news".
Well into his article describing the ideas and actions that got us to where we are today as a result of National Security policy and actions, Major Danny Sjursen, a U.S. Army strategist and former history instructor at West Point who served tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan and has written a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghostriders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge, says:
You might guess that I agree. The entire piece is worth reading, IMO. I don't know why but in 'preview' the article opens in the middle.
by A Guy Called LULU on Tue, 02/21/2017 - 10:53am
Thanks Lulu, appreciate it. Thing is, and perhaps it's a reflection of where we are, when I wrote of potential for change I was thinking in terms of basic fundamental competence. Hard to think that's where we are but heck I feel that's where we are right now.
by Bruce Levine on Tue, 02/21/2017 - 12:36pm
Thomas Ricks (former WaPo military reporter) at ForeignPolicy.com, written Feb. 20 @ noon:
by artappraiser on Tue, 02/21/2017 - 11:20am
Artappraiser... Hey-O . . .
I left this over in Mike's thread...
Just another take on what may be boiling under the surface referring to McMaster and his fellow WH Generals.
dagblog.com/comment/234431#comment-234431
~OGD~
by oldenGoldenDecoy on Wed, 02/22/2017 - 5:32am