The Echo Chamber Strikes Back

[don-o]

The Echo Chamber Strikes Back

http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-echo-chamber-strikes-back/article/2006879?custom_click=rss?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=TWSAutoTweet

In the wake of national security adviser Michael Flynn’s resignation Monday night, lawmakers from both parties are calling for an investigation into his and other Trump aides' possible ties to Russia. Flynn famously, and foolishly, accepted a paid trip to Moscow in 2015 to speak at a banquet for the Russian propaganda outlet, RT network. But it's unlikely a former intelligence officer who is actually working with a foreign government would sit at the same table as his handler to pose for pictures in a tuxedo. It's evidence of obtuseness, but not influence-peddling.

No, it seems that something else is going on. In the weeks leading up to Flynn's resignation, more than one Washington insider was commenting on how the story came to light. The fact that the pre-inauguration leak went to White House reporters instead of journalists on the national security beat has raised lots of eyebrows. Yes, Flynn had the conversation with the Russian ambassador, he told Vice President Pence that sanctions were not part of the conversation when they were, and President Trump asked for his resignation. However, the question of who leaked the story of Flynn's conversation with the Russian ambassador and for what purpose is hardly insignificant.

There might be something going on between Flynn and the Russians, but having read his book, I doubt it is ideological. In The Field of Flight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and its Allies, co-authored with Michael Ledeen, Flynn makes very clear his concerns and distaste for Russia's role in an anti-Western alliance with Iran as the linchpin. "The Russians and Iranians have more in common than a shared enemy [the West]," they write. "There is also a shared contempt for democracy and an agreement…that dictatorship is a superior way to run a country, an empire, a caliphate."

Nonetheless, Flynn was curious to see if Russia could be split from Iran. Many have commented in the wake of Flynn's resignation that he probably wasn't the right fit for a job like national security adviser. But at least in this respect he was entirely in line with what's become conventional Washington wisdom, advocated by the masters like Henry Kissinger and policymakers from both parties—the big diplomatic play in Syria is to provide incentives for Vladimir Putin to move away from the clerical regime in Tehran.

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Interesting analysis. Not sure I buy it all, but maybe some context clues.
@LonestarDream

[don-o]

by the same author

What Obama Owes Putin—and Why Donald Trump Is Left Holding the Bag

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/222057/obama-putin-trump-mideast

Is Donald Trump a Russian secret agent? Did he pay FSB hookers to pee on the bed the Obamas slept in at the Ritz in Moscow, overlooking the Kremlin? It’s silly season, so any drunk on a fat oppo-research expense account can write down any crazy foolishness they want and Buzzfeed will let you decide if it’s true because that, as Buzzfeed’s editor, Ben Smith, solemnly explained to The New York Times, is where American journalism is at in 2017. Duly noted, Buzzfeed. Enjoy the golden showers.

What’s being obscured by this grotesquerie is the origin and the actual substance of U.S. foreign policy toward Russia, which in turn affects the lives of hundreds of millions of people living in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, and elsewhere. Or, to put it another way: Is Donald Trump likely to continue the policies of his predecessor, which set the Middle East on fire and led to 500,000 deaths in Syria, and to Putin biting off large chunks of the sovereign nation of Ukraine? Or is he likely to reverse those policies? Or can he, even if he wanted to?

The single-mindedness with which the White House and the remnants of the Clinton campaign have pursued the idea that Donald Trump is a pawn of Vladimir Putin is not based on silly stories about peeing prostitutes or secret computer servers that connect the Trump organization to the Kremlin. Rather, it’s an attempt to manufacture more smoke to obscure the reality of Obama’s own determination to collaborate with a hostile Russian leader in Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Sure, Obama recently sent 35 Russian diplomats packing and shuttered Russian diplomatic facilities in Maryland and New York, but this was after seven years of looking the other way while Russia seized Crimea, then Donbass; waged cyberattacks on the Baltic countries; brought down a passenger jet over Ukraine; sheltered Edward Snowden; and bombed schools and hospitals in Syria. All of these actions threatened global stability and American interests, yet Obama only puffed his chest after the cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee and Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta’s emails—long after it mattered, and after the moving vans have already started to haul his stuff out of the White House.

The reason top national-security journalists, policy mandarins, and much of the Washington establishment can’t fathom Obama’s relationship with Putin is only partly due to partisanship. The real reason it’s so hard to see how much room the outgoing president gave Putin is because misdirection has been Obama’s guiding principle for seven years.

The president made it look like he was at odds with Putin for much of his two terms—for instance, loudly poo-pooing the Russian campaign in Syria and warning of Vietnam-style “quagmires,” dismissing Russia as a weak country, sending an LGBT delegation to the Sochi Olympics to underscore his differences with Russia’s treatment of the LGBT community. All this helped obscure the fact that when it really counted, Obama took special  care to signal the Russian strongman that their interests were aligned. That wasn’t because he has a man-crush on Putin, but because he had a larger purpose in view—securing the Iran nuclear deal.

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My contempt for Obama has quadrupled just this morning and is still rising.
@LonestarDream
@Norm Lenhart
@Frank Cannon
@Bigun
@Maj. Bill Martin
@roamer_1
@EC

Maybe everyone has connected the dots. Maybe I am just slow but this guy is making a lot of sense.

 

[Bigun]

by the same author

What Obama Owes Putin—and Why Donald Trump Is Left Holding the Bag

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/222057/obama-putin-trump-mideast

Is Donald Trump a Russian secret agent? Did he pay FSB hookers to pee on the bed the Obamas slept in at the Ritz in Moscow, overlooking the Kremlin? It’s silly season, so any drunk on a fat oppo-research expense account can write down any crazy foolishness they want and Buzzfeed will let you decide if it’s true because that, as Buzzfeed’s editor, Ben Smith, solemnly explained to The New York Times, is where American journalism is at in 2017. Duly noted, Buzzfeed. Enjoy the golden showers.

What’s being obscured by this grotesquerie is the origin and the actual substance of U.S. foreign policy toward Russia, which in turn affects the lives of hundreds of millions of people living in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, and elsewhere. Or, to put it another way: Is Donald Trump likely to continue the policies of his predecessor, which set the Middle East on fire and led to 500,000 deaths in Syria, and to Putin biting off large chunks of the sovereign nation of Ukraine? Or is he likely to reverse those policies? Or can he, even if he wanted to?

The single-mindedness with which the White House and the remnants of the Clinton campaign have pursued the idea that Donald Trump is a pawn of Vladimir Putin is not based on silly stories about peeing prostitutes or secret computer servers that connect the Trump organization to the Kremlin. Rather, it’s an attempt to manufacture more smoke to obscure the reality of Obama’s own determination to collaborate with a hostile Russian leader in Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Sure, Obama recently sent 35 Russian diplomats packing and shuttered Russian diplomatic facilities in Maryland and New York, but this was after seven years of looking the other way while Russia seized Crimea, then Donbass; waged cyberattacks on the Baltic countries; brought down a passenger jet over Ukraine; sheltered Edward Snowden; and bombed schools and hospitals in Syria. All of these actions threatened global stability and American interests, yet Obama only puffed his chest after the cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee and Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta’s emails—long after it mattered, and after the moving vans have already started to haul his stuff out of the White House.

The reason top national-security journalists, policy mandarins, and much of the Washington establishment can’t fathom Obama’s relationship with Putin is only partly due to partisanship. The real reason it’s so hard to see how much room the outgoing president gave Putin is because misdirection has been Obama’s guiding principle for seven years.

The president made it look like he was at odds with Putin for much of his two terms—for instance, loudly poo-pooing the Russian campaign in Syria and warning of Vietnam-style “quagmires,” dismissing Russia as a weak country, sending an LGBT delegation to the Sochi Olympics to underscore his differences with Russia’s treatment of the LGBT community. All this helped obscure the fact that when it really counted, Obama took special  care to signal the Russian strongman that their interests were aligned. That wasn’t because he has a man-crush on Putin, but because he had a larger purpose in view—securing the Iran nuclear deal.

snip
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

My contempt for Obama has quadrupled just this morning and is still rising.
@LonestarDream
@Norm Lenhart
@Frank Cannon
@Bigun
@Maj. Bill Martin
@roamer_1
@EC

Maybe everyone has connected the dots. Maybe I am just slow but this guy is making a lot of sense.

He is indeed making sense and I'm very glad to see some of this stuff getting some ink! It's about damned time!

[Oceander]

If there's nothing to hide, then why not invite an investigation?  Heck, get it started yourself with friendlies and you'll have at least some control over where it goes. 

[don-o]

If there's nothing to hide, then why not invite an investigation?  Heck, get it started yourself with friendlies and you'll have at least some control over where it goes.

Question is: Is there anyone in the House or Senate with a fully descended set? The Republicans are into this as deeply as the Dems - Bobby Corker being the ringleader in dereliction of duty.

[Bigun]

Question is: Is there anyone in the House or Senate with a fully descended set? The Republicans are into this as deeply as the Dems - Bobby Corker being the ringleader in dereliction of duty.

BINGO!!!!  We have a winner here folks!

[EC]

Regarding the second article you put up, @don-o  - it is 100% correct.

Recall the Worm's red line in Syria? And what happened? Public posturing, private immediate capitulation to Putin. Which cost more lives than will be known for the next 50 years, minimum.

[geronl]

he apparently also lied to the FBI about the conversation when they had the transcripts....