I have been lurking since the election for the most part. Little point in chiming in as a real debate cannot occur when neither side listens. Which is tragic as both sides of this debate will suffer equally if our President-Elect continues to do what he has being doing for years.
It is heartbreaking for me to see so many ignore anything that they disagree with to the point that they are willing to trust Moscow over our own intelligence services. Distrust of our Government is healthy, but cavalierly ignoring intelligence agencies is dangerous. Moreover, in this particular case I believe it is blindly partisan considering not six months ago a lot of the same people were crowing about Russia being our biggest security threat and mocking Obama for mocking Romney for saying so back in 2012. But a guy with zero experience in government, international relations, intelligence etc., says otherwise in an obviously political move (a no-brainer move any candidate would have taken), and we have a complete volte face?
I suppose I could go on at length how intelligence agencies work, how intel is gathered, how easy it is to pin point who does what, the nuance of international relations (Russian grand strategy specifically), and familiarize folks with my own experience with it all. But I am not sure if that would result in anything more than being accused of lying through my teeth and being a tool of the MSM. I am glad people are enjoying their victory laps over the evil forces of liberalism, but, has anyone considered that there is no such thing as victory for just the GOP or Libs if the entire post Cold-War order collapses (Russia's avowed goal)? We will all suffer. We will bleed and many people will die.
Three generations. Three. That is how long it takes for nations to forget the horror of major conflicts between powers. Right now conditions have never been so ripe for another cataclysm since the 1930s. The GOP has long characterized Obama as being naive and no match for Putin's Realpolitik and utter lack of regard for the norms and conventions of international relations. The GOP was quite correct. However, we now have someone far worse that has the naiveté of Obama paired with the volatile and childish personality of Wilhelm II.
What distresses me is so many blinded to the big picture as they cling to points made by InfoWars or drone endlessly on why we need to dump the Electoral College. I have my grievances with the Left, particularly the abject obsession with identity politics and labeling,
but right now I am going to ask our friends who take Trump at face value with his blithe dismissal of our intelligence services a question:
@David, @Huber,
@Notorious,
are you willing to bet your lives on the notion that Trump knows better than the majority of our intelligence establishment or that he is capable of out-foxing Putin? Are you willing to join up and fight in a war that Trump gets us involved in as a consequence of his policies (Not saying he may start one and there are many ways to get dragged into conflict)?
To flip it on its head,
@AZ_ or
@gourimoko and others,
are you willing to embrace a policy of rapprochement with Russia? And if that is Trump's plan are his comments and possible appointees of cabinet positions a legitimate gesture to that end?
A question for an old school conservative that did not support Trump:
@The Human Q-Tip, is a Russia a threat and how should they be dealt with?
