Goodbye to the Fog of Washington DC

The country is currently marching, out of step and in no discernible uniform, to the tune of a diff'rent drummer

Rosie Gray, a former Buzzfeed reporter, analyzes American foreign policy in the NYT today.

It's an honest article, but here's a bit of what I think she misses, in her conclusion:

Essentially, the American people no longer trust our leaders in Washington, who have given us no reason to believe they have learned anything about fighting wars, no matter how much money we continue to throw at the Pentagon -- unquestioningly.

Our American press, as we once knew a muscular Fourth Estate, is dead.  We can no longer rely on the media to cover the Truth out of DC, unless they are printing leaked source documents illegally hacked from the government.

The American people are not stupid though.  And they are fighters, many still...

What are the goals of using military force? What is the cost and budget? What is the anticipated timeline?

The fat old men in uniform no longer have to answer to anyone. They can fail, safely.  Lose, and walk away to take our money advising on how to fight the next unnecessary battles.  It's a game, and America is losing, badly...

Here at home, Rule of Law means different things to different people. Our white-collar leaders expect to be bailed out just like the military men, because they are so interconnected and intertwined we are assured that not to insure their mistakes and subsidize their losses would be too painful to others -- the poor littles -- sharing their economy...

Worse, at the cost of pricing out everything, healthy human values in our own country have plummeted testing our reputation for a shared national good-nature.

But still we grind, pumping out ammuntion for another ill-defined war campaign "over there" that somehow will lead to a healthier planet via more environmentally sound industries and practices.  If only the American people would trust in our wisest, most intertwined Washington minds as the media has learned to do.  

The problem is diversity. Too many people in America will not conform to the belief that we are but followers in America, that democracy is ruled from Above with the people as a whole powerless, as life is dictated living in a religious state.

We own this one.

We have tasted Freedom here. Our Fathers have fought daily battles and done the work to bring their dreams to fruition, and their children are living examples of what this land nurtures both in its best, and in the aspirational seeking to spin opportunities into gold of their own.

The medal-ed chested old men in Washington are pulling strings madly, I suspect, to keep their WarGames going.  They have no answers. They continue to be exposed. Their promises about peace through weapons grow staler and hollower and more metallic as Diverse New Life continues to thrive and grow, laugh and play, and wonder in this new country, when they will learn to put down their guns and join us in celebrating the living?

Of the many Republican shibboleths Donald Trump blew up, the party’s foreign policy apparatus is among the most significant. Mr. Trump broke with decades of post-Reagan G.O.P. consensus that America should have a hegemonic presence in world affairs....

Traditionally, the major influence behind both party’s foreign policies has been the network of think tankers, former officials and other cognoscenti who form what the Obama administration official Ben Rhodes nicknamed “the blob.” ... During the campaign season, a candidate lacking experience in this arena could, and usually did, select advisers from ideologically friendly blob members who would then become obvious choices to serve in an administration....

Together, these groups were part of the nebulous machine known as the G.O.P. establishment, whose views trickled down through politicians to the general public and whom Mr. Trump built his core political identity against...

 The influence cycle now runs in a never-ending loop between politicians and their voter base — a loop that now excludes the NATO-loving wonks of the former establishment and instead flows through powerful nodes in the conservative media ecosystem, like the former Fox News star Mr. Carlson and the current one Laura Ingraham....

The blob has its own allies like Ms. Haley, or like Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state who traveled to Ukraine recently to meet President Zelensky and argued that arming the country saves the United States money in the long run...

The Iraq War is a lasting blot on the blob’s reputation that led directly to the populist foreign policy we see on the right today. Before Mr. Trump, Republicans chose two nominees in a row — John McCain and Mitt Romney — who supported the war as the public’s approval of it plummeted...

Populism as a governing principle can be unpredictable, yoked as it is to the whims of the populace, and foreign policy is an area where the populace isn’t extremely informed....

Knowing the best way — or even any way — to handle a complicated situation like Ukraine is why the blob exists...

Insert Evil Laugh...  bwah-hahahaha!

(My take? The American people are not stupid, and although sometimes too good-hearted for their own survival, they instinctively will act in the end in the country's best interests. "USA, USA, USA."  Current support for the ill-defined Ukrainian campaign to retake the Crimea, depose Putin or whatever else the heck "the blob" is tossing money at, is dwindling...

Voters here at home will not let this go on as long as it did in Iraq.  "We won't get fooled again... no no no way!" We just don't have that many Believers anymore, and the establishment media in service of "the blob" does not have the monopoly they once did.

Logic matters, no matter how many medals you pin in a guy's chest. And the military doesn't really represent American values anymore, as we live them today. We want fast strikes. Smart objectives. Strong communication. Efficient cost-containment. 

We're voting for that. Not a guy who signed on to "serve" in Iraq, and from that vantage-point, feels experienced to unite the country (*cue evil laugh soundtrack*) and focus on rebuilding our communities and integrating our subcultures in 21st century America.  Nobody believes "the blob" is going to do anything but die out here*:  a movement long past time to meet its natural end.  

We're for life and freedom still because that's the best future for America, for one and all.  Put down your guns and listen to the sounds of Life already.

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*  after enriching themselves and their kin collecting associated benefits/money for a long long time for their brief military service, long after any "protectorship" benefit to the country has ceded. (You're welcome, but the most coddled and most sheltered with the longest bouts of safe service are are not the war leaders we need...  Buy them out already. They'll sign non-competes. They live that, at those levels...)