10-09-2020, 01:08 AM
This bit is especially interesting:
The outbreak came as members of Trump’s national security team faced accusations that they were using their positions to ensure his reelection.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe was excoriated by his predecessors last week for declassifying discredited intelligence reports supposedly implicating Hillary Clinton in an effort to “stir up a scandal” against Trump in 2016 involving Russia. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was rebuffed in his effort to secure a meeting with the pope by Vatican officials who reportedly regarded his approach as an election ploy to please Catholics. And Attorney General William P. Barr was accused of being the source of unsubstantiated claims of voting irregularities cited last week by the president.
“In a normal government, you could probably absorb some of this dysfunction,” said John McLaughlin, a former acting director of the CIA who now teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “But this government, on national security policy, has had a very sketchy — to say the least — process for making foreign policy decisions.”. . .
McLaughlin and others emphasized that the country’s main adversaries do not appear poised to test the United States, in part because of their own apprehensions about the vote, now just 30 days away.
Russia and, to a lesser extent, China are already seen as interfering in the U.S. election with relative impunity. And Iran has yet to follow through on its vow of further retaliation for the U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in January that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
But the leaders of those countries, as well as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, could be reluctant to challenge the United States more forcefully in the coming weeks out of concern for the impulses of an ailing president or the potential consequences from a future administration led by Democratic nominee Joe Biden if he is elected.
The outbreak came as members of Trump’s national security team faced accusations that they were using their positions to ensure his reelection.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe was excoriated by his predecessors last week for declassifying discredited intelligence reports supposedly implicating Hillary Clinton in an effort to “stir up a scandal” against Trump in 2016 involving Russia. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was rebuffed in his effort to secure a meeting with the pope by Vatican officials who reportedly regarded his approach as an election ploy to please Catholics. And Attorney General William P. Barr was accused of being the source of unsubstantiated claims of voting irregularities cited last week by the president.
“In a normal government, you could probably absorb some of this dysfunction,” said John McLaughlin, a former acting director of the CIA who now teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “But this government, on national security policy, has had a very sketchy — to say the least — process for making foreign policy decisions.”. . .
McLaughlin and others emphasized that the country’s main adversaries do not appear poised to test the United States, in part because of their own apprehensions about the vote, now just 30 days away.
Russia and, to a lesser extent, China are already seen as interfering in the U.S. election with relative impunity. And Iran has yet to follow through on its vow of further retaliation for the U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in January that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
But the leaders of those countries, as well as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, could be reluctant to challenge the United States more forcefully in the coming weeks out of concern for the impulses of an ailing president or the potential consequences from a future administration led by Democratic nominee Joe Biden if he is elected.
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
