While we’ve all been tripping over ourselves (understandably) defending our free press from our attack dog commander-in-chief and his cadre of ill-informed followers, we’ve mostly overlooked the other maligned entity: our intelligence community.
“The President’s comments today, again casting doubt on whether Russia was behind the blatant interference in our election and suggesting — his own intelligence agencies to the contrary — that nobody really knows, continue to directly undermine U.S. interests,” said California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Our President is abroad ripping on the American press and intelligence agencies. How do you call yourself a patriot, let alone the leader of a patriotic nation, and undermine the people serving this country in an intelligence capacity? Is he kidding me? Does he have any idea what they give up? Sacrifice? Go through?
AP writer Ken Thomas reminds us that when Mitt Romney criticized President Obama during the president’s 2012 trip to South Korea for making overtures to improve relations with Russia, it drew a stern rebuke from then House Speaker John Boehner, a fellow Republican, who said that “while the president is overseas, I think it’s appropriate that people not be critical of him or our country.”
What is happening? And we thought it was egregious when members of the Bush administration outed CIA operations officer Valerie Plame in 2003.
Let’s talk about the intricate structure that is our intelligence community. These people don’t wear uniforms or get parades or ceremonial welcomes. They don’t have people walking up to them in airports and thanking them for their service. They don’t have hundreds of foundations set up to help them and their families. They learn how to blend in, speak an array of languages, and stay a step ahead of the most brilliant technological minds on the planet. Their training includes acting and learning body language as a refined art. Many of them live quietly, have to lie about where they work. Many of them spend months and years gaining trust and establishing relationships in lands most of us wouldn’t think of setting foot in. They gather information that saves our lives every day.
Our intelligence personnel, like those in the military, are trained to serve whatever administration is in the White House. They even have to serve and protect the despicable human who is currently undermining their work aloud on foreign soil.
Is there a question who’s the better person? In that context, pick which one of these isn’t like the others:
a) Soldier
b) Secret Service agent
c) CIA operative
d) Donald Trump
Three of those are doing their jobs regardless of the challenges (obstacles?) being put before them. The other is flitting around signing executive orders he thinks are laws, Tweeting the inane meanderings of his brain, whining about his victimhood, and playing golf.
Incidentally, I believe it’s generally a good thing when our Presidents play golf. I’m not a believer in a 24/7 nose-to-grindstone pace, even in the presidency. They need to blow off steam. But this guy? All he does is blow off steam.
Send him packing. Find out if he’s committed treason and take him out in handcuffs. Or determine officially if his mental capacity makes him unfit for the job and escort him to a place where he can get help.
Make American Great Again? So absurd. Thanks to him, we’ve been diminished in the eyes of the world. And perhaps made a lot less safe in it.
