"An unstable President in way over his head, panicking, with all his experienced advisers having quit, and only the sycophantic amateurs remaining." The problem, as Murphy sees it, is a lack of "Adults in the room" to curb the dangerous, bloodthirsty impulses of an inexperienced and impetuous president.
While running for president in 2000, George W. Bush derided "Nation building" and said American foreign policy should be "Humble" rather than "Arrogant." As president, Bush brought us the disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, countries where thousands of U.S. troops remain 19 and 17 years later, respectively.
While running for president in 2007, Barack Obama rejected the idea that the president has the authority to wage war without congressional authorization whenever he thinks it is in the national interest.
"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation," he explained.
"Top American military officials put the option of killing [Soleimani]-which they viewed as the most extreme response to recent Iranian-led violence in Iraq-on the menu they presented to President Trump," The New York Times reports.
Murphy is right that we should worry about a president with little knowledge of the world whose military decisions are driven by anger or domestic political considerations.
It's not clear to me that such a president poses a bigger danger than the experts who have been disastrously wrong more times than we can count.
https://reason.com/2020/01/06/who-poses-the-greater-threat-to-peace-an-impetuous-president-or-experienced-advisers-who-are-disastrously-wrong/
While running for president in 2000, George W. Bush derided "Nation building" and said American foreign policy should be "Humble" rather than "Arrogant." As president, Bush brought us the disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, countries where thousands of U.S. troops remain 19 and 17 years later, respectively.
While running for president in 2007, Barack Obama rejected the idea that the president has the authority to wage war without congressional authorization whenever he thinks it is in the national interest.
"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation," he explained.
"Top American military officials put the option of killing [Soleimani]-which they viewed as the most extreme response to recent Iranian-led violence in Iraq-on the menu they presented to President Trump," The New York Times reports.
Murphy is right that we should worry about a president with little knowledge of the world whose military decisions are driven by anger or domestic political considerations.
It's not clear to me that such a president poses a bigger danger than the experts who have been disastrously wrong more times than we can count.
https://reason.com/2020/01/06/who-poses-the-greater-threat-to-peace-an-impetuous-president-or-experienced-advisers-who-are-disastrously-wrong/
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