Wise words, supported by considerable experience. The line that stood out the most to me pointed to the root of the problem: President Trump's "utter disdain for the work" of U.S. intelligence, and "his supremely inflated confidence in his own sense of judgment." Another way to put that: The president of the United States is basically a blowhard who lacks the necessary intellect and emotional maturity that his job requires.
This was a great piece! Thank you for writing it. As a retired Naval Intelligence Officer, I have had these same concerns. I thought your examples were great, and I want to share one I wrote about last year. This was when our President used racist garbage from the internet, which I suspect was provided by Elon Musk, to humiliate the President of South Africa and basically accuse him of supporting white genocide. The fact that the Press Secretary would lie to and belittle a reporter who called them on it the next day, a black reporter, just made the whole disgusting episode beyond obscene.
A National Embarrassment We Should All Still be Outraged About
A President who fails to be informed by competent intelligence analysis not only does so at his peril, but at America's peril, as we have just witnessed in the costly debacle of an ill-conceived war against Iran.
Hundreds of our troops have lost life or limb in this war of presidential whim while every American is paying every day at the pump, at the grocery store and in the waste of billions of tax dollars that could have been instead employed to make struggling Americans' lives better. This is but one example of this president's repeated and ongoing failure to listen to the advice of the intelligence community at the expense of our national security and the public.
Mark this is the bottom line as you wrote at the end…he thinks his gut is smarter than intelligence. We are all paying for that ignorance. Thank you for pure clarity on how we got here.
This is a superb assessment of the situation. Over the course of decades things in the IC can change due to policy emphasis, technology, organizational alterations within the IC or within agencies themselves. But certain realities, such as the relationship between the IC and the President, the IC’s most important customer, do not change. What Mark describes here is factually true today and the chemistry between the then DCI or DNI fifteen years ago would have been as temperamental and delicate, for better or worse, as now. Today’s unresolved problem is profound indeed, the fault of one man, and the IC is doing the very best it can under the awful circumstances it faces.
Wise words, supported by considerable experience. The line that stood out the most to me pointed to the root of the problem: President Trump's "utter disdain for the work" of U.S. intelligence, and "his supremely inflated confidence in his own sense of judgment." Another way to put that: The president of the United States is basically a blowhard who lacks the necessary intellect and emotional maturity that his job requires.
Thanks, Greg. I remember that! It was outrageous. But, unfortunately, true to form. Both uninformed and unbecoming of the office!
Yikes!
This was a great piece! Thank you for writing it. As a retired Naval Intelligence Officer, I have had these same concerns. I thought your examples were great, and I want to share one I wrote about last year. This was when our President used racist garbage from the internet, which I suspect was provided by Elon Musk, to humiliate the President of South Africa and basically accuse him of supporting white genocide. The fact that the Press Secretary would lie to and belittle a reporter who called them on it the next day, a black reporter, just made the whole disgusting episode beyond obscene.
A National Embarrassment We Should All Still be Outraged About
https://gregflo.substack.com/p/a-national-embarrassment-we-should?r=12fx35&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Shared with a Trump voter.
A President who fails to be informed by competent intelligence analysis not only does so at his peril, but at America's peril, as we have just witnessed in the costly debacle of an ill-conceived war against Iran.
Hundreds of our troops have lost life or limb in this war of presidential whim while every American is paying every day at the pump, at the grocery store and in the waste of billions of tax dollars that could have been instead employed to make struggling Americans' lives better. This is but one example of this president's repeated and ongoing failure to listen to the advice of the intelligence community at the expense of our national security and the public.
Excellent post. To the point. Intelligence can only inform. Those who ignore it can make bad decisions.
Mark this is the bottom line as you wrote at the end…he thinks his gut is smarter than intelligence. We are all paying for that ignorance. Thank you for pure clarity on how we got here.
Excellent post, bolstered by some fine comments below mine.
This is a superb assessment of the situation. Over the course of decades things in the IC can change due to policy emphasis, technology, organizational alterations within the IC or within agencies themselves. But certain realities, such as the relationship between the IC and the President, the IC’s most important customer, do not change. What Mark describes here is factually true today and the chemistry between the then DCI or DNI fifteen years ago would have been as temperamental and delicate, for better or worse, as now. Today’s unresolved problem is profound indeed, the fault of one man, and the IC is doing the very best it can under the awful circumstances it faces.
Very well done!