Telegraphing
The Post performs contortions in the effort to frame Trump’s batshit tweet about Syria and Russia as a normal announcement of plans.
President Trump warned Wednesday that missiles “will be coming” toward Syria in response to a suspected chemical attack, and he taunted Russia for vowing to shoot down any incoming strikes.
That wasn’t a warning, it was a boast, an eruption, a look at me I can bomb things.
“Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’” the president wrote on Twitter, referring to missile strikes that have appeared likely since the weekend deaths of more than 40 Syrian civilians, including children.
As if it were just normal for a president to “write on Twitter” in such a childish way.
Trump’s taunt was the first explicit U.S. statement that a military response is in the offing, and it marked a turnabout for a president who ridiculed his predecessor, Barack Obama, for allegedly telegraphing military strategy.
Or to put it another way, Trump’s boast-and-taunt spilled the beans about military plans because Trump was in the mood to brag and bully.
With his series of tweets, Trump did precisely what he vowed he would never to do: telegraph his moves.
During his 2016 campaign, Trump regularly attacked Obama for previewing U.S. military strategy, which he argued gave the enemy an advantage by allowing it to fortify itself for the coming attack.
“I have often said that General MacArthur and General Patton would be in a state of shock if they were alive today to see the way President Obama and Hillary Clinton try to recklessly announce their every move before it happens — like they did in Iraq — so that the enemy can prepare and adapt,” Trump said in an August 2016 speech on terrorism.
As president, Trump has boasted that he does not disclose his plans ahead of time. In April 2017, as he contemplated a strike in Syria, Trump said, “One of the things I think you’ve noticed about me is: Militarily, I don’t like to say where I’m going and what I’m doing.”
Maybe he thinks that saying it on Twitter doesn’t count because it’s not official. Maybe he thinks everyone sees it this way so that what he says on Twitter just magically doesn’t telegraph anything. Maybe he really is that stupid.
Sometimes announcing intentions is enough to induce a desired response without having to follow through with the intentions announced. This can be a good thing, when perfomed by intelligent adults who have at least a passing acquaintance with reality and an actual desired outcome in mind. Not so much when done by a thin-skinned braggart unfit to empty the spittoons in the office he currently occupies (but does not fill), who would rather pretend to drive Big Trucks than be told anything at all about anything whatsoever by anyone, ever, and who is obsessed with the size of his Big Button.
“That wasn’t a warning, it was a boast, an eruption, a look at me I can bomb things.”
It was a small child playing with toy soldiers while making the pew pews and explosion noises and just as spittle-flecked, but with none of the charm.
Actually, I’m usually down with things that MacArthur and Patton wouldn’t like. Trump has picked two of the most bellicose and badly behaved generals to be his guide…but does that surprise anyone?
Gnu Atheism
Its unlikely that Trump could name any other generals offhand…except perhaps Custer?
By what inner process does Donnie, who capacity for ignoring Vlad’s crimes seems limitless, suddenly erupt into hasty military action? An impulse missle strike last April, followed by a return to grovelling before the Russians. What was Fox running the day before?
“By what inner process does Donnie … suddenly erupt into hasty military action?”
By the process of wanting to “change the headlines.” (That’s from the scuttlebutt that he didn’t actually want Bolton, but he did want to change the headlines away from the Daniels story.)
Obviously you reserve a war for when you have really massive headline pushing to do. Comey’s ABC discussion of his “I am a noble as well as useful idiot” book? News of what they find in Cohen’s lairs? As they say in the biz, stay tuned. (I wish it was an option not to!)