Buckle up, folks ~ it/everything is gonna get worse as we approach November 2020 ~ ~ a few "live links" in original ~ Sooz

Why the sidelining of John Bolton in the White House matters
09/03/19 11:20 AM
By Steve Benen

For months, the political world has seen a series of reports about the growing distance between Donald Trump and White House National Security Adviser John Bolton. At times, that distance has been literal: when the president traveled to the Korean peninsula in June, and entered North Korea, he brought with him family members and a Fox News personality, but not his top aide on matters of national security.

The New York Times reported in May that Trump and Bolton “have never clicked personally,” and there’s never been the kind of “chemistry” the president considers important.

But the division is about far more than personalities. This Washington Post report from the other day amazed me.


Trump has differed with his national security adviser on everything from Iran to Venezuela to North Korea, but Bolton’s opposition to diplomacy in Afghanistan has apparently “irritated” the president and “led aides to leave the National Security Council out of sensitive discussions about the agreement.”

According to the Post’s report, Bolton asked for a copy of the draft agreement the United States is trying to strike with the Taliban, but his request was denied: “[T]he U.S. envoy leading the negotiations, Zalmay Khalilzad, denied the request, saying Bolton could read the agreement in the presence of a senior official but not leave with it in hand, U.S. officials said.”

Just so we’re absolutely clear, my point is not to present Bolton as some kind of sympathetic victim. I thought Trump hiring him for this post was ridiculous and I’ll be relieved when Bolton is no longer a White House official.

But in a practical sense; therein lies the point: if Bolton has been sidelined to such a degree that officials are keeping him in the dark on major national security questions, for all intents and purposes, he’s not actually doing the job anymore.

In a functioning modern White House, the national security adviser is integral to the process through which a president and his/her team make decisions related to foreign policy, intelligence, and national security.

Just when it seemed the dysfunction on Team Trump couldn’t get worse, these guys manage to kick things up a notch.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/why-the-sidelining-john-bolton-the-white-house-matters

As much as I want and end to the war, I am very concerned about the risk of peace to the US and the Afghanis. Bolton sure wouldn't be any help in this process, however who is the intelligence officer guiding the decision making? No one, I fear. This is a hasty, peace at all costs so I can say I ended the war deal. And there will be no allies when it backfires.

Frankly I think Bolton is going to huff into his mustache, stomp his little feet and storm out of the White House in tears at any point now. The cowardly old "I wasn't going to die in some Asian rice paddy" draft evader and war monger as long as it's somebody else getting killed has had a bad run of it. First he thought he had it made with Bush and then he wound up getting sidelined at the U.N. where nobody, including Bush, paid any attention to him. Then after eight years wandering in the wilderness under Obama and two more as an "also ran" under Grabem he was suddenly thrust into the limelight just in time for Grabem to change tack and decide to abandon war and love the country's enemies to pieces instead. With Grabem now exchanging little love notes with Kim, Putin and the Taliban, Bolton's back where he was under Bush - all mustache and no cattle.