In an interview on CBS This Morning, Bob Woodward did not evade the most alarming suggestions in his new look at the Trump White House. Those around Trump describe him as ignorant, irrational, prone to tantrums, and dangerous.
"You look at the operation of this White House and you have to say, 'Let's hope to God we don't have a crisis,'" said Bob Woodward. [...]
"People who work for him are worried ... that he will sign things or give orders that threaten the national security or the financial security of the country, or of the world," Woodward said.
Asked how staff could "get away" with thwarting Trump policy merely by stealing documents from his desk, Woodward replied that Trump "doesn't remember. If it's not on his desk, if it's not immediately available for action, it goes away."
Woodward recounted Trump drafting a would-be tweet ordering the withdrawal of family members of military forces stationed in South Korea, a move he may have considered the precursor to withdrawing troops entirely but which North Korea would have taken as a preparatory move towards war:
That tweet was never sent, because of a back channel message from North Korea that it would regard a pullout of dependents as a sign the U.S. was preparing to attack. "At that moment there was a sense of profound alarm in the Pentagon leadership that, 'My God, one tweet and we have reliable information that the North Koreans are going to read this as an attack is imminent,'" Woodward said.
Woodward's warning to the country is ominous. "People better wake up to what's going on."
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On this date at Daily Kos in 2007—Gen. Petraeus’s “Powell” Moment:
In its must-read editorial today, "Hiding Behind the General," The New York Times lays out the case for caution on the eve of General Petraeus's testimony on Iraq. It notes, as many have mentioned, that six weeks before the 2004 election, General Petraeus penned an op-ed in which he "rhapsodized about 'tangible progress' and how the Iraqi forces were 'developing steadily,' an assessment that may have swayed some voters but has long since proved to be untrue." It also emphasizes that tomorrow's testimony should be viewed in light of the many reports from independent agencies and organizations which paint an accurate and dire picture for the future of American involvement in Iraq.
The editorial also brings up a chilling comparison:Mr. Bush, deeply unpopular with the American people, is counting on the general to restore credibility to his discredited Iraq policy. He frequently refers to the escalation of American forces last January as General Petraeus’s strategy — as if it were not his own creation. The situation echoes the way Mr. Bush made Colin Powell — another military man with an overly honed sense of a soldier’s duty — play frontman at the United Nations in 2003 to make the case that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Bush cannot once again subcontract his responsibility. This is his war.
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