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Mercenary-in-Chief by @BloggersRUs

Published by Tom Sullivan on October 12, 2019

Mercenary-in-Chief
by Tom Sullivan


Russian Wagner Group mercenaries on the ground in the Central African Republic.

The Friday night news dump hasn’t dropped as I write this, but this tidbit has:

As Digby posted Friday, the acting president announced he is sending 1,500 more troops to Saudi Arabia. The deployment is a response to a request by Gen. Frank McKenzie of U.S. Central Command in the aftermath of a September attack on Saudi oil installations. CNN adds that move:

… follows a Thursday tweet from Trump decrying US involvement in the Middle East, in which he said that “going into the Middle East is the worst decision ever made!” He added that “we are slowly and carefully bringing our great soldiers & military home.”

That is unless someone there (with whom the president has substantial investments) is willing to pay us, Trump boasted Friday.

POTUS declared on the White House lawn the U.S. military is for rent. Mercenaries. Hired guns. Soldiers of fortune. No different from Blackwater>Xe Services>Academi contractors, just less well-paid. Trump considers them either props to show off to the strongmen of the world — to the Vladimir Putins and Kim Jong-uns — or else as commercial assets he can leverage. This will come as a shock to career military officers who have dedicated themselves to serving their country at risk to their lives.


U.S. mercenaries in Iraq.

Former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified before Congress Friday morning at risk to her career and paycheck how she perceives her 30-plus years of service to her country:

I have proudly promoted and served American interests as the representative of the American people and six different presidents over the last three decades. Throughout that time, I—like my colleagues at the State Department—have always believed that we enjoyed a sacred trust with our government.

We make a difference every day on issues that matter to the American people—whether it is war and peace, trade and investment, or simply helping with a lost passport. We repeatedly uproot our lives, and we frequently put ourselves in harm’s way to serve this nation. And we do that willingly, because we believe in America and its special role in the world. We also believe that,
in return, our government will have our backs and protect us if we come under attack from foreign interests.

That basic understanding no longer holds true.

Believe in America? Special role in the world? Where’s the winning in that, asks Trump? Where’s the profit?

Yovanovitch represents what is best about America. We need more like her not fewer. I’ve known a few Foreign Service Officers. They serve their country and the needs of U.S. nationals around the world from Afghanistan to Austria. They are the faces of U.S. policy that endure even as pictures of presidents on their office walls change every few years. Like career military officers, they perceive their work as a vocation that serves the greater good. And like teachers, they don’t go into public service to make money.

The concept is incomprehensible to a pitiless, damaged man who considers people who put their country’s interests before their own losers. That Donald J. Trump holds the lives and careers of such faithful Americans in his short-fingered hands is an atrocity, as is his corrupt administration.

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