Originally Posted by
Robert Reich
Of many oddities last night in Donald Trump’s handling of questions over how he’d function as commander-in-chief, during NBC’s “Commander-in-Chief Forum” last night, 4 stand out:
1. Instead of explaining his previous comment that he knew more about the Islamic State than America's generals, he instead disparaged those generals by saying they'd been "reduced to rubble." Then he suggested his plan to defeat the Islamic State — long something he said was a secret — would instead be formulated with help from top generals. Then he casually indicated he might just fire most of the generals anyway.
2. Trump returned to the old idea that America should have taken Iraq's oil after ousting Saddam Hussein, in violation of international law. He once suggested this should have happened to provide revenue to wounded soldiers; now he argues it would have blocked the rise of the Islamic State (or ISIS, as he calls the group). He also said he had always been against the Iraq War, when in fact he’s on record in the past as supporting it.
3. He said he’d have “different generals” heading the military. But under law, a president can’t summarily fire generals. During a debate in March, Trump was asked what he would do if the military refused to carry out his orders to commit acts of torture or target civilians. "They won't refuse," Trump replied. "They're not going to refuse me. Believe me."
4. Trump said that Russian president Vladimir Putin has "been a leader far more than our president has been." Hello? Putin -- who has squelched dissent in Russia and taken over parts of Crimea is more of a leader than President Obama? Apparently, to Trump, "leadership" means dictatorial control.
At a forum specifically designed to probe how Trump would function as command-in-chief, he displayed complete ignorance of his authority as commander-in-chief, as well as of democracy.
just kidding. I don't care.
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