re: #273 lawhawk

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JFC! For some of us old geezers veteran observers, this brings back unpleasant memories of the Vietnam Era: supposedly “objective” analyses of a military situation (/intervention/involvement) being either manipulated or ignored in order to “justify” a - probably misguided and/or counterproductive - policy.

As I recall the story, in 1963 (?) President Kennedy sent both military (DoD) and civilian (DoS) delegations to South Vietnam to assess the state of that government’s counterinsurgency efforts. When they returned, Kennedy had them both to the WH to deliver a recap of their findings: and supposedly, when they done, asked them if they had even visited the same country…..

At least JFK listened to his “experts” - whatever his policy choices might have turned out to be - I shudder (as with most things) to imagine Trump in the same situation: he’d probably just hear the recaps, go on to regale them with golf stories and bragging about the stock market, then set policy via whoever was next in the room…