ET Williams

The Doctor of Common Sense

Blog

by

Trump Gives Generals Freedom to Wage War on ISIS

So far, the generals want to blow up shit. How many are like MacArthur after Obama’s purge?

Trump Gives Generals More Freedom on ISIS Fight

Pentagon brass take lead on decisions that were made by White House under Obama; ‘I authorize my military,’ Trump says

U.S. military commanders are stepping up their fight against Islamist extremism as President Donald Trump’s administration urges them to make more battlefield decisions on their own.

As the White House works on a broad strategy, America’s top military commanders are implementing the vision articulated by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis: Decimate Islamic State’s Middle East strongholds and ensure that the militants don’t establish new beachheads in places such as Afghanistan.

“There’s nothing formal, but it is beginning to take shape,” a senior U.S. defense official said Friday. “There is a sense among these commanders that they are able to do a bit more—and so they are.”

While military commanders complained about White House micromanagement under former President Barack Obama, they are now being told they have more freedom to make decisions without consulting Mr. Trump. Military commanders around the world are being encouraged to stretch the limits of their existing authorities when needed, but to think seriously about the consequences of their decisions.

The more muscular military approach is expanding as the Trump administration debates a comprehensive new strategy to defeat Islamic State. Mr. Mattis has sketched out such a global plan, but the administration has yet to agree on it. While the political debate continues, the military is being encouraged to take more aggressive steps against Islamic extremists around the world.

The firmer military stance has fueled growing concerns among State Department officials working on Middle East policy that the Trump administration is giving short shrift to the diplomatic tools the Obama administration favored. Removing the carrot from the traditional carrot-and-stick approach, some State Department officials warn, could hamper the pursuit of long-term strategies needed to prevent volatile conflicts from reigniting once the shooting stops.

The new approach was on display this week in Afghanistan, where Gen. John Nicholson, head of the U.S.-led coalition there, decided to use one of the military’s biggest nonnuclear bombs—a Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB—to hit a remote Islamic State underground network of tunnels and caves.

Gen. Nicholson said Friday it was too early to say how many militants had been killed in the previous day’s bombing. The Afghan Defense Ministry retracted an earlier statement that the strike had killed 36 militants, saying it was unable to provide precise figures yet.

A military official for the coalition who viewed footage of the bombing said it was difficult to make out details of its effects beyond a “mushroom cloud” of smoke rising into the sky. He added that a second MOAB was available for use in the country, but no decision had been made on whether it should be deployed.

Islamic State’s Amaq news agency posted a statement on Friday saying none of its fighters were killed or wounded in the strike, which took place in Nangarhar province, along the country’s mountainous border with Pakistan.

Gen. Nicholson indicated that he—not the White House—decided to drop the bomb. “The ammunition we used last night is designed to destroy caves and tunnels. This was the right weapon against the right target,” he told reporters Friday. “I am fortunate that my chain of command allows me the latitude to make assessments on the ground.”

A senior administration official said Mr. Trump didn’t know about the weapon’s use until it had been dropped.

Mr. Mattis “is telling them, ‘It’s not the same as it was, you don’t have to ask us before you drop a MOAB,’” the senior defense official said. “Technically there’s no piece of paper that says you have to ask the president to drop a MOAB. But last year this time, the way [things were] meant, ‘I’m going to drop a MOAB, better let the White House know.’”

Indeed, on Thursday Mr. Trump himself emphasized the free rein he gives the Pentagon. “I authorize my military,” Mr. Trump said. “We have given them total authorization.”

On Friday, the U.S. military said it has sent dozens of soldiers to Somalia, where Mr. Trump recently gave the head of the U.S. Africa Command more leeway to carry out counterterrorism operations against al-Shabaab, the al Qaeda affiliate in the area.

The more aggressive military approach comes as the long slog against Islamic State is bearing fruit. The group is on the back foot in its Iraqi stronghold, Mosul, and is facing a hard battle to defend its de facto Syrian capital, Raqqa.

The U.S. has sent more forces into Iraq and Syria, stepped up support for Saudi Arabia’s fight against Houthi militants in Yemen, and dispatched an aircraft carrier to the Korean Peninsula amid growing evidence that North Korea is preparing for a new nuclear test.

Loren DeJonge Schulman, who served as senior adviser to Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, said a more assertive military campaign is destined to fail unless it is part of a broader strategy against Islamic State, also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL.

“It’s crazy that the Trump administration thinks that ‘taking the gloves off’ is either a winning strategy against ISIL or a useful narrative for the White House or the military,” said Ms. Schulman, now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Derek Chollet, a former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the Obama administration, said giving the Pentagon more freedom is one of the most significant things Mr. Trump has done.

“It’s not clear to me that he’s making any tough decisions,” said Mr. Chollet, now executive vice president at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “All that he’s essentially done is ceded decision authority down to protect himself from making tough calls.”

The flip side of the Trump administration’s emphasis on a more-free-wheeling military approach to Islamic State is an apparent reduction of the use of soft-power tools—economic development, diplomacy and democracy-building—favored by the Obama White House.

Some State Department officials describe being cut out from the White House’s counterterrorism strategy in the Mideast, with efforts to nurture democratic governments and push for more secular education systems carrying less weight in the White House’s evolving approach.

“State is being systematically sidelined,” said a State Department official who has worked on counterterrorism issues in Washington and abroad.

The official said the White House strategy of prioritizing military might over diplomacy makes it hard to persuade Mideast allies to relax their grip on power. Many of Washington’s closest Arab allies are autocratic regimes guilty of human-rights abuses that critics say fuel terrorism.

“The problem there is that in many of the places where you need carrots, those carrots are often seen as threats to local governments,” the official said, referring to democracy and society-building programs the State Department funds across the Mideast.

Egypt offers a prime example of the Trump administration’s leanings. When Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, a military strongman, visited the White House earlier this month, Mr. Trump gave him a warm welcome. Mr. Obama had refused to meet him because of his regime’s alleged human-rights abuses.

U.S. officials in the Mideast say a counterterror approach that focuses solely on military might without programs to fight the causes that feed extremism could backfire, leading groups like Islamic State to go underground and wait for future opportunities to re-emerge. They are particularly concerned about Raqqa, where a U.S.-led military coalition is closing in around the city but post-liberation stabilization plans aren’t finalized as State Department officials wait for White House guidance.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-gives-generals-free-rein-on-isis-fight-1492218994

by

Le Pen Blasts Trump on NATO Reversal

Is she right?

Le Pen criticizes Trump’s new found NATO stance

Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen criticized President Donald Trump Friday for his sudden embrace of NATO.

“Undeniably he is in contradiction with the commitments he had made,” Le Pen said in an interview with France Info radio. “I am coherent, I don’t change my mind in a few days. He had said he would not be the policeman of the world, that he would be the president of the United States and would not be the policeman of the world, but it seems today that he has changed his mind.”

Her comments come just two days after Trump hosted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House and declared that the military alliance is no longer outdated, which had been a frequent refrain of his during the 2016 campaign.

Donald Trump finds allies on Europe’s right

“I said it was obsolete,” he said Wednesday. “It’s no longer obsolete.”

Le Pen, leader of The National Front, went on to say that while she does not know if Trump would continue to abandon his “America First” approach, she herself would stick to a France first approach if elected president.

“Will he persist, or is it a political coup which facilitates his domestic policy, I have absolutely no idea. But I am coherent in my analyses. When something favors France I say so, when it doesn’t I say so too,” she said.

Trump and Le Pen were seen as allies during the 2016 US presidential campaign. The two shared many nationalist policy stances on immigration and globalization. The French politician had said that Trump’s presidential win “shows that people are taking their future back.”

Le Pen’s criticism comes as other nationalist politicians around the world have taken issue with Trump’s recent policy changes. Trump ally and pro-Brexit leader Nigel Farage said he was “very surprised” at Trump’s decision to strike a Syrian airbase in retaliation for the regime’s alleged chemical weapons attack against civilians.

Le Pen has been a strong critic of NATO during the French presidential campaign and has included pulling France back from NATO in her campaign platform. The leader of the National Front party, on track to make it through to the run-off election on May 7, has recently seen her momentum slowed.

“I consider that France does not have to submit to the calendar of the United States, so I want France to leave the integrated command of NATO,” she said.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/14/politics/le-pen-trump-nato/index.html

by

Clinton Advisor Says Obama ‘Looked Kind Of Like A Jackass’

He doesn’t just look like one. He IS a jackass.

Former Hillary Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri said former President Obama “looked kind of like a jackass” when he appeared on actor Zach Galifianakis’ web show “Between Two Ferns” in 2014.

Palmieri made the comments while speaking at a Yale University event on Thursday about the 2016 presidential horserace and the current political landscape. The comment was one of several blunt remarks Palmieri made, including referring to ISIS beheadings as a “manufactured press story.”

“I’ve obviously thought about the election quite a bit,” Palmieri sighed. “If I had to sum up the election in a single sentence, and even if Hillary had won it would be a significant problem, it would be that the country is divided between people who think we should be engaged in the world and those who do not.”

A longtime veteran of the Democratic Party, Palmieri first served as Deputy White House Press Secretary under the Clinton Administration, later joining John Edwards’ 2004 campaign as National Press Secretary. From 2013-2015, Palmieri worked as Communications Director for the Obama White House, resigning to serve Hillary Clinton’s campaign under the same title.

“We did Zach Galifianakis’ ‘Between Two Ferns’ to get people interested in healthcare,” said Palmieri, referencing the actor’s sketch-comedy web-series that separately hosted both Obama and Clinton. “[Hillary Clinton] did the deadpan face even better than Obama. The first cut of Obama, he looked a little too real; he looked kind of like a jackass.”

“[With Obama] we had to meet people where they are,” continued Palmieri when discussing the differences between working for the Obama administration and Clinton’s campaign. “There were the obvious crazy things happening like the website melting down, Ukraine, and the horrible ISIS beheadings; these sort of manufactured press stories that hopefully you all have forgotten about.”

“With Hillary, all I wanted to achieve was the person that she actually is to break through. And we had a very different charge than any other presidential candidate. With any other presidential candidate, it’s about how they’re going to solve a problem. No one doubted Hillary’s ability to get a job; they wanted to know why she wanted it.”

Attributing Clinton’s loss to “sexism” and the “irrational hatred that hangs around her,” Palmieri dismissed criticism towards the campaign’s management as “distracting.”

“Everyday I saw something that showed Donald Trump would be president,” she said.

Palmieri admitted that she foresaw a Trump win in September, although the campaign faced considerable difficulties well before then.

“The hardest stuff was beating back the FBI investigation in July 2015,” said Palmieri. “We were fighting with the New York Times until four in the morning; they refused to change the headline.”

Reflecting on the most difficult day of the campaign, Palmieri said October 7th: the day the Access Hollywood tape was leaked.

“First, we were doing debate prep. Then, the Director of National Intelligence put out a letter saying, remarkably, that Russia had directed the hacks and even named the entities: DC Leaks and Wikileaks. We were like, ‘Oh my God, finally! Now I can finally get the press to pay attention to us and Russia as an issue,’” she said. “We were all excited and then someone said, ‘So there’s this Access Hollywood tape…’ And then literally 20 minutes later the first Wikileaks email is linked to John Podesta.”

Before taking questions from the audience, Palmieri offered up a final remark.

“When I started the Clinton campaign, I thought I was a great person to do the campaign. That’s why I left the Obama White House: I have a lot of crisis experience, I can manage a story well and direct a narrative a certain way. I could do none of those things in the 2016 election.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/14/clinton-communications-director-on-obama-he-looked-kind-of-like-a-jackass/#ixzz4eHMdrtsC

by

Leftist Idiots Say McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce Is ‘Low Key Racist’

Dipping sauce is now racist.

McDonalds Should Not Bring Back Szechuan Sauce Because It’s ‘Low-Key Racist’

McDonald’s bringing back its famed Szechuan dipping sauce “would be a mistake” because reducing an entire country’s cuisine into one flavor is “problematic” and “disrespectful,” according to a writer for Inverse.com.

Rick and Morty, a popular Adult Swim animated show, dedicated part of its April 1 season 3 premiere to ask McDonald’s to bring back the Chinese-inspired sweet and sour dipping condiment created as part of a marketing gimmick for the release of Disney’s 1998 animated film Mulan. Many fans on the internet began tweeting at McDonald’s, asking for a reboot of a dipping sauce that disappeared 19 years ago.

McDonald’s responded to the show’s request vaguely on Twitter, but bringing back the sweet and sour sauce could dovetail nicely with the Disney’s live action remake of Mulan set to be released in 2018. But McDonald’s will have to weigh the cost of pleasing internet fans with that of offending Asian-Americans with “cultural and culinary reductionism.”

“In fact, rolling out Szechuan sauce with the original Mulan was itself problematic,” Yasmin Tayag writes in her article “McDonald’s Shouldn’t Bring Back Szechuan Sauce for the ‘Mulan’ Remake,”

When Mulan, and the McDonald’s dipping sauce, came out in 1998, “critics were less aware … of how the film collapsed millennia of complex Chinese history and culture into a flat, oversimplified pastiche,” Tayag writes. Or, perhaps “they just cared less.”

Szechuan sauce, Tayag contends, does not resemble the flavors of Sichuan, a region in central China, but rather condenses flavors found throughout that country. The story of Mulan does not even take place in Sichuan, meaning the name Szechuan sauce was likely picked not because of the flavors, but to make it sound more Chinese.

Just asking McDonald’s to bring back the sauce is “low-key racist,” Tayag said in a tweet.

Though Tayag admits that “nobody’s really sure what went into the Szechuan sauce formulated by McDonald’s,” or what it actually tastes like, recreations by hobbyist chefs who actually tasted the sauce “remember it being sugary sweet, salty with soy sauce, and tangy with rice wine vinegar or sake.”

That would make the sauce more similar to the sweet and sour sauce common in American-Chinese food, which is far different than any food served in China.

Pairing that American-influenced Chinese sauce with Mulan is a problem because “there’s nothing American-Chinese about Mulan, a legendary girl who grew up in China centuries before America even existed,” Tayag says, and  “the last thing Asian-Americans need is a sauce to obscure the diversity of their cultures in the same shade of faceless, nationless, Western-approved brown.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/14/mcdonalds-should-not-bring-back-szechuan-sauce-because-its-low-key-racist/#ixzz4eHL4HiPe

by

Children Go To Rehab for Smartphone Addictions

This is what’s wrong with children

Children as young as 13 being treated for addiction to mobile phones

Technology brings many advantages but for some – especially children – it can have much more damaging effects, say experts.

Children as young as 13 are checking in to a US treatment centre to try to break their addiction to mobile devices.

Experts have warned that exposing children to electronic screens leaves them at risk of permanent damage.

The reSTART Life Centre near Seattle is the only treatment unit of its kind in the western world and helps youngsters with addictions to digital technology, including video games.

Its founder Dr Hilarie Cash told Sky News: “When you start handing these devices to young children and they’re distracted by the movement, the colour and sound coming from this device, that is mesmerising enough that it will override all those natural instincts that children actually have for movement and exploration and social interaction.”

She advises people of all ages to restrict their use of devices to certain scheduled times and says families should confront their worries about the increasing influence of technology.

“I think it is really important to come together as a family and talk about tech and how much is good, how much is ok and when does it start to interfere with family relationships, with responsibilities, with sleep, and many other things,” she said.

That advice would be welcomed by the Koch family in Los Angeles. Michael, 14, and Sophia, 7, are dedicated to their phones and tablets to a degree that concerns their parents.

Dad Robert Koch said: “I can punish him and say ‘If you don’t clean your room, this is going to happen’ and he doesn’t care but if I say ‘You don’t clean your room, I’m taking away your phone’ he has a nervous breakdown.

“It has come to the point where that is how you threaten a kid, you take away his data and he freaks out.”

Mum Tammy added: “When I see his reaction it is like he has an addiction.

“We might have to do an intervention, I’m not kidding, because it is like an addict.”

But they worry that restricting access to technology risks damaging the future career prospects of their children in an increasingly connected world.

Dr Cash, whose centre is a short drive from Microsoft’s home in Redmond in Washington state, said evidence shows people can learn necessary career skills within a year and that tech firms want to employee well-rounded and developed staff.

One of those undergoing treatment at reSTART offered some advice to young people.

Xander, who has been at the centre for four weeks, said: “Go explore the world.

“There is a whole world to see and if you’re staring at a screen it is unhealthy.”

Michael Koch disagrees and believes his generation’s tech use is simply a fact of life: “We grew up with phones, we grew up with technology, we are just born with it.

“I don’t think I’m addicted.”

http://news.sky.com/story/children-as-young-as-13-being-treated-for-addiction-to-mobile-phones-10836226

by

Assad Says US Aided ISIS When We Bombed Syria

The propaganda machine would have us believe this man gassed his own people but only killed 70.

Assad: America’s ‘Deep State’ – Not Trump – Blew Up Airbase in Syria

In his lengthy interview with AFP on Thursday, Syrian President Bashar Assad mused that the American “Deep State” was more responsible for pelting his Sharyat airbase with 59 cruise missiles than President Donald Trump.

When the interviewer proposed that the retaliatory missile strike marked a drastic change in Trump’s position on Syria, Assad insisted the U.S. and Syria could still be partners in fighting terrorism, once Trump wrested control of Washington away from the military-industrial complex.

“If they are serious in fighting terrorists, we’re going to be partners, and I said not only the United States. Whoever wants to fight the terrorists, we are partners,” said Assad, in the transcript provided by Syria’s SANA news service.

“This is basic for us, basic principle, let’s say,” he continued:

Actually, what has been proven recently, as I said earlier, that they are hand in glove with those terrorists, the United States and the West, they’re not serious in fighting the terrorists, and yesterday some of their statesmen were defending ISIS. They were saying that ISIS doesn’t have chemical weapons. They are defending ISIS against the Syrian government and the Syrian Army. So, actually, you cannot talk about partnership between us who work against the terrorists and who fight the terrorism and the others who are supporting explicitly the terrorists.

Assad said the American missile strike was “the first proof that it’s not about the President of the United States — it’s about the regime and the Deep State, or the deep regime in the United States.”

He said the Deep State “is still the same, it doesn’t change.”

“The president is only one of the performers on their theatre, if he wants to be a leader, he cannot, because as some say he wanted to be a leader, Trump wanted to be a leader, but every president there, if he wants to be a real leader, later he’s going to eat his words, swallow his pride if he has pride at all, and make a 180 degree U-turn, otherwise he would pay the price politically,” said Assad.

Asked if he anticipated another U.S. attack, Assad replied:

As long as the United States is being governed by this military-industrial complex, the financial companies, banks, and what you call deep regime, and works for the vested interest of those groups, of course. It could happen anytime, anywhere, not only in Syria.

Assad lamented that his military could not retaliate against the American ships that fired cruise missiles at Syria but expressed hope the Russians might do it for him.

“For us, as a small country, yeah, of course it is, everybody knows that. It’s out of reach. I mean, they can have missiles from another continent. We all know that. They are a great power, we’re not a great power. Talking about the Russians, this is another issue,” he said.

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/04/13/assad-americas-deep-state-blew-up-my-airbase/