General Lloyd Fredendall was the perfect example of a peacetime commander unfit for a war-time command. The refusal to recognize this by Eisenhower led to the deaths of thousands of Allied troops at the Kasserine Pass.
Last Thursday the first 2024 presidential debate coincided with a busy night in my house where we were working hard to get ready for a big family event. As such I couldn’t watch the showdown between President BIden and former President Trump with full focus. There had never been in living memory an example of a president and his predecessor debating like this on the national stage. However, what I was able to gather out of it was that all of the preparation and coaching done for Biden was in vain and he didn’t have the mental agility or stamina to appear normal and speak coherently. I don’t think Trump had the most remarkable performance, but it was a clear victory based mostly on the weaknesses of his opponent.
However, there is one moment that did stand out to me, one that defined the debate by pointing out not only Biden’s weaknesses but those of his surrounding cast of enablers. Trump asked him whether he had fired anyone in response to the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Of course, Biden has been slow to make personnel changes, unlike Trump whose catch phrase was “you’re fired”. The issue of the Afghan withdrawal raised by Trump isn't just one of assigning blame and taking responsibility, but also ensuring that there are consequences for those who make reckless decisions that risk lives and unfortunately also cost them. In that engagement at Kabul’s Abbey Gate thirteen US service members from three different services were killed. Many critics of President Biden have blamed him for their deaths, but beyond that there was an obligation to investigate whoever oversaw the actual withdrawal effort and remove them if their recklessness or negligence led to the deaths of the troops and the equally concerning stranding of American citizens in the country under Taliban control. But no one from then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley downward appears to have faced professional consequences.
But removing subordinates, whether in military or civilian life, isn't just about addressing the failure it is also essential to finding the right person to recover from it. When the USA entered WW2 in 1941 its troops were forced to confront enemies on the battlefield that were more seasoned and experienced, and they often were commanded by officers who had only peacetime or stateside. This would cost Allied forces in North Africa dearly as they were commanded by Maj. Gen. Lloyd Fredendall. Thanks to his arrogant attitude, poor relationship with his British allies, and exposure of his troops by spreading them out, they were repeatedly embarrassed in engagements between late 1942 and February 1943 in Tunisia against German and Italian forces fighting to retain a foothold there. Fredendall perplexed colleagues and his own staff by using non-standard terminology such as "popguns" for artillery. His strategic blunders led to the humiliating and costly loss at the Battle of Kasserine Pass that cost the lives of over 10,000 Allied troops. This was the last straw and Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower replaced Fredenhall. Under his substitute the Allies succeeded in driving Axis forces out of Tunisia, invade Sicily and knock Italy out of the war. These were the first significant American victories prior to the Normandy invasion of 1944, and they would have probably never been possible if Fredendall hadn't been removed in favour of a much more dynamic and ruthless commander, Major General George Patton.
In using this comparison, it would be wrong to say that Trump's "you're fired" approach is always correct. He has made a lot of bad hires like former attorney Michael Cohen, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and many more. Getting it right the first time would obviously be better, and notwithstanding some of his accomplishments most Trump supporters are like me perplexed at why he did not fire Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, two officials that he kept and arguably helped aggravate the COVID19 crisis.
Other questions that were not asked by either the moderators or Biden would have significantly evened the score in the debate. Here is what I would have asked Trump in Biden's place in order to shift the attention away from myself.
1. You already were president and were promising a lot of the same things the first time you ran. Why didn't you deliver back then?
2. Can you explain exactly why you used to be pro-choice yet had a late-life conversion to the pro-life position?
3. How do you explain that even when you were president so many people working under you were saying that actions you took and statements you made were illegal?
4. Why do you always say you're such good friends with foreign strongmen like Kim Jong Un while also saying you would be tough on them?
Even if one disagrees with the premise of each of these questions, as I do, Biden needed to put Trump on defense and to say absurd things that would alienate undecided voters. But instead he seemed to be flailing and angry while Trump was calm and restrained. Other candidates might have performed better against Trump. One of them, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, has rejected calls to stand instead of Biden while also warning that the president may have lost her state four months before the election. The irony here is that the Democrats in 2020 nominated a man who was well past his prime and told the American people that the "adults are back".
Biden's message wasn't that he was a visionary leader, but that he would always "listen to the experts", at the time a knock against Trump's clashes with public health officials like Birx and Fauci. Then for the last four years as one crisis after another unfolded each "expert" he put in place from Pete Buttigieg to Janet Yellen to Kamala Harris has flopped and are in some cases less popular than him. Not firing them has meant that all of them have closed ranks to oppose replacing him even as they deny his obvious decline. Only now are some elected Democrats like congressmen Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Jared Golden (D-ME) breaking ranks with him. The few Democrats that did decide to be truthful earlier, including former primary challengers Dean Phillips, Marianne Williamson, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., were derided as being Trump enablers. Even abrasive internet pundit Cenk Uygur, who launched his own illegal primary bid against Biden in the hopes of nudging him out, was able to warn the Democrats that this would happen. Now after last week’s self-destruction the president could end up being the person most responsible for getting Trump elected again.
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Biden's job secure stooges are just as much to blame as his grifting family.
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Last Thursday the first 2024 presidential debate coincided with a busy night in my house where we were working hard to get ready for a big family event. As such I couldn’t watch the showdown between President BIden and former President Trump with full focus. There had never been in living memory an example of a president and his predecessor debating like this on the national stage. However, what I was able to gather out of it was that all of the preparation and coaching done for Biden was in vain and he didn’t have the mental agility or stamina to appear normal and speak coherently. I don’t think Trump had the most remarkable performance, but it was a clear victory based mostly on the weaknesses of his opponent.
However, there is one moment that did stand out to me, one that defined the debate by pointing out not only Biden’s weaknesses but those of his surrounding cast of enablers. Trump asked him whether he had fired anyone in response to the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Of course, Biden has been slow to make personnel changes, unlike Trump whose catch phrase was “you’re fired”. The issue of the Afghan withdrawal raised by Trump isn't just one of assigning blame and taking responsibility, but also ensuring that there are consequences for those who make reckless decisions that risk lives and unfortunately also cost them. In that engagement at Kabul’s Abbey Gate thirteen US service members from three different services were killed. Many critics of President Biden have blamed him for their deaths, but beyond that there was an obligation to investigate whoever oversaw the actual withdrawal effort and remove them if their recklessness or negligence led to the deaths of the troops and the equally concerning stranding of American citizens in the country under Taliban control. But no one from then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley downward appears to have faced professional consequences.
But removing subordinates, whether in military or civilian life, isn't just about addressing the failure it is also essential to finding the right person to recover from it. When the USA entered WW2 in 1941 its troops were forced to confront enemies on the battlefield that were more seasoned and experienced, and they often were commanded by officers who had only peacetime or stateside. This would cost Allied forces in North Africa dearly as they were commanded by Maj. Gen. Lloyd Fredendall. Thanks to his arrogant attitude, poor relationship with his British allies, and exposure of his troops by spreading them out, they were repeatedly embarrassed in engagements between late 1942 and February 1943 in Tunisia against German and Italian forces fighting to retain a foothold there. Fredendall perplexed colleagues and his own staff by using non-standard terminology such as "popguns" for artillery. His strategic blunders led to the humiliating and costly loss at the Battle of Kasserine Pass that cost the lives of over 10,000 Allied troops. This was the last straw and Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower replaced Fredenhall. Under his substitute the Allies succeeded in driving Axis forces out of Tunisia, invade Sicily and knock Italy out of the war. These were the first significant American victories prior to the Normandy invasion of 1944, and they would have probably never been possible if Fredendall hadn't been removed in favour of a much more dynamic and ruthless commander, Major General George Patton.
In using this comparison, it would be wrong to say that Trump's "you're fired" approach is always correct. He has made a lot of bad hires like former attorney Michael Cohen, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and many more. Getting it right the first time would obviously be better, and notwithstanding some of his accomplishments most Trump supporters are like me perplexed at why he did not fire Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, two officials that he kept and arguably helped aggravate the COVID19 crisis.
Other questions that were not asked by either the moderators or Biden would have significantly evened the score in the debate. Here is what I would have asked Trump in Biden's place in order to shift the attention away from myself.
1. You already were president and were promising a lot of the same things the first time you ran. Why didn't you deliver back then?
2. Can you explain exactly why you used to be pro-choice yet had a late-life conversion to the pro-life position?
3. How do you explain that even when you were president so many people working under you were saying that actions you took and statements you made were illegal?
4. Why do you always say you're such good friends with foreign strongmen like Kim Jong Un while also saying you would be tough on them?
Even if one disagrees with the premise of each of these questions, as I do, Biden needed to put Trump on defense and to say absurd things that would alienate undecided voters. But instead he seemed to be flailing and angry while Trump was calm and restrained. Other candidates might have performed better against Trump. One of them, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, has rejected calls to stand instead of Biden while also warning that the president may have lost her state four months before the election. The irony here is that the Democrats in 2020 nominated a man who was well past his prime and told the American people that the "adults are back".
Biden's message wasn't that he was a visionary leader, but that he would always "listen to the experts", at the time a knock against Trump's clashes with public health officials like Birx and Fauci. Then for the last four years as one crisis after another unfolded each "expert" he put in place from Pete Buttigieg to Janet Yellen to Kamala Harris has flopped and are in some cases less popular than him. Not firing them has meant that all of them have closed ranks to oppose replacing him even as they deny his obvious decline. Only now are some elected Democrats like congressmen Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Jared Golden (D-ME) breaking ranks with him. The few Democrats that did decide to be truthful earlier, including former primary challengers Dean Phillips, Marianne Williamson, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., were derided as being Trump enablers. Even abrasive internet pundit Cenk Uygur, who launched his own illegal primary bid against Biden in the hopes of nudging him out, was able to warn the Democrats that this would happen. Now after last week’s self-destruction the president could end up being the person most responsible for getting Trump elected again.
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