Persimmon Alley Press
Persimmon Alley Press
  • About Persimmon Alley Press
  • Books
    • Close Encounters with the Cold War
    • Mother's Century: A Survivor, Her People and Her Times
    • Encounters: Ten Appointments with History
    • Killer Protocols
    • Clean Coal Killers
    • The Killer Trees
    • A Feast of Famine
    • Molly Malice in Alterland
    • Alligator In My Basement
    • Sudden Addiction
    • The Flesh of the Cedarwood
  • Smoke the Dottle
  • Richard's Rants
  • Contact

Rant 591: Dare to Call It Treason

7/17/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
On February 27, 2020, the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB), the overnight intelligence report that aggregates the most important data received by our intelligence agencies over the past 24 hours, included information that the Russians were strongly suspected of putting bounties on the heads of American GIs fighting in Afghanistan. Taliban fighters were receiving payoffs from Vladimir Putin for killing our troops.
 
Now we are told that President Trump did not read that particular PDB. During his presidency, the PDB has become a caricature of its former self. Now it rarely exceeds a single page and, instead of text, largely consists of images.
 
While it is appalling that the president is uninterested in keeping up with intelligence that directly affects our national security, what is equally troubling is his inaction whenever Putin crops up. Instead of warning Putin off and imposing some pain through sanctions or other measures on Russia, Trump gets on the phone with him and supplicating as he always does, invites him to return to the G-7 fold.
 
Coincident with his latest Putin pandering, Trump announced that he wants to reduce America’s troop presence in Germany by one-third, yet another concession that his bosom Kremlin buddy can celebrate.
 
Even if Trump did not find out about the Russian bounties on our troops until the New York Times broke the story months later, he knows now. And he has done nothing. Even his normally servile Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, says this is a real threat to American troops, not the “hoax” that Trump claims.
 
Incentivizing the Taliban to kill American soldiers is a clear and present danger to the 8,600 troops currently deployed in Afghanistan. That this is going on as the U.S. engages in peace talks with the Taliban makes this even worse since clashes between the combatants have generally subsided during negotiations.
 
The president’s failure to protect our troops is a low point even for Trump. This is the worst abdication of the duties and responsibilities of a commander-in-chief in our long history. It amounts to a failing that fits within the Constitution’s Article 3, Section 3 definition of treason: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”
 
This latest Trump betrayal has quickly disappeared from the headlines, superseded by other outrages daily spewing forth from the White House:
  • Stone Cold Reamery. Pardoning Roger Stone, a quid pro quo for his not rolling on Donald Trump during his trial, where an impartial jury convicted him of seven felonies, is one of the most criminally corrupt deed in U.S. presidential history.
  • Threatening schools with a federal funds cut-off if they don’t reopen in the fall despite their valid concerns about spreading the virus.
  • A proposed rule to make it more difficult to bring discrimination claims under the Fair Housing Act at the same time Americans are demanding racial justice.
  • Rolling back 100 environmental regulations that keep Americans safe and healthy.
  • Denying new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program applications despite the recent Supreme Court ruling reinstating DACA.
  • Trashing Dr. Anthony Fauci because he speaks truth to the public and to power.
  • Continuing the happy talk and outright lies about the coronavirus crisis, where due to Trump’s woeful ineptitude, denial and erratic behavior, America leads the world in the number of cases and deaths by a country mile.
 
When Americans vote this November, we must remember that the president of the United States has not only failed to take action to minimize deaths from the virus, but also failed to protect our soldiers. For shame!
 
Dick Hermann
July 17, 2020

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Richard Hermann is the author of thirteen books, including Encounters: Ten Appointments with History and, most recently, Mother's Century: A Survivor, Her People and Her Times. Soon to be released is his upcoming Close Encounters with the Cold War, a personal reflection on growing up in the nuclear age. He is a former law professor and entrepreneur, and the founder and president of Federal Reports, Inc., a legal information and consulting firm that was sold in 2007. He has degrees from Yale University, the New School University, Cornell Law School and the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School. He lives with his wife, Anne, and extraordinary dog, Barkley, in Arlington, Virginia and Canandaigua, New York.

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed