-->
Over the next four years, indeed, in the coming days and weeks, President Donald Trump will have to deal
with an array of national security threats.
These may come in many varieties, including provocations from North
Korea, terror assaults, Chinese or Russian tests of U.S. resolve, or perhaps a
renewed offensive by the Syrian army and its allies. Trump will count on his staff and
particularly Michael Flynn, his national security advisor, to keep him abreast
of hot button issues and to present well-considered options for responding. Indeed,
even on routine days Trump will see Flynn multiple times daily.
Unfortunately, there is
reason to worry about Flynn’s objectivity and judgment. Like Trump, Flynn
often shoots from the hip and he is not always aiming at the right target.
Flynn, a retired army lieutenant general, has filled a variety of coveted
military billets, but his actions in recent years offer cause to question his
judgment.
In 2012, he became Director of
the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Pentagon’s intelligence apparatus.
He was forced into retirement in April 2014, after only two years at the
DIA. Flynn claims—without evidence--that he lost his job because his views were at odds with those of President Barack Obama. Flynn was pushed out the door because of his poor executive skills and his rocky relationship with the senior leadership of the DIA. His bosses concluded that the DIA was adrift under Flynn’s directorship.
DIA. Flynn claims—without evidence--that he lost his job because his views were at odds with those of President Barack Obama. Flynn was pushed out the door because of his poor executive skills and his rocky relationship with the senior leadership of the DIA. His bosses concluded that the DIA was adrift under Flynn’s directorship.
By the summer of 2015 he
was in contact with the future president, and in February 2016 he joined Trump
campaign entourage. Flynn’s
hostility toward Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was quickly manifested,
including in his absurd claim that Obama was an ally of the late-Hugo Chavez, the
Castro brothers and Ali Khamenei.
Flynn has been an active tweeter
of lies and fake news, such as reports that Hillary Clinton was secretly
funding jihadis, as well as waging a secret war against the Catholic
Church.
Hillary Clinton’s infamous e-mail server
was often a focus for his fulminations. During campaign rallies, Flynn could be
spotted on stage leading chants of “lock her up.” Flynn argued that Clinton had mishandled
classified information and that she should quit the race. As quoted by the Washington Post, he said, “If
I, a guy who knows this business, if I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I
would be in jail today.” Yet, Flynn’s own handling of classified information
was suspect. While serving in
Afghanistan, Flynn violated security regulations by divulging classified
documents to unauthorized Afghan and Pakistani officers, earning him a
reprimand from then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Flynn’s perspectives on
important states are mercurial. On July 15, 2016, he was speaking
for the Trump campaign in Cleveland.
That same day the Turkish military launched a coup (which fizzled within
a day). Flynn
praised the coup, which he hoped would topple the “Islamist” regime of
President Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan. “That is worth clapping for,”
he added.
On Election Day, November 8, 2016, Flynn published a jaw-dropping
article on Turkey in The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper. The timing of
the piece was odd. Perhaps Flynn took
Trump’s expected defeat for granted. Considering Flynn’s enthusiasm for the
failed July 15 coup, the content was stranger still. Flynn now insisted that the United States
needed to stand with our ally Turkey and with President Erdoğan.
Flynn’s shamelessly pro-Turkish government piece raised a question about
his integrity, since he failed to note that his consulting group was a paid
lobbyist for a company owned by a well-connected Turkish businessman. Perhaps
Flynn was simply taking care of business.
The views that Flynn has
expressed on Russia are similarly conflicted.
He has charged that Russian and Iran are “the two most active and
powerful members of the enemy alliance” facing the United States. Yet, he has
often argued for cooperation with Russia, including in paid appearances on RT,
the Russian television station. While attending an anniversary celebration for
RT in Russia, Flynn referred to the U.S. and Russia as being in a “funny
marriage”. The U.S. intelligence
community indicates that RT is a “Kremlin financed” operation that carries out
“strategic messaging”.
In December, Flynn conducted telephone conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. Despite his denials that he had discussed sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama administration, intelligence intercepts revealed that Flynn was not telling the truth. Not only is it likely that Flynn violated the law by interfering in U.S. policy, but he also apparently lied to Vice President Mike Pence when he denied discussing sanctions. As a result, Pence made public statements that were untrue. On several levels, Flynn's judgment proved to dubious.
Flynn's wisdom vis-a-vis a variety of topics is also suspect. In the 2016 book, Field of
Fight, which Flynn co-authored with Michael Ledeen, Iran is depicted as the
linchpin of an alliance between Syria, Russia and N. Korea. The authors almost
offhandedly suggest toppling the Islamic Republic of Iran. They advance the
dubious claim that millions of Iranian dissidents are willing to fight and that
all the U.S. would need to do is contribute a vigorous information (propaganda)
campaign. This is the sort of
self-deceiving fantasy that made the Iraq invasion fiasco possible.
Flynn’s central premise is that
the U.S. is at war with “Radical Islam”, which threatens America at home and
abroad. No doubt, Islamic State jihadists
and similar extremist groups pose a serious security challenge. Yet, with
characteristic hyperbole, Flynn misstates the scope of the threat. He alleges
that “Radical Islamists” are pushing “very hard and very systematically” to
install Islamic law (shari’a) in the U.S. This is, as Flynn’s subordinates in
the DIA used to say, a “Flynn fact.” It is untrue. It is fake news.
“Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL [caps
original],” he tweeted in February 2016.
Flynn conflates Muslim terrorists with all of Islam. In a speech in Dallas,
he denied that Islam is a religion: “Islam is a political ideology. It is a
political ideology. It definitely hides behind this notion of it being a
religion.” Flynn’s denigration of Islam,
especially if repeated from the White House, will alienate hundreds of millions
of Muslims around the world.
Surveying Flynn’s writings, his
speeches and interviews, one encounters a jumble of facts, rants, factoids and
fabrications. He seems more intent on
settling scores and trafficking in stereotypes than presenting serious
analysis. Notwithstanding Flynn’s military
career, he is ill-equipped to tackle weighty national security challenges and
his proximity to President Trump is a cause for profound concern.
Augustus R. Norton is professor
of anthropology and international relations at the Pardee School, Boston
University.
-->
No comments:
Post a Comment