How can he not see how “small” this makes him look? Geez oh Pete, he makes me ill.
No, he cannot. Quite literally, he cannot.
You’re not the audience.
To Trump’s audience, Colin Powell was a "corrupt insider”, a Black person and a person who put country before party (iow a traitor).
Both of these are an occupational hazard of military thinking.
Questioning your objectives, while mildly permissible, is still not SOP. Generally, you don’t ask why or if, unless there are very obvious and very likely negative outcomes. Not even collateral damage and unintended consequences really figure into the go/no-go calculus.
And, one of the cultural lessons I observed in the course of my military career is the aphorism “it’s better to be decisive than right.” There is no tolerance for getting analysis paralysis. Decide now on the basis of the best available information and then go.
He solved the problem of too many living Iraqis.
No, privately you don’t ask why or if. Maybe even corporally, sergeantly, or lieutenantly. But generally, it’s your job to ask questions like that.
Even majorly it’s your job.
What’s even sadder than Trump’s disgusting remarks is how inured we’ve become to them. It hardly makes news. It’ll hardly change anyone’s opinions either way - those who love Trump will still love him; those who hate him may hate him a bit more. The apathetic will remain so.
I’ll repeat what I’ve said before: we have a values problem in this country.
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” – Ben Franklin
Yes, “Trump says [something horrible and scummy]” could have been the top headline just about every day for the past five years. Each new outrage drives out the last, and yet the world keeps on spinning.