Slate - The Tarnishing of H. R. McMaster

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2017/05/h_r_mcmaster_s_reputation_is_being_destroyed_by_trump_s_deceit.html

One of America’s finest soldiers has been dragged into Trump’s swamp of deceit.

By Fred Kaplan

There are many ways to look at President Trump’s disclosure of extreme secrets to Russia’s top diplomats last week: an appalling security breach that would land anyone else in prison for years; a betrayal of a sensitive ally—Israel, according to the New York Times—that will make other allies reluctant to share intelligence with Washington again; a sick-comic plot twist that a satirical novelist would discard as too improbable.


But there is another, simply sad aspect to the spectacle: the tarnishing of a good man’s honor. I speak of the national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, one of America’s finest soldiers, a public servant who has been all but incapable of guile throughout his career, now soaked in the swamp of deceit in the service of Trump.

Monday evening, in the wake of the Washington Post’s story on the breach, McMaster appeared before reporters and cameras (after at first turning away from them saying, “This is the last place on earth I wanted to be”), and read a script nearly identical to the statements released by the two other senior officials who’d been in the Oval Office with Trump and the Russians.

This script amounted to a classic “nondenial denial” but with a slightly more deceptive twist, in that it was a denial of claims that the Post story never made.

And here is where the tale gets sad, bordering on tragic. McMaster has built his entire reputation—the past 20 years of his career—on his embodiment and celebration of honesty. He first came to prominence, as an Army major, with a Ph.D. dissertation-turned-book arguing that the U.S. military’s top generals betrayed their constitutional duties by failing to give civilian leaders their unvarnished military advice during the Vietnam War. The book was titled Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam, and it was a critique of the deceit that ruled Washington in a dreadful time.

snip - much more to read at the link

[njhoneybadger]

1. The irony of everything that is connected to tRump

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. And this is why

Impossible to serve honorably, but too dangerous to leave unattended. McMaster is already on shaky ground. Heaven help us if Trump gets to pick a new National Security Advisor who he actually likes. We saw exactly what that looked like the first time:

"There is a fear among some of Mr. Trump’s senior advisers about leaving him alone in meetings with foreign leaders out of concern he might speak out of turn. General McMaster, in particular, has tried to insert caveats or gentle corrections into conversations when he believes the president is straying off topic or onto boggy diplomatic ground.

This has, at times, chafed the president, according to two officials with knowledge of the situation. Mr. Trump, who still openly laments having to dismiss his first national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, has groused that General McMaster talks too much in meetings, and the president has referred to him as “a pain,” according to one of the officials."


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/white-house-staff.html?_r=0

[skylucy]

4. Rinaldo---I posted a question and then saw your post. I think you may have answered my question.

At least, I hope you are right about McMaster.

[skylucy]

3. Seems like anyone who gets in Trump's orbit gets covered in his stench. Could McMaster have

said "No. Get someone else to read this"? Did he have to join the ever-growing group of enablers?

[GeorgeGist]

5. Surely Trump reminds McMaster on a regular basis ...

the he outranks him. McMaster follows orders.

[jeanmarc]

6. Well Donald has a purple heart

Because some idiot gave his to him. 'Always wanted one of these'

[3catwoman3]

8. I was horrified when that veteran did that.

Anyone with any class would have thanked him for the gesture but declined to accept. So, of course...

[jeanmarc]

9. Yeah, he actually took it, no one should accept a gifted Purple Heart NT

[TeamPooka]

7. Take him out of his uniform and he looks like a Mafia lawyer in those suits.

[Nevernose]

10. If he was too stupid to know what he was getting in to

Then I find it hard to believe he was "one of America's finest soldiers."