So the chattering classes are currently losing their fecal matter about a passage from former SecDef Esper's forthcoming book:
President Donald J. Trump in 2020 asked Mark T. Esper, his defense secretary, about the possibility of launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs” and wipe out the cartels, maintaining that the United States’ involvement in a strike against its southern neighbor could be kept secret, Mr. Esper recounts in his upcoming memoir.I don't know where a layperson like Trump would have gotten the idea that we can just launch missiles from drones to eliminate problems in countries we aren't at war with. What a wack notion.
Now, the idea that we could do it in a large neighboring country and then try and claim it wasn't us was a little silly. "Uh, sir, this isn't like bullshitting Manhattan real estate appraisers."
People are acting like he got the idea from that Clancy novel, as though Trump had actually read a book, let alone a 700-pager with words like "geosynchronous" and "laser designator" rather than "Jane", "Spot", and "run".
The whole alleged plan ignores the first rule of U.S. drone strikes, which isn't "Make sure the target is covered by the AUMF and on the disposition matrix", but rather "Make sure the target's in a weedy little country who can't do shit about it."
"Sir, the Yemeni ambassador is on line five. He sounds pissed."
"Take a message. Tell him I'll have someone get back to him."
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