When a reporter says that someone in the Whitehouse gave them insider info you have to take it with a grain of salt.
But the reports that Trump's cabinet and leading republicans are demoralized since he's leading based on whims and "it's not working" are very disturbing if true.
We really may have bungled into a war, killed all those people on a whim.
Is that worse than doing it for corrupt evil reasons with an evil master plan?
I suppose it doesn't matter.
I'm also disturbed by reporting on how the military may be using AI. And not just because I don't like AI... it sounds like Pete may have put his full faith in these systems. And why wouldn't he? He's not an international policy expert. He doesn't know or care about what Iran is really like. He doesn't "understand the enemy" ...
I also think they hit the school on purpose. All this talk of "no guard rails"
They also have a strong aversion to 'academic elites' and so fired a load of the experts who would have been able to tell them that the machine is talking nonsense.
The US military had many "woke" policies. In every case these were pragmatic policies.
You have fair promotions and hiring so you get the best people. You study the language and culture of other countries so you can predict what they will do. You don't assonate leaders because then you will be targeted for assassination or other extreme responses. You don't attack during peace talks so people take your peace talks seriously.
You don't bomb schools because "the enemy" will use that to galvanize their public, and you will lose international support since you must either admit to being incompetent "we missed" or depraved.
Every nation on earth is able to inflict massive violence if they really wanted to. Every person is able to do this. Extreme violence is easy. I don't think they get any of this.
The western chauvinism that informs this idea that a country like Iran can't really hurt us may comfort your base... but you can't operate like you really think it's true.
Reality is woke and in war you are dealing with reality.
myrmepropagandist
David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)