Mark Esper schools Fox News' Brian Kilmeade on Trump's Mexican missile plot: 'It was an act of...

With all the books that have come out over the past 6 years, even if only 10% of the accusations are true, that shows Trump is nuts!

It is interesting, I just listened to the whole 5 minute 53 second interview. It sounded like to me that ideas were being batted around at high-levels. It also seemed as though he may have posed the missiles as a potential course of action to see what his senior and responsible advisors thought. As required and should be expected, mature leadership provided alternatives. Any POTUS needs people to stand up to and for ideas. Any POTUS should also be able to have frank discussions with their senior advisors to arrive at the proper course of action.

The reason for some tell-all books is for the author to make money. I believe that former SecDef Esper is a solid human being and very honorable from what I know outside that bubble! Historically for a time, people hated Truman for making a decision to use the Atomic Bomb on Japan. Historians have now begun to unify around that he made a correct decision as distasteful as it was. He was not joking regarding his sign "The Buck Stops Here" as he was willing embrace his role. I am not at all attempting to compare Trump to Truman. They are very different men for very different times!!! Trump may have enjoyed Generals MacArthur or Patton more. While they got the job during war, and even though I respect them I would not have voted for either to be POTUS!

Regardless, after listening to the entire interview, again it seems the crux was around taking out the heads and more of the body of the snake of the powerful drug cartels. Again, if Presidents and senior executives don't have the confidence to put forth ideas for discussion and have the kind of team integrity to allow the President to be "appropriately challenged" and the President to also challenge his advisors then we run the risk of dishonest discourse and making a wrong decision because of certain kinds of fear flowing in both directions.

Esper pivoted to what was really making POTUS consider various strategies and that was illegal drugs. No one spoke about that!!! I am also not saying Trump is perfect, he is NOT!

People also thought JFK was nuts with the blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Generals like Lemay wanted to nuke Havana and sink Russia vessels and even launch a preemptive against Moscow. So, some of JFK's military leaders were extreme hawks when prudence was the order of the day.

People forget history and the lessons it teaches. I think all Presidents and Cabinets from Washington to Trump have spoken about outlandish ideas and settled on ideas that made sense.

Frankly, if we could assure that we could find all the heads and their 2nd, 3rd, 4th to their 100th in the chain of drug cartel succession in one geographical spot I am not so sure if we had a 100% kill confirmation that I would not be Ok if we launched a couple of cruise missiles at some town that was devoid of innocents to kill 500 or 1000 really bad dudes who don't give a damn about any of us or our families who have no problem poisoning people!!!

In closing, the words "...preserve, protect, and defend against ALL enemies both foreign and domestic..." are a sacred oath!!! People of "good faith" who honestly believe in those words must be able to have such debates. So, as Esper suggested, the best ideas can rise out the extreme ideas it happens in business too! I have seen some crazy crap in the 25-yrs I have been retired.

If you listen carefully to the words and tone during the interview, former SECDEF Esper understood the frustration of POTUS and seemed to notice that and acted within his responsibility to offer a different course of action specific to handling the cartels. I would not have expected him to have acted otherwise. Esper even admonished Biden for his slow response to Ukraine, does this make Esper nuts?

I agree we have no business sending rockets Willie Nilly into our neighbor Mexico, but "What if?" the Mexican government with the blessing of Canada had provided permission for the US to take out the homes of major drug lords or 100 of them at Zero Dark-30 using a smart weapon in a coordinated attack. Let's also say just for fun the USA, Canada and Mexico were considering forming a North American Illicit Drug Free Zone (NAIDFZ) and striking fear into the drug cartels. If the three leaders had had enough of illegal drugs and their aftereffects on their people and decided to take more direct and rapid action would people call all three leaders nuts - collectively!?!?!?! Are the cartels the "good guys"? Let's see:

- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-secret-look-at-a-mexican-cartels-low-tech-multimillion-dollar-fentanyl-operation
- https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/30494/cartel-narco-tanks-heavy-weapons-on-full-display-during-battle-over-el-chapos-son
- https://www.fox5ny.com/news/from-bomb-affixed-drones-to-narco-tanks-the-mexican-cartels
- https://world.time.com/2012/10/25/mexicos-drug-lords-ramp-up-their-arsenals-with-rpgs/
- https://insightcrime.org/news/war-type-weapons-in-michoacan-put-mexican-forces-on-battle-footing/
- https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/mexican-drug-cartel-weapon-raid/3/

I am just asking questions....................so please don't think this is support for all thinks Trump. It is not! But I ask you? What is the solution to violent sociopaths? PBS, CBS, FOX others LA Times, etc. have all reported the drug cartels are weaponing up for "war".

My job, even in retirement, is to question my leaders. I have little concern for who is in the office from a political point of view. As an American it is my right and my responsibility to question my leaders. In fact, the act of voting which I have done in every election since Jimmy Carter gives me the right to voice respectfully any redress, I have with those that govern. It is then their responsibility to lead and convince me of that capability to do just that - lead.

Finally, there are things that did not excite me about Trump (his attitude to Senator McCain), but there are many more things that do not excite me about the current POTUS. As an Independent I don't like being labeled and find those that resort to convenient labeling tactics lazy and disingenuous.

BTW books have come out on a lot of modern presidents. Some are flattering and others are negative. Somewhere is a certain level of common truth between the two extremes of those opinions. Some books take a more balanced approach. I always enjoy reading these. Perhaps I'll read Esper's book. I have so much to read now I am not sure when I'll get to it. I have 10 books I am reading at various stages.