Part 5 - The Damage: American Leadership

This is an ongoing series about the damage that Donald Trump is doing to the United States on a daily basis. It is being done on request by a Trump Supporter.

The Rule: As this is being done by request, The Omnivore has a rule: Trump-supporters (and other readers for that matter) cannot simply stipulate that a point made by The Omnivore is wrong because of its source or The Omnivore's bias--if they are going to disbelieve a point they must provide affirmative evidence. The Omnivore expects this to be "the hard part" for Trump Supporters. That is intentional.

Part 5: Leadership

Let The Omnivore tell you a story. On May 2, 1945 a man on a bicycle approached an American private from the US 44th Infantry Division serving in immediately post-war Germany. He rode up to the man calling out in broken English: "My name is Magnus von Braun. My brother invented the V-2. We want to surrender." The man--and his brother--were two of the most accomplished rocket scientists alive.

They knew they would soon be captured and they had a choice--to go to the American forces--or the Soviets. In either place they would be well treated: they were wanted not for crimes--but for their expertise. In either place they would be, to some degree, a prisoner: a state asset as they had worked for Nazi Germany developing advanced weapons of war. Why did they choose America?

“We knew that we had created a new means of warfare, and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else. We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through, and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured.”

They chose America. Thanks to their choice we won the space race. We sent man further out into the universe than any other nation. This was one of the times there was a clear choice--and thankfully, for one of the greatest scientific minds of the age . . . it wasn't a question.

Oh, The Omnivore knows. What these people in other countries say doesn't matter. Right? You're a hard-bitten cynic who knows how the world operates. You know that when push comes to shove the world will still do what it's supposed to because of GDP and geo-politics.

You think you know all that shit.

Uh-huh.

You, Constant Reader (not the one who originally requested this--but a Trump Supporter who held a security clearance and is no doubt already explaining to himself why the above doesn't matter--see, The Omnivore can read your mind)--knows what FVEY. He knows what CODE WORD intelligence is. He knows this stuff--and he still backs Trump-because of the culture war. Because of his culture war.

If you want to know how little The Omnivore thinks of this, The Omnivore will explain what FVEY is--and what CODE WORD intelligence is. Once you know the same things our Constant Reader does you can make your own decision.

The international intelligence community of western allies is called "FIVE EYES." It comprises the United Stakes, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is one of the most tight-knit group of intelligence allies to ever exist.

Beyond this, there are intelligence networks with less integration which including Europe (9 and 14 Eyes) and information sharing with, for example Israel.

The willingness of our partners to share information with us is vital to keeping us safe.

CODE  WORD intelligence is a designation of Top Secret (the highest level of classification) with additional security that it can only be viewed by a person with the correct CODE WORD. Or the president. Either way.

FIVE EYES was the first intelligence agency to pick up the Trump-Russia interactions. Later, when Trump met with the Russians in the White House he shared CODE WORD intelligence with them that exposed the Israeli compromise of ISIS's computer systems.

To say that the global intelligence agencies that are our friends loathe and distrust our Commander in Chief is an understatement.

You are a cynical hard-core realist. You know that Trump's bluster won't have any serious impact on our security--on our intelligence alliances. You're more hard-bit than Israeli intel, yeah? Uh huh.

But that's not the only side to our story here. Remember that anecdote about that Rocket Scientist who had a choice to make: Who to sell out to? Well, our Intel services have another issue--people out there in the big wide world work with America for a lot of reasons. Mostly for money, of course--or leverage--or whatever--because that's what our spies do--they find people on the inside and they compromise them.

It's a dirty game.

But you know what has worked in America's favor for the the past 100 years? The fact that America was seen--by everyone--to stand for something good. Even when we did bad things (and we did), we stood for something more than petty aristocrats battling it out with their rivals over bullshit.

When that changes? And it is changing? We've lost an edge we might never get back.

When people in democracies dislike our country so uniformly and so deeply--dislike our president--it becomes a valuable political position to run against the United States. To make deals against our interest. That's what we're starting to see now in Mexico and Canada--our neighbors and allies.

How cynical are you? How right do you think you are that this doesn't matter?

The Calls Are Coming From Inside The House