{"id":162,"date":"2022-02-11T23:29:29","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T23:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/?p=162"},"modified":"2022-08-29T21:32:58","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T21:32:58","slug":"op-ed-one-reason-for-trumps-foreign-policy-fiascoes-his-national-security-council-is-broken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/op-ed-one-reason-for-trumps-foreign-policy-fiascoes-his-national-security-council-is-broken\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed: One reason for Trump\u2019s foreign policy fiascoes \u2014 his National Security Council is broken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>The Los Angeles Times<\/em>, March 8, 2019 &#8212; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>National security fiascoes are piling up around President Trump. His summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un collapsed last week. In December, he announced a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, only to have his national security advisor publicly revise the plan. Last July, he endorsed Vladimir Putin\u2019s assertion that Russia didn\u2019t interfere in our presidential election \u2014 a stunning rebuke to the findings of U.S. intelligence services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are all signs that the National Security Council is malfunctioning. The NSC \u2014 the nerve center for creating U.S. security policy over the last seven decades \u2014 is intended to advise the president on strategies to prevent war, terrorism and economic disruption. The evident weaknesses of Trump\u2019s NSC are increasing the risk that security threats or intelligence will fall through the cracks, leaving the nation vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since its earliest years, the NSC\u2019s secret meetings in the White House have been the principal forum for presidents to discuss security and policy with military, intelligence and diplomatic officials. Chaired by the president, the council includes the vice president, the secretaries of State, Defense, Energy and Treasury \u2014 but the president can add other federal officials as well. The council\u2019s staff can rise to as many as 200 employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The NSC is an advisory group, however, and it\u2019s up to the president to make good use of it. Trump doesn\u2019t seem interested. Instead, he keeps belittling and contradicting the work of U.S. intelligence agencies. On Jan. 30, for instance, he tweeted: \u201cThe Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and na\u00efve when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong! \u2026 Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!\u201d This hostility significantly undermines the NSC\u2019s ability to serve its historic function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read the full article at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/la-oe-shinkle-nsc-20190308-story.html\">latimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><em>The Los Angeles Times<\/em>, March 8, 2019 &#8212; National security fiascoes are piling up around President Trump. His summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un collapsed last week. In December, he announced a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, only to have his national security advisor publicly revise the plan. Last July, he endorsed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petershinkle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}