trump

Operation Overlord-Epilogue

/ Richard L. Marrash / Leave a comment

For those who have previously read and commented on my D-Day posts, I offer my somber greeting on this annual memorial to the patriotic men and women of the “Greatest Generation”, those who served across the world in our armed forces as well as the civilians at home who stepped up to manufacture the war machines necessary for victory in World War Two. America was a nation united, not by ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation, but rather by a public culture of genuine belief in the worth and dignity of every human being and the liberal values embodied in our Constitution, laws, and social norms. And they possessed the willingness to make any sacrifice to preserve those values. For that, they willingly went abroad to fight and die to deter and defeat the tyrannical plague of Nazism and fascism that had spread across Europe and the Far East, and threatened to engulf the entire world in a vicious and racist authoritarian blight, cynically punishing freedom of thought and expression and individual liberty unhampered by any effective opposition. The latter had been eliminated through the mechanisms of propaganda based on dissemination and continuous repetition of lies, half-truths, disinformation, dehumanization of opponents, along with the weaponizing of social institutions: the churches, the judiciary, schools and universities, corporations, and the media. The goal of those measures is to create a public perception that sees what the authoritarian regime wants the public to see, substituting that false perception in the place of reality. And only that manufactured perception–no matter how bizarre or contrary to fact–is hailed as truth and truly patriotic. Anyone in opposition–no matter how soundly developed and grounded in fact their position–is deemed an enemy of the people. No criticism of the regime or the Fuehrer, the supreme leader, can be tolerated. By definition, what the leader deems good is good for the state. The leader is the state.

That is what the Greatest Generation fought to eliminate from the world: the tyranny of authoritarian government, the loss of liberty and freedom of expression, the assault on human dignity. That’s what the Founders worried about, by the way, and thought about long and hard, applying the grim lessons of European history to their deliberations. They devised a Constitution with safeguards against the unrestricted accumulation of power in the hands of an unaccountable government. They gave us a democratic republic, but they cautioned us to take care lest we lose it (Ben Franklin, 1787).

A true democracy can tolerate in its midst diversity of opinion and even that which it finds offensive. That’s what freedom of speech and assembly means. What a true democracy cannot tolerate is the insidious transformation of constitutional government and the rule of law into irrelevancies to be ignored or weapons to be deployed against critics.

Do you ever wonder if the Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves?

I won’t belabor the point any more. Memorial Day was one week ago, a day when we remembered the fallen from all of our wars. Today remember the generation of World War Two, who fought the ugly blight of totalitarianism and hateful racist policies that saw the murder of countless innocent people across Europe and Asia.

Remember the heroism of D-Day, 6 June 1944, the beginning of the end of the Second World War.

If interested, read my previous D-Day posts for other details.

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IN MEMORIAM (uncles, father-in-law, father):

George Marrash, US Army, WWII, DOW France, 1944

Tony Marrash, US Army, WWII

Sam Sadie, US Marine Corps, WWII

Louis Gramesty, US Army, 8th Air Force, WWII

Elias T. Marrash, Auto-Ordnance Co., Thompson Submachine Guns, WWII

Corruptio Optimi Pessima, Veritas Autem Vos Liberabit

/ Richard L. Marrash / 1 Comment

I don’t know how to begin, or what to say. All of us have seen the news. An incredible breach of operational security……by those charged with safeguarding the nation and its vital interests! What can you say or do? Those placed in charge have failed in the most elementary aspect of professional tradecraft–securing classified information (whether or not the word CLASSIFIED appears on the document or has been formally stated). Highly sensitive, mission critical information must be protected according to the required procedures and safeguards. Those are not suggestions. It is the law. If you don’t know that, and if you argue that “I didn’t see any classification notice” on the information or “no one mentioned that information was classified,” you do not belong anywhere close to a responsible position in the intelligence community. This security failure would never be tolerated in a new, junior member of the IC. It is catastrophic when it appears at the highest levels and among several of the heads of the most sensitive agencies.

These leaders of the most important agencies of our government used a marginally secure system, Signal, for a top-level discussion of classified information and even brought in a total outsider–a journalist–and were totally unaware of his presence on the discussion thread, while they went ahead and dumped restricted intelligence into the discourse, which should have been held in a SCIF (sensitive compartmentalized information facility). All while preparing to send U. S. pilots into enemy territory to conduct a dangerous operation.

As expected, the President has played down the breach, and, true to form, has attacked The Atlantic journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, incredibly, for being responsible for having been placed on the discussion thread. He was placed there by Mike Walz, President Trump’s national security advisor. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, denounced Goldberg, The Atlantic, and the media and claimed that he did not disclose classified information. The other members present on the Signal discussion dodged any responsibility during their testimonies before the Senate subcommittee that began looking into the security breach. Except for a few courageous souls willing to face the Trumpian/MAGA attack machine, most Senate and Congressional Republicans have remained mute on the seriousness of the incident.

So while our current Government denounces Canada, the EU, NATO, Ukraine, and cozies up to Russia and its wannabe Tsar Vladimir Putin, the gates of our security system are thrown open. Russian, Chinese, North Korean, and Iranian hackers, among others, will hardly need to break into the system to seize our most sensitive information. They can just get a Signal account and wait for the clueless amateurs to simply leave lying around what these adversaries are seeking!

It goes without saying that these lightweights should never have been confirmed by the Senate for positions of such grave responsibility. Too late now, but at a minimum, Walz and Hegseth should resign. The others should receive at least official reprimands. But none of that will happen. The administration has continued to denounce Goldberg and the media in general for concocting a “hoax”, Mr. Trump’s favorite tactic when his actions or policies are criticized. It is the classic play of the demagogue: deny, deflect, distract. Instead of attacking him, the government should be praising the fact that Jeffrey Goldberg pulled himself offline once he understood that he was privy to a sensitive operational discussion conducted by top U. S. officials! At first, he thought it was a sham invitation to the group, but when the attack was ultimately reported in the news, Goldberg realized that somehow he had been included in a highly sensitive Signal thread–a discussion where operational details were revealed that could have forewarned our adversaries and endangered the lives of the U. S. servicemen who were carrying out the attack. We were very lucky this time.

This is not the United States of America that I recognize. Like many others of my generation, and those before and since, I swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States both in military service and again in federal service in the intelligence community. I have never retracted my commitment to that oath either as military or civilian. I am bound by it until the day I die. I am certain that nearly all of my fellow Americans who have served their country feel the same way. But I am outraged and distressed by the reluctance of the White House and the Congress to demand complete accountability and by the irresponsibility of officials serving at the highest levels of our government. We dodged a bullet this time, but it must not happen again.

Whatever your political feelings, you should feel ashamed that we have come to this state of affairs. As Americans, it appears that we cannot even count on our leaders to protect our national interests. Their duty to do so is enjoined by their sworn oaths to the Constitution. To avoid any future disaster due to reckless, avoidable breakdowns in security, we must insist on complete transparency in getting to the bottom of this thoughtless blunder. Instead, we are being subjected to denial and deflection and the whining excuses of those who have shown us clearly that they possess neither the character nor the professional qualifications for the high offices they hold. They have demonstrated their woeful incompetence to the whole world. It is inexcusable. May God save the United States of America.

Lieb Vaterland Magst Ruhig Sein

/ Richard L. Marrash / Leave a comment

I begin this post with an email exchange between Linda, and myself. Linda is my longtime friend from our University of Michigan days and a frequent email correspondent :

Read about the influencer behind the Tech Bro turn to the Right politically. I’d only recently heard of this man.  Take a look. 

Linda

“The Dubious History of America’s Most Famous Monarchist,” by Jamelle Bouie, The New York Times, Jan. 22, 20251

In a recent article describing the country’s progressive inclination toward oligarchy, I did read a reference to someone touting monarchy for the United States. Thanks for sharing this NYT article with me, Linda, it makes clear who that “American monarchist” is and what he is about. 

The article Linda shared with me got me to thinking about some troubling current events, and I jotted down my thoughts as follows.

For my own part, the greatest threat to our nation is illustrated by the pardoning of the entire roster of January 6 insurrectionists. Many duly convicted of violent sedition and insurrection. This smug bunch and their affiliated anti-government militias, and similar groups and individuals whether organized or simply like-minded, have now become an unofficial, private army for Trump to call on whenever he feels the need. Remember his directions to the Proud Boys, “stand down and stand by.” He has empowered them to act beyond the reach of legal consequences by showing his readiness to pardon them–so, then: “Stand by,” America, for any future actions he will decide to use them for. Exaggeration? I think not. He referred to them as “patriots,” “political prisoners,” and “hostages.” But they are criminals, unquestionably, observed in their violent actions and words on TV screens all over the world, and subsequently convicted according to law. Yet, the President is even now indicating he will invite some of them to the White House!

In the 1930s, while he was tightening his hold on political power in Germany, Adolf Hitler had his Sturmabteilung (SA), popularly known as the Brown Shirts, thugs wearing swastikas, who went around harassing and beating those who opposed him and his Nazi party. We have just experienced the first step in that direction.2 Count on the Trump Administration to push forward with its agenda heedless of constitutional and institutional norms. The Constitution and the rule of law apparently need not apply to Trump and his coterie of sycophants.

That Trump has a taste for the use of naked force to achieve his ends comes as no surprise. He is deploying thousands of active-duty military to the southern border and launching mass deportations of illegal immigrants. No serious person disputes that both ineffective control of the border and the broken immigration system have been for decades thorny, unresolved problems that both political parties failed to address. But at least a preliminary attempt was offered in the bipartisan immigration bill that Trump scuttled lest it interfere with his 2024 election campaign. Conservative Republicans as well as Democrats had worked on the bill together and believed its passage would have been a step forward and provided something to continue to build on. Trump, on the contrary, prefers to use brute force to make that happen. While only a couple of days in office, already he is aiming his ire and vindictiveness at the institutions of government and the employees of agencies that have aroused his resentment for a host of personal grievances including such offenses as: DEI, wokeness, LGBTQ, and of course the sin of disloyalty of the various offenders on his enemies list. The way of the dictator does not bode well for the nation once known as the “land of the free and the home of the brave” where today the emboldened Executive Branch of the US Government goes forward increasingly unchecked by the cowed Legislative Branch and empowered by the acquiescent Judicial Branch. This nation appears ready to raise its outstretched arm in salute and shout, “Sieg Heil!”

Now, every time I think about the consequences of what these actions are leading us to, Benjamin Franklin’s warning reverberates in my mind. When asked following the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 what kind of government the delegates had established, he replied tersely: A republic, if you can keep it. I try to be optimistic, but I’m not sure we can.

[Note: the title of this post is from the German patriotic anthem, Die Wacht Am Rhein. The translation of the verse is, “Beloved Fatherland, May you be at peace.” I wanted to share the laudable sentiment, but at the same time let the German words resonate with a warning about the trend toward extremist nationalism that I have tried to describe in this post.]

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  1. The NYT article identifies a “prolific Internet commenter” named, Curtis Yarvin. The author of the piece summarizes his political philosophy: “The path to national renewal, Yarvin argues, is to unravel American democracy in favor of rule by a benevolent C.E.O.-monarch drawn from a cadre of venture capitalists and corporate oligarchs.” ↩︎
  2. See the guest essay in the New York Times, January 5, 2025, } “For Many of Us, Jan. 6 Never Ended,” By Aquilino Gonell. Mr. Gonell is a former sergeant in the Capitol Police and the author, with Susan Shapiro, of “American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy.” ↩︎

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AMERICAN HEROES WHO DEFENDED THE U. S. CAPITOL ON JANUARY 6, 2021

These officers and their families remain under threat by right wing extremists because of their testimonies before the January 6 Committee and current legal actions involving the insurrectionists of that day. Several have appeared on television and in the newspapers to bear witness to the “criminal behavior” of those who attacked and brutalized them and their colleagues defending the U. S. Capitol. Obviously, I can’t mention here all of the names of the dozens of Capitol Police and D. C. Metropolitan Police who suffered similar violent experiences at the hands of the mob.

Harry Dunn, Capitol Police (Retired, wounded on Jan. 6)

Michael Fanone, DC Metropolitan Police (Retired, wounded on Jan. 6)

Aquilino Gonell, Capitol Police (Retired, wounded on Jan. 6)

Brian Sicknick, Capitol Police (RIP, died of wounds received on Jan. 6)

Daniel Hodges, DC Metropolitan Police (Wounded on Jan. 6)

Steven Sund, Capitol Police chief, (Scapegoated, resigned under pressure)