Peter Bergen on 'Trump and His Generals'
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2019
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You probably know Peter Bergen from his work at CNN, his books on terrorism and national security, or perhaps his role as vice president at New America. Now, he's turned his reporting and analysis to President Trump, to President Trump's advisors, and to the impact of those relationships on U.S. national security. David Priess sat down with Peter to talk about his new book: "Trump and His Generals," the president's confusing mix of attraction to senior military leaders and disdain for their advice, and what it all means for foreign policy in Washington.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:34.0 | There was a reason that so many generals said yes to this kind of job, either retired |
| 0:39.1 | or acting because not only did it was a sense of duty, which I mean John Kelly has said |
| 0:43.7 | if Hillary Clinton offered it in job, he would have taken it. |
| 0:46.4 | So certainly a sense of duty is important, but also they thought Obama had failed in not |
| 0:51.0 | insignificant areas in the Middle East. |
| 0:53.5 | Whether it was not enforcing the red line in Syria, whether it was pulling out of Iraq |
| 0:56.9 | in 2011, whether it was signaling that withdrawal date from Afghanistan on December 1, 2009, when |
| 1:02.7 | President Obama announced the surge in Afghanistan. |
| 1:06.1 | So these are substantive policy differences that they came into office thinking that Obama |
| 1:11.7 | had failed in certain ways. |
| 1:13.3 | None of them were in love with the Iran deal, although they thought it could be improved. |
| 1:19.5 | And John Kelly, by the way, had I think just substantive disagreements with the Obama |
| 1:23.4 | administration on an issue when he was running something command, which was the Obama administration |
| 1:27.7 | wanted to close Guantanamo. |
| 1:29.7 | So there were substantive policy differences, I think that also explained why they were |
| 1:33.9 | willing to take these jobs in addition to the fact that the duty calls and they were being |
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