Date: 2025-08-20 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028655
TRUMP / USA
A HUGE FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP
AMERICA CAN BE BETTER THAN THIS ... OR CAN IT?
A HUGE FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP
AMERICA CAN BE BETTER THAN THIS ... OR CAN IT?
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
I see Donald Trump as being a weak, insecure and rather stupid man.
But he has become powerful! Not so much because of good things that he has done, but by 'gaming the system' ... something that he has done all his life.
Sadly, he has been aided and abetted by 'enablers'. In the case of Trump, and the Trump family, the 'enablers' are many.
I hae concluded that Donald Trump has been able to amass great wealth because he has a singular focus on benefit for himself ... while most people function on the basis of a certain ;'give and take'. Not Trump ... his mantra is 'no give, all take' ... and he has practiced this all his life.
The 'success of Domnald Trump raises a lot of questions about the functioning of the United States, and to some extent the world. How can it be that a person so flawed can be so 'successful'. Society at large in the United States has tolerated and enabled everything that Donald Trump has done. All of Trump's malfeasance has been done 'in the open' and it has been tolerated by Americans ... in fact to a great extent encouraged by a lot of Americans. I see this a foolishness on steroids and something that will 'wreck America'.
In my veiw, and my understanding of sconomic and social mechanisms, the wrecking of America is already in process and becoming more and more irreversible. Trump's America has lost most of its international friends who have become united as never before to 'stop' Trump's international wrecking ball!
Essentially, every country that has been an ally of the United States in the past WWII era since 1945 has been an ally not so much because of love of the USA, but the harsh reality that in the past-war era, the United States had a lot more 'power' than any other country, or group of countries.
Slowly, more people are coming to realise that the economic dominance that the United States once had is diminishing. People have different 'takes' on the timing and character of the changes. Many people think that this is something that started quite recently, but my view is that American's economic dominance ended in 1973 with the OPEC driven 'oil shock'.
The United States still has the potential to be rich and powerful, but this cannot be realised into the future unless the USA operates in a way that is a lot 'smarter'. This cannot happen with Trump and his enablers calling the shots.
In some ways, the USA remains the richest place on the planet ... but the sad reality is that the people of the United States are 'spoilt rotten' and nit very smart!
During 2023 and 2024 I attended some ... actually four ... 'tech' events run by Microsoft and Google in Manhattan. There were something like a thousand attendees at each of these vvents and almost all the attendees were foreigners, Why was this? In my view, this is a result of many decades of very low grade ... by international standards ... of the American education system.
When I was still a student at Cambridge in the UK, I visited North America for the summer in 1960 and again in 1961. The Cambridge Canada Club chartered two Air France Boeing 707s to make the trip from London (Heathrow) to New York (Idlewild ... now JFK) in late May and then do the return trip in mid-September. At that time, Americans had the money to vacation in Europe during the summer, but Europeans, including the British were completely impoverished. We filled empty planes going West in May and going East in September paying Air France just 75
Peter Burgess
Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, U.S. Army (Ret.)
11:42 AM
VoteVets
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Paul Eaton.
Take a look at this image:
Trump military parade sets up
It’s from earlier this week, a video showing tanks rolling into Washington for a birthday parade. Celebrating the US Army’s 250th birthday - or is it Mr Trump’s idea of strength projection on his own birthday?
This is the kind of display we were accustomed to seeing during the Cold War. The Soviets would puff up their chests, roll out their tanks, missiles, thousands of soldiers, and march them around Red Square.
It was an exercise in puffery projection of pseudo strength, because we all know how the USSR turned out.
We never matched those parades in the United States. Not because we weren’t as strong, or stronger. Not because we couldn’t afford it. Not because it was too difficult.
We didn’t do it because there was no questioning the power and global reach of our Military — and because our greatest strength was our democracy.
Today, that democracy is under attack. The reputation of the Military is being impugned and politicized. Our National Security architecture is under immense strain. NATO is being weakened. Our allies question our support. Critical services for millions of Veterans are in danger.
I deeply resent all of this. But I have not given up.
VoteVets is working tirelessly to challenge this, fix it, and set it right.
I am asking you to consider making a donation to support our mission and ensure we have the resources we need to mount a strong resistance to Trump and his extremist administration. These are perilous times, and we need your help to succeed.
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Thank you,
Paul Eaton Major General, U.S. Army, Retired Senior Advisor, VoteVets
PAID FOR BY VOTEVETS, VOTEVETS.ORG, NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE’S COMMITTEE
Use of military rank, job titles or photographs in uniform does not imply the endorsement of the Department of Defense, Departments of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or the Marines or Space Force.
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