TRUST IN GOVERNMENT

by David Nuttle

There is a general agreement that trust in any government is based on transparency & protection of citizen safety and rights as well as leadership, record of performance, plus citizen participation with a focus on youth. Such trust is also based on a government's

ability to not create massive debt for future generations.

It seems evident that the U. S. Government has lost a great deal of trust from its citizens.

There is an appearance of weaponization of federal agencies for political purposes. Some fabrication seems to have been used to create false evidence to damage POTUS Trump. In the cases of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, they were both forgiven for illegal retention and use of highly classified documents. Manipulation of voting seems to be constant with votes by illegals and deceased persons. Transparency is poor and the historical record of federal performance is tragic with massive debts.. To wit:

a) POTUS Truman allowed use of our military forces and taxpayer dollars to assist France in the re-colonization of Vietnam after the WW II defeat of Japanese occupation forces. Truman had promised Ho Chi Minh that the U. S. would not do so if Ho and his Viet military forces helped defeat the Japanese. Truman's action made Ho an enemy of the U. S.

b) In Vietnam, the U. S. made a civil war into an armed conflict of the "Cold War." POTUS JFK was training and arming S. Viets and Montagnards to defeat communist forces and they were doing so only aided by our Special Forces. After JFK's assassination, POTUS LBJ ordered our military to achieve a quick conventional victory using as many U. S. troops as

needed. The problem was that conventional means seldom win unconventional wars and the "bang-and-boom" of our bombs & artillery were of little benefit since communist forces were mostly underground. U. S. forces were not trained or poorly trained in jungle warfare, so our military elected to kill a neutral jungle as the enemy because we were ineffective in a jungle.

We supported the corrupt and incompetent regime of S. Vietnam's President Diem, so U. S.

forces had little help in armed combat against communist forces. The U. S. lost the war!!!

c) Our failures in Afghanistan started with the idea that the U. S. could make a tribal society, typically ruled by regional drug lords, into a functional democracy. We created an army using Afghan males who had little or nothing to suffer if the Talban terrorists won the conflict. The Kurds had the correct solution by creation of all-female military units who quickly defeated all Islamic jihadist forces who believed they could not go to their Paradise if killed by a woman. The U. S. could have used the Kurd model, but they would have needed to contract with Kurd female military units to organize and train Afghan women. Evacuation of Afghanistan, under POTUS Joe Biden's direction was a total and tragic fiasco. Americans & loyal Afghans were left behind, 13 of our soldiers killed, and $83 billion in modern military equipment was all donated to Taliban terrorists. The Afghans evacuated were not vetted, so we had no real idea about who were evacuating to the U. S.

d) Iraq should not have been attacked & its army destroyed. Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction, and the Iraqi Army was needed to help keep Iran from controlling the entire area. Instability created by this conflict assisted the creation of ISIS (the Islamic State) and increased armed conflicts in Syria. This U. S. action only succeeded in destabilization of the Middle East.

e) As part of our efforts to deter Iran's work to create nuclear weapons, and missiles to deliver them, POTUS Obama and POTUS Biden both attempted to bribe Iran to motivate the rulers of this Theocracy to agree to end this effort. The bribes failed, and Iran used these funds to expand support for its proxy terrorist groups such a Hamas. Israel may not have suffered the horrific Hamas attacks of 07 Oct 2023 without Iran's added military support for Hamas made possible by said funding assistance from the U. S.

In addition to the above major policy errors, we allowed POTUS Obama to support ISIS and sponsor 80,000 Somali refugees, mostly jihadists, into the U. S. In addition, Obama acted to place many jihadists, members of Muslim Brotherhood, into most federal agencies. POTUS Biden was allowed to sell U. S. interests as part of global extortion & "pay-to-play" games created with assistance from his son, Hunter. Ukraine and other nations complained officially about this extortion, but Biden used his government positions to cover all this up.

Over the years, I have worked with many governments of all types and learned they all have long lists of flaws and major political "blunders." Even with all of our failures, the U.S. still has the best record of positive government with benefits for most. By a discussion of our errors, my goal is to help avoid repeats of known failures. Such a discussion is not pleasant but is badly needed. God help us avoid future political fiascos!!!