@EvelynNFarkas says that DOD policy staffers' morale is low, b/c they're realizing that "they've been living in an alternate universe" i.e., they've been kept in the dark on the real direction of policy, working on policy options that never had a chance of adoption.
I'm coming to the view that the events of recent days surrounding Trump's 'green light' to Erdogan (in which staffers say he 'veered off script'); Trump's thuggish letter to Erdogan (a feint, for domestic consumption); launch of the Turkish incursion on the same day;
Trump's imposition, and then withdrawal, of (weak) sanctions, etc. are all elements of a choreographed drama, with the players' actions and responses having been agreed well in advance.
If this is right, Trump didn't "veer off script," the staffers who *thought* he did just didn't know what the *real* script was. They were, per Farkas, "living in an alternate universe."
We would do well to consider that this episode may not be what it seems, i.e., another, albeit particularly catastrophic, instance of Trump behaving cavalierly, ignoring advisers and briefing books, and "going with his gut."
Rather, it may be the most telling evidence yet that the foreign policy of the United States is being conducted in secret, largely outside USG channels, and for interests other than those of the U.S. If that sounds ominous, I believe it is.
As to *whose* interests are being served, in lieu of the U.S. national interest, the almost pavlovian response by most of us is "Putin." The Speaker, too, appears to believe this: "All roads, with you, lead to Putin."
By 'Putin,' however, we should mean the intermixed power of Putin and transnational crime. The schemes of the latter are almost too vast and constantly shifting to comprehend.
My immediate point, however, isn't about identifying the enem(ies). It's about recognizing that our government may be functioning in Farkas' "alternate universe," with established agencies and authorities continuing to function *as if* they were governing,
but real decision making happening elsewhere, well outside the official channels. We see glimpses of this in the Ukraine affair: Giuliani and associates have, in effect, conducted the foreign policy of the United States in private, subverting the DOS. Examples abound.
