The More Dangerous State of the World, the Need for Fit Leadership, and the Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, Part 3

A Further Summary of Expert Opinions by U.S. Security and Mental Health Professionals

*The Zoom link for today’s live session, at 12 noon EDT/9 a.m. PDT is far below.

Below is a further summary review of the critical themes from our major National Press Club conference, offered to us by Dr. Sally Adnams Jones, author, psycho-educator, and therapist. Video headings are credited to Dr. Madeline Taylor, also author, psycho-educator, and therapist.

Rear Admiral Michael Smith, founder of National Securities Leaders of America, who spearheaded a letter with 700 signatures to the New York Times, spoke into Trump’s fitness to be able to respond to national security challenges.  He said the President’s character is the most important aspect of that fitness, including judgement, temperament and integrity.  1) Judgement means grasping serious and nuanced challenges that are seldom one dimensional, where no potential solution is perfect, interests collide, with little time, and not all the information.  2) Temperament means curiosity and seeking to understand complex issues before they become a crises.  Group think undermines this, because the most informed might have to stand alone, and oppose the President, who must welcome those trained to bring truth to power, and place country above themselves.  He must use facts, and not be swayed by how others view decisions.  Personal emotions must not cloud judgement, nor use a crises as an opportunity to right perceived wrongs.  Intelligence can never be shared beyond the room.  3) Integrity means upholding America’s commitment to friends and allies.  And accepting responsibility if decisions are wrong, or fail to achieve the original intent.  Key partnerships have obligations to joint interest.  A President must be trusted to meet these three criteria, and make final decisions with self confidence and accountability, without blaming others.  Who we elect in November needs fitness and moral character –and Trump does not possess them.

Brigadier General and Doctor Stephen Xenakis, retired Psychiatrist from the US army, and Medical Corps officer for 28 years, spoke specifically to ‘fitness for duty and dangerousness evaluations’.  As a military physician, this was core to his security work, to clear people for functional duty, including pilots, surgeons, and those with access to nuclear weapons etc.  Commanders required these evaluations about mental and physical health, as these may interfere with execution of duty.  He said Congress has been AWOL in looking at the criteria that demonstrate effective duty, or leadership.  They cannot even specify or define section four of the 25^th amendment.  He added that we have had a number of Presidents with health problems.  We have to ask, when are we going to have a Commander in Chief with problems that impair their function, and who can discern this? Immediate advisors have to be able to question the tracking, integrity and temperament of the president.  My job as an army doctor was to detect danger, incapacity and unfitness, and speak truth to power.  This conference is not about diagnosis – its about skill sets and capabilities.  If we are to save our country, the public need to know about the issue of fitness for duty, and this is usually beyond their daily lives.  This is not a forensic evaluation.  This is about job performance.  If we have a reasonable conviction that the incumbent is dangerous, we must report it.  And what happens when the President feels he’s beyond the rule of law? We have no checks and constraints.  Trumps circle have told stories about his fitness.  John Bolton wrote the “Room where it happened”, and says Trump looks at things entirely through the prism of ‘what is good for him’, and not ‘what is good for the country’.  People have failed to grasp how hard it is to work with such an extreme character, such an autocrat, and despot.  These people cannot be controlled or managed, or out-maneuvered.  They feel no restraints to their power.  They are willing to hurt others and use people, who are just impersonal objects to them.  This is dangerous.  And if he is elected, at over 78 years old, we know how this plays out.  The failure to grasp and talk through issues indicates we will see further decline.  If we take an oath to defend our country, this includes giving people knowledge, to make the right decision.

Ray McGovern, former CIA officer, and advisor to Henry Kissinger, who studied Russian, ethics and logic, and who prepared intelligence estimates, and prepared Presidential briefs during the Reagan administration, was also Chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch of the CIA in the 70’s, working under seven Presidents, with the daily brief.  He confirmed that fitness for office is critical, and the most essential feature of that, is sanity, which rests on appreciating truth.  One of these truths is that ‘there is no security without mutual security’.  Any President who doesn’t understand this is not sane, no matter how smart.  In the nuclear age, the golden rule remains “do unto others’.  This is a moral imperative, and an existential and practical necessity.  Sanity is a nonpartisan.  It is an objective fact.  Do we need collective trauma before we truly understand security?  Anyone who is president must understand that mutual security is the only sanity.

(To be continued.)

Announcement:

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