Flynn is the policy-maker of Trump

Written by Nasser Kandil,

Rapidly the characteristics of the new administration of the elected President Donald Trump are started to emerge after a set of leakages about the symbols of this administration that tried to concentrate on the bad examples from the Middle East memory at their forefront John Bolton who served as a representative of George Bush in the Security Council during the era of wars which he waged, Bolton was nominated as a main candidate to take over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But contrary to the expectations it seems that Mitt Romney the former Presidential Republican candidate is the most fortunate for the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and that the competition is between him and the Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. In the Department of Defense the competition revolves between the former Senator Kelly Ayotte and the retired General Joseph Kellogg. The four names resemble the figure and the biography of the Vice President Mike Pence as uncontroversial figures that characterize with the preservation and the quiet biography politically and the affiliation to broad titles adopted by the Republicans that made them the farthest from the policy-making in the era of Trump and the transition to disciplined precise implementers of the policies. The question remains; Who will be the policy-maker in the era of the President Trump?

Among the names which were announced yesterday by Trump and his team, the name of the head of the CIA Mike Pompeo, and the Justice Minister Jefferson Sessions were chosen, both of them resemble the rest of the team through traditional Republican history and conservative professional biography, but Mike Pompeo was the trump of the commission’s investigations in the Congress in the case of the US Embassy in Benghazi, and the incident of killing the Ambassador, in addition to the determination of Hillary Clinton’s responsibility for giving chemical weapons to the terrorist groups in Syria, while Sessions has characterized with following the issue of the immigrants and organizing legal formulas that suits Trump’s vision of the issue of combating the terrorism. Trump’s choice of the pillars of his team depended on examples of the Senators of the Republican Party who have personal biographies that are not similar to his and a status and a degree of the social respect as well as the professionalism in the tasks which they assumed, and the ability to manage their issues. Everyone in his task has what suits the ideas which proposed by Trump in his electoral campaign under titles of combating the terrorism and the immigration. The question remains about the policy-maker in the era of Trump after he became a president?

The name of Michael Flynn is presented as the Adviser of the National Security in the era of Trump to play the role in the intelligence and security management on one hand, and the diplomacy and the foreign policy on the other hand, in recalling the role played by Gondalisa Rice in the era of the George W Bush. The General Flynn is a former commander of the special forces in Pentagon and a former Chairman of the military intelligence, he resigned due to disagreement with the US President Barack Obama after joining to his administration refusing the US war on Iraq as a result of what it  has created of a suitable background for the growth of terrorism, he has a similar reservation towards the war on Libya, but the center of his disagreement with the administration of Obama was the priority of toppling the Syrian President to the priority of the war on terrorism. Despite the data provided to the President Obama about the rootedness of Al Nusra front and the indicators of the birth of ISIS in 2014, he was faced with ignorance by the President Obama, so this drove him to resign. What is remarkable in the biography of Flynn is his adoption from the position of competing Russia on the roles; the explicit call to cooperate with Moscow in fighting the terrorism, Flynn does not hide his friendship with the Russian President Vladimir Putin due to the former position of each one of them in the military intelligence of their countries.

It is not a coincidence that Trump has adopted Flynn’s ideas rather than Flynn’s adoption of Trump’s ones , so this requires from many people a re–evaluation of the hypothesis that the arrival of Trump was an electoral chance knowing that he does not get the majority of the votes, but the majority of Clinton’s share. The winning of Trump was due to the votes of the delegates in the Electoral College as the winning of George Bush in 2000. It is rare that the elected president fails in gaining the majority of the voters in conjunction with his gaining the majority of votes of the Electoral College which the US constitution considers it a sufficient condition to win in the presidency.  So it must be understood the meaning of opening an investigation with the candidate Hillary Clinton in her e-mail before days of the elections and its impact on her electoral position, as it is understood the meaning of Trump’s uncommon rhetoric which includes positions that go beyond the courageousness of a person intellectually and politically, as the call for a cooperation with Russia, saying it is enough for Saudi Arabia, ensuring Israel with weapons and money, the exit of the wars in Syria and Yemen towards settlements entitled the priority of the war on terrorism, reconsidering the political and the security doctrine of Washington due to its restriction of combating the terrorism, as well as the risks on the American security, and the abandonment of strategies of changing the regimes under the pretext of promoting the democracy, while there is an obsolete silence on Washington’s relationship with the most backward and dictatorial regime in Riyadh.

Michael Flynn is Donald Trump’s secret, when he said in his electoral campaign “My friends the major Generals told me that Obama’s administration has born ISIS, has supported the terrorism, and there is no justification for a war under the banner of topping Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi if the outcome of that war is to give the two countries to Al-Qaeda”. When we search in Flynn’s biography we find these conclusions in the reports which were presented by the military intelligence headed by him. Despite the exit of the head of the intelligence, the institution remains searching for a man who has its ideas to the White House, and thus was Flynn’s task to support Donald Trump. Just as a reminder Flynn and the military intelligence were always advising Obama to intervene and to exert pressure on Turkey and Saudi Arabia due to their direct relations with ISIS and Al Nusra, he was behind the speech of the US Vice President Joe Biden before Harvard University which includes these accusations. Just to remember as well that the Special Forces in Pentagon are not led but only by a leading General and decisions and choices-maker, a man who is a vital part of the leading institution. Therefore, the US military intelligence surpasses CIA in the ability and the partnership in making decision contrary to the prevailing belief.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh,