Trump's FBI director pick, Benghazi, and Nigeria

[u/sharkbelly]

Wow, this guy gives me Alex Jones x Oliver North vibes.

Given the December 8 episode, in particular the subject's background with Benghazigate, I can't help but feel like Patel wanted to start a war with his Nigeria incursion stunt. The line about how nobody will care because nobody got hurt... It could be read as disappointment rather than minimizing what he'd done.

I posit if Seal Team 6 got shot out of the sky in Nigeria, it would give Trump license to ramp up hostilities in Africa, something I'm sure Putin wouldn't hate. Trump constantly talks about being anti-interventionist, but he's also a compulsive liar. Getting out of an unpopular war, sticking Obama and Biden with all the unpopularity for it, then getting us right back into another with a much clearer mandate seems to me like it would suit the interests of Trump & Co. rather nicely, especially in the god-king epoch they envision. I think China's interests in Africa are part of it. After all, who doesn't love a proxy war in the former colonies?

[u/feckinweirdo]

Out of all his appointees, Kash is the one I am most worried about. He will be given enforcement power and he will be dangerous. No no no. He CANNOT be confirmed. It will be disastrous.

[u/[deleted]]

Nigeria isn't insane though. Heck even North Korea, a country that lives to fly as close to the sun of the mad dog theory of international relations as it can without catching a nuke, would at least pause and reflect before deciding to take the shot.

That's what Patel ultimately represents. Complete and utter contempt for the pretense that America is first among equals. Not unlike Trump. Its not not war mongering but its also less war mongering than a very dangerous internalization of the idea that nothing ever goes catastrophically wrong: i.e. Black Hawk Down or misidentifying an aircraft and shooting it out of the sky. He lives in a world where deconfliction isn't a pragmatic thing you do to ensure your personnel can go from Point A to Point B without dying, its submission to people who don't deserve even the pretense of dignity.

In short he's the worst sort of America Firster: someone who seems to think that not only does trust and goodwill not exist in any meaningful way and every relationship should be transactional and have some sort of concrete deliverable in America's favor, he's someone who actively thinks we need to remind our partners in public that that we stride the world like a titan and they best just abase themselves and then scurry out of our way.

Which in an increasingly multipolar world is a good way to shift friendly nations to neutral and neutral nations to seeking closer ties with whoever they think might have their back if Uncle Sam decides you're part of some sort of disagreeable axis.