Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Steve Bannon’s Long Love Affair With War

RW note: This is the damn scariest thing I have read in a long time. It reminds me of what the great historian Ralph Raico called Churchill's "sick love of war."

By Asawin Suebsaeng

Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s White House chief strategist, was already set to become one of the most powerful people on the planet—even before Trump appointed him to the National Security Council last weekend.

Those who have known Bannon for years, and before he ascended to executive power, describe a man almost obsessed with military history, guerilla warfare, and the general art of war and nationalist foreign policy.

In his Hollywood days, Bannon could easily play war, writing vast landscapes of warfare and conflict into his scripts, sometimes set in outer space.

Thanks to Donald J. Trump, Bannon now could get to do it for real.

That’s because in a presidential memorandum this past weekend, Trump gave his chief strategist a permanent seat at the National Security Council table, while military and intelligence leaders were effectively downgraded. The move to elevate Bannon, a purely political adviser, was unusual to provoke outcry from even fellow Republicans.

For instance, Bannon has very limited experience in U.S. government, and has little relevant experience for the position. Bannon did serve seven years in the Navy several decades ago, before making his name in the private sector, conservative Hollywood, and then politics.

“This is literally the most terrifying thing that’s ever happened,” a former Hollywood associate of Bannon’s (who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, describing Bannon as “vindictive”) told The Daily Beast when discussing the new national-security position.

“He constantly used military terms, used military terms to describe people who worked for him… like, ‘grunts,’” one former Breitbart staffer recalled. “He always spoke in terms of aggression. It was always on-the-attack, double down... macho stuff. Steve has an obsession with testosterone.”

Read the rest here.

(ht Jay Stephenson)

7 comments:

  1. Bannon wants a holy war

    http://the-american-catholic.com/2016/11/18/remarks-of-stephen-bannon-at-a-conference-at-the-vatican/

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  2. "Jones said that Bannon “used to talk a lot about dharma—he felt very strongly about dharma... one of the strongest principles throughout the Bhagavad Gita.”

    He is clearly a dharma obsessed crypto-Hindu! Quick fellow Americans.. To Canada!

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  3. Agreed Wenzel. This guys is DANGEROUS!! To allow him anywhere near anything having to do with national security and the military is a disaster.

    I'm sure Bannon wouldn't be so bellicose if he had to go fight.

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  4. Yep. The smooth talking metrosexual OBummer and the low IQ Shrub before him were very non violent.

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    1. I agree. I hope that Donald Trump will prove to be less enamored of war than Hillary Clinton. I don't think any person today can know for certain if he is less or more enamored of war than HRC.

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