No, We're Going to Keep Talking About that Group Chat
There's much spinning over the grave lapse in national security captured in that group chat outlining a planned bombing raid on the Houthi militia. It goes that it was not that big a deal because the mission was a success. It was not OK. It was lucky.
The late-night comedians and "Saturday Night Live" had a good time turning the event into farce. We get the dark humor in having top military intelligence figures -- several unqualified to begin with -- discuss an attack plan on a Signal app and adding a journalist to the guest list. Russia is known to target Signal.
Intelligence failures played a part in both the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11 attacks. Imagine the confidence gained if you're a foreign foe, and you've just witnessed the clown car currently heading our national security.
Start with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. His main qualification for overseeing this massive department seems his role as a Fox News pretty boy who slobbers over Donald Trump. How out of his depths is this guy?
Just last month, the National Security Agency warned the Defense Department against the risks of using Signal. Hegseth then proceeded to put an actual attack plan on Signal.
Hegseth has also been bringing relatives to sensitive briefings. He's given his brother Phil a fancy title: senior adviser to the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and liaison officer to the Defense Department. Phil's relevant experience for that position is about zero. His claim to fame is setting up a podcast company.
Phil has gone with Pete on official trips to Guantanamo Bay and Asia. What a perk for the boys to have the Pentagon's 747 aircraft to chauffeur them around.
Pete Hegseth has also brought his wife, a former Fox News producer, into restricted meetings. One was with foreign military leaders at the NATO headquarters in Brussels. (Not relevant but creepy, Hegseth likes to be seen smooching his bride.)
The group chat included Tulsi Gabbard who is -- hard to believe -- our director of national intelligence. Even when pressed by colleagues years ago, she refused to call Edward Snowden a traitor. Snowden was a government contractor who leaked a treasure trove of classified documents. He now lives in Russia. Members of the national security establishment have suspected Gabbard of being a Russian asset herself.
We know about that reckless chat because the journalist who had been added to the guest list by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz wrote about it. Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, easily understood the security breach of including him.
It was the good fortune of our fighter pilots that he withheld information on the battle plans until the mission was over. Being included in this discussion seemed so bizarre to Goldberg that he initially thought he was being set up for some trick.
After news of the security mess took over headlines, the administration instituted no reforms. No heads rolled.
The participants addressed the considerable public outrage by lying their heads off. Waltz, for one, claimed to have never met Goldberg, despite there being photos of them together.
For all we know, Trump may be getting some perverse pleasure from ignoring demands that he replace the incompetents. Trump has complained that this was about the only thing media was talking about. That was because it was a very big thing and remains a big thing.
Not only did that group chat put military personnel at risk, but its display of incompetence at the highest levels of U.S. national security puts us all at risk. No, Mr. President. We're going to be talking about this, and for a long time.
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Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.
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