As an aside, one of the nice things I like about traveling is that it takes my mind off of the news. Especially political news. Most people we meet on the road aren’t as polarized as the media would have us believe and I think that the media is doing the country a disservice in constantly harping on our differences. When Trump hired John Bolton as his National Security Advisor, the media – at least the media I usually read, like the New York Times – went into a frenzy of dismay. “Bolton was going to push Trump into going to war with Iran.” seemed to be the main theme. Forget that all the evidence says that nobody pushes Trump into doing anything or that Trump campaigned on getting out of our constant wars. Then when Bolton quit – or Trump fired him, another thing they disagree on – the same people who were worried about Trump hiring Bolton were upset that he was being fired.

The example that set me off this time is Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos by Peter Bergen, a commentator at CNN. Time magazine has printed parts of the book as a long article in its December 16th issue and, in the article, Bergen complains: And then there was the manner in which Trump conducted himself personally. In an astonishing display of insensitivity, during a 2017 meeting about how to best prosecute the Afghan War, Trump said in Kelly’s presence that the young American soldiers who had died in Afghanistan had died for a worthless cause. Trump said “We got our boys who are being blown up every day for what? For nothing”.

By coincidence, the same day I saw the Time article, the New York Times, in an article dated December 9th, said: Thousands of pages of documents detailing the war in Afghanistan released by The Washington Post on Monday paint a stark picture of missteps and failures — and were delivered in the words of prominent American officials, many of whom publicly had said the mission was succeeding.

We have been fighting in Afghanistan for over eighteen years; during those 18 years, 2,372 United States Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines have been killed plus an additional 1,720 U.S. civilian contractors (what we used to call mercenaries). More importantly, over 111,000 Afghans have been killed. Trump is right, all these deaths have been for nothing. Nothing! Afghanistan is no closer to a Jeffersonian Democracy – or any democracy, really – than they were on December 10, 2001 (we are probably further away because the importance and power of the semi-democratic Loya jirga – a gathering of elders – have been reduced. A general’s job is to tell the Commander in Chief how to win the war they are put in command to win. If they don’t have the men and material to win, it is their job to tell their superiors. None of these generals did that. Either they thought we could win with what they had or could get which shows an astounding lack of judgment or they didn’t care in their rush to get promoted. Either way, they have failed the country and shouldn’t be heralded as successes.

Poor President Trump didn’t get on the cover of TIME for Person of the Year and he was upset. Like third-grader upset, so he took it out on the person who did make it, Greta Thunberg. On Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump Tweeted: “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”…Greta Thunberg@GretaThunberg scooped up Trump’s Tweet and owned it – and Trump – by making it her Twitter handle: A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.

I, personally, like AOC’s reaction. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez@AOCUS Representative,NY-14 (BX & Queens): “Because nothing says “mature temperament” like getting rankled by a 16 year old activist.”