Gen. Flynn: Here Are 10 Rules to Prevent Nuclear War – Our Leaders Are Currently Breaking All of Them
I have never been a diplomat, although at times I’ve had to be diplomatic.
Even though I had interactions with the State Department during my 33 years in the U.S. Army, I really am not sure about how American diplomats are instructed to speak to — or about — other great powers, specifically the Russian Federation.
What I hear coming out of the mouths of officials in both the legislative and executive branches leads me to believe the American government has little to no standards. In my judgment, these comments are made to denigrate Russia, but they also degrade us as a nation.
This is not how great powers should deal with each other. If there is a rulebook of diplomatic speech these people are following, it needs to be thrown out the window.
The same is true about how we treat all other great powers. To what standard should we then hold ourselves?
Rather than proceed toward a nuclear standoff, my basic message is that all American officials must speak about and treat the Russian Federation and its president, Vladimir Putin, with the respect due a great power (and a nuclear power).
As our nation inches toward a senseless and avoidable nuclear world war, I am willing to risk being criticized for weakness or naivety or anything else that the deep state may choose. I don’t care.
These same forces already tried their best to destroy me when I was appointed as President Donald Trump’s first National Security Advisor and tried to calm the waters with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
People forget now, but the Obama administration lied about Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee servers and the 2016 election, and unfairly expelled 35 Russian diplomats on Dec. 29, 2016.
I urged Ambassador Kislyak not to overreact, as a new administration would be taking over soon. For this, I paid a heavy price. In one of our calls, the transcript reflected me telling the ambassador, “You are not talking to a diplomat; you are talking to a soldier. I am a very practical guy. It’s all about solutions.”
That is how I still feel. Perhaps that put a target on my back then, and perhaps it will now — so be it.
For the sake of reducing the risk of nuclear war, and for the sake of having decent relations with Russia, and for the sake of our children and grandchildren, this is a time for American officials to stop mouthing off at Russia like spoiled children. And we must follow some basic rules about behaviors, like not lying, cheating, and stealing.