There comes a time in battle, when you have routed the enemy from his defensive positions. You are now in possession of his turf and he is fleeing the battlefield. At that point in time, there is a very strong urge to let up, to sit down, catch your breath, take a break and let him get away— get away to fight again another day. That means sooner or later, he will be back and you’ll have to fight him all over again. You have to pursue him and maul him so badly, he will never return.
From Army Field Manual 3-90
Chapter 7
PursuitA pursuit is an offensive operation designed to catch or cut off a hostile force attempting to escape, with the aim of destroying it (JP 1-02). Pursuit operations begin when an enemy force attempts to conduct retrograde operations. At that point, it becomes most vulnerable to the loss of internal cohesion and complete destruction. A pursuit aggressively executed leaves the enemy trapped, unprepared, and unable to defend, faced with the options of surrendering or complete destruction.
We have reached that point in the Presidency of Donald Trump. Sadly, it looks like Senate Republicans are about to let the enemy get away, to fight another day. My good friend and colleague Bonchie put it this way regarding possible Republican intentions in the upcoming Senate trial of The President (emphasis mine).
But they aren’t even going to call the whistleblower? They aren’t going to ask Adam Schiff about his machinations? They aren’t going to get Alexander Vindman under oath and make him answer for leaking classified information? I understand being risk averse, but that strikes me as politically dumb. Further, it’d be letting people off the hook who shouldn’t get to pretend like the past two months never happened.
Read: Are Republicans About to Screw Up Trump’s Senate Trial?
Bonchie is correct, except I’d say, “like the last three years never happened.” Senators McConnell and Graham are indicating that they want to just, “get this over with and move on.” Maybe they’ll file a report, modify a few procedures and maybe issue a few “letters of concern,” to some low-level employees. That ain’t gonna do it, folks. That won’t send the right message. That won’t deter future venal acts.
That just won’t cut it this time around. We need to hunt these people down and prosecute them publicly. The only way these people are going to learn is if we treat them like the rabid cur dogs that they are. The rot is deep and must be excised…again, publicly.
That starts with the public trial of The President, a trial I would remind you, that was forced on us by the Democrats. This is the opportunity to publicly expose deep state corruption of civil service and military bureaucracies. Criminal investigations aren’t covered by the press unless, of course, the target is President Trump. That’s why we need the Senate to get these folks under oath in public hearings. Get Comey to admit his crimes, or better yet, take the 5th Amendment…in public. Put Brennan on the stand. Make him take the 5th…in public. Strip the veneer from their cultivated “humble public servant” personas. Show them for the venal and corrupt people they are.
We owe them no mercy. Remember, these are the “apolitical public servants” who committed felonies, as they inserted themselves into and meddled with the 2016 Presidential election. These are the folks who falsified information and upended the lives of innocent Americans, to the point of losing their homes. They brought real and egregious harm to their fellow citizens, just so they could pursue an illegal, immoral investigation…all because of their unbridled, frothing-at-the-mouth hatred for President Donald J. Trump and we deplorables who had the effrontery to support him.
The so-called Impeachment Inquiry by the House of Representatives and the Department of Justice IG Report have shone some light on these roaches. We need to deal with them before they scurry off into the shadows again. It’s time to enter the pursuit phase of the fight. We have them on the run. Now is the time to run them to ground and publicly and legally destroy them, first in the Senate and then in criminal trials.
We need hard prosecutions. We need to make sure we get real convictions, for real crimes. No process crimes not accompanied by real convictions.
Mike Ford, a retired Infantry Officer, writes on Military, Foreign Affairs and occasionally dabbles in Political and Economic matters.
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