Firsts 041517

Even before the election the present administration had established its style, loud, obnoxious, prone to exaggeration and out right lies.   In your face shout downs replaced reasoned debate and differing opinions or facts became enemies to be destroyed.  The transition period is the time for recruiting highly qualified staff and development of a viable administration plan.  Instead it was a continuation of a scream and shout management style and unprecedented contravention of the still governing administration.

The presidential inauguration 2017 ushered in a governing period of alternate reality where everything was the largest, first and most popular.  By divine dictate, facts are denied, shouted down and buried under a PR blitz resulting in plunging approval ratings.

After little more than 80 days in office the administration seized an opportunity to distract its domestic public with a foreign threat.  Launching 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base for only limited damage (the base was reported operational within a few days) the administration saw a slight bump in approval with its 50 million-dollar putt. 
 
The administration has finally achieved an honest to goodness official first if not exactly a largest claim.  In a case of using your number two club may get a bigger bump, the administration dropped the United States' first weapon of mass destruction (WMD) since World War Two. (WMD is defined as a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans or cause great damage to human-made structures (e.g., buildings), natural structures (e.g., mountains), or the biosphere.)

The bomb (GBU-43) was touted as the world's largest but both the United States and the Russians have larger bombs. It is its the first use so its cost includes both development and unit cost totaling around 330 million dollars.  According to estimates it "may" have killed up to 36 terrorist, or about ten million per KIA. The immediate blast area of the WMD is two miles across with secondary damage far larger.  The Afghan target area is traditional farmland and environmental damage may linger for years.  The friendly Afghan government was not informed of the unilateral American strike. 

The data are not yet in on a possible bounce but international voices note it was an administration political move.  Some claim it as a warning to other nations that the United States had gone rouge.  With the administration's planning record so far it is doubtful that there was any thought beyond poll numbers.

The employment of WMD shocked European, Russian and Chinese power houses.  It was also seen as a direct threat by North Korea and various terrorist organizations, not known to be wrapped to tight and may respond by going down swinging at anything American. Donald Trump touted the bomb as "another successful job," huh?

As a show and tell the two strikes spent nearly 400 million and the administration is cutting education, social services, environment etc? Talk about shooting the country in the foot.  We create our own enemies, foreign and domestic.