The Real Questions To Ask About Trump And NIger

(Cartoon image is by Clay Jones at claytoonz.com.)

Four American soldiers were recently killed in an ambush in Niger. Much has been made in social media and on the news about Trump's failure to recognize the deaths, and his late calling of the victim's families.

Now we are beginning to hear questions about whether the deaths could have been prevented. Was their a huge intelligence failure? Hopefully, an investigation will answer that question. But there are a couple of basic questions that should be answered.

The first is why did we have combat troops in Niger (and don't try to tell me that Special Forces soldiers aren't combat troops)? Did anyone outside the Pentagon and CIA even know we had those troops in Niger?

But perhaps even more important -- did Donald Trump know we had troops in Niger (and know why they were there)? We know that those who brief him on intelligence matters have had to cut their daily briefings down to less than one page, because Trump can't (or won't) sit through a thorough briefing as other presidents have received.

Trump is only interested in his own public relations. Both domestic and foreign affairs bore him, probably because he doesn't understand the intricacies of either (and has no desire to spend the time to learn). He's only interested in his own desires.

That has me thinking that Trump was probably as surprised as the rest of America that we had troops in harm's way in Niger. And it's probably why a couple of weeks passed before he would even acknowledge the fact. That's a scary thought, but I think it's true. How can everything be included in a brief one-page intelligence report? What other important things are happening that Trump doesn't have a clue about?

NOTE -- One more question. Do you think Trump could find Niger on a world map without assistance? I doubt it.