Dead Drop: August 20

AFGHANI-MESS: We recommend the main pages of The Cipher Brief for views from experts like Generals David Petraeus and Joseph Votel, former Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin and former senior CIA Officer Robert Dannenberg about the greater implications of the Afghanistan debacle.  But more in The Dead Drop’s lane,  Man, the administration sure fumbled some of their messaging regarding the Kabul calamity. The gaffes were wide ranging. For example, the Secretary of State said a Taliban takeover wouldn’t be a Friday to Monday thing.  No, it was more like Friday to Sunday. Several administration officials denied things would end up with a “Saigon moment” and then that happened, in what seemed to be a New York minute. The White House released a very odd photo of President Biden alone at Camp David looking at a wall of video screens filled with various officials. The photos caused some folks to wonder if Biden had COVID since no one was near him.  Others wondered whether it was symbolic that the times on some of the world clocks shown were wrong, and still others asked if the White House might have erred in releasing a photo which might have identified some undercover personnel. No wonder they are having trouble coordinating a country-wide evacuation when they are struggling coordinating a Camp David photo op.

CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT:  Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) was trying to make some point on Tuesday (although it is not entirely clear what it was.)  Mediaite says his official Twitter account posted this message (since deleted): “US Troops today in: South Korea – 28,000; Germany – 35,486; Japan – 50,000; Taiwan – 30,000; Africa – 7.000; Afghanistan (month or 2 ago) – 2,500.”  A lot of folks, including the Chinese government were surprised that Cornyn, a Senate Intelligence Committee member, claimed that there are 30K U.S. troops in Taiwan. A tabloid controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, The Global Times, said that “If the tweet is correct, it is a military invasion and occupation of China’s Taiwan and equivalent to the U.S. declaring war on China.”  We know that Congress wants to be more assertive when it comes to war powers – but we don’t think this is what they have in mind. The U.S. did have a lot of troops there in the 60’s and 70’s but the last ones left forty-two years ago. The Global Times quoted a professor at China’s Foreign Affairs University as calling Cornyn a “dotard.” That will sting when Cornyn hears about it in 2063.

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