<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/18/1906494/-Five-top-Pentagon-officials-have-resigned-in-the-last-week-Should-we-um-be-worried?detail=emaildksp" class="">https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/18/1906494/-Five-top-Pentagon-officials-have-resigned-in-the-last-week-Should-we-um-be-worried?detail=emaildksp</a><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">While much of the nation has been focused on impeachment,
Team Trump’s capacity for bungling absolutely everything else remains
undiminished. The last week has seen <em class="">five</em> new high-level
resignations inside the Department of Defense: The latest is senior
adviser for international cooperation Tina Kaidanow, <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2019/12/18/top-defense-exports-official-exits-the-pentagon-amid-multiple-recent-resignations/" class="">who left on Monday</a>.
Other departures include top Asia policy chief Randall Schriver and
Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Kari Bingen.</div><div class=""><p class="">What's going on? It's not clear, other than the usual: Under Trump,
being an expert in policy, intelligence, or anything else means holding a
tenuous position at best, and being in the federal government as a
gaggle of possibly criminal idiots (see: Giuliani, Rudy) wreck much of
what you've been working on over the course of your career has got to be
soul-crushing from week one—let alone how bad it has to be in year
three.</p><p class="">The net result is that, as in the State Department, the ranks of top Pentagon officials have been dwindling. <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/12/18/pentagon-policy-chief-john-rood-under-fire-senior-officials-leave/" title="" class="">Over a quarter of all Senate-confirmed defense positions are now vacant</a>, and…</p></div></body></html>