In Tunisia the Americans had to pay a stiff price for their experience, but it brought rich dividends.
Erwin Rommel
Because Donald Trump will now be serving a 2nd term I’m going to have to re-evaluate my ranking of him as president since there will be two terms to judge rather than one, but one of the best signs I’ve seen has been his ability to hit the ground running even before being sworn in.
Don Surber noticed the difference in speed and number of people who have been appointed to positions:
Make that 9. Just before my bedtime last night, The Calvin Coolidge Project tweeted, “President Trump has announced that Doug Burgum will be his Interior Secretary.”
At this point 8 years ago, Trump had appointed no one. He was waiting for recommendations from the Republican Establishment.
Donald Trump came into office having had to deal with various government agencies in his capacity as a businessman but had no clue as to how deep the deep state was. He was confident in himself but inexperienced so while he had a lot of success he made mistakes that his enemies were able to exploit
The most solid comparison would be to the US Army landing in Africa. Their first fight was the Battle of Kasserine Pass. Rommel took the inexperienced army and spanked them fairly well but they not only learned but resulted in a change of leadership. As the Encyclopedia Britannica notes:
Rommel, who at first scorned his untested American foe, had a different opinion of them at the end of the clash, later recording in his journal, “The tactical conduct of the enemy’s defense had been first class. They had recovered very quickly after the first shock and had soon succeeded in damming up our advance by grouping their reserves to defend the passes and other suitable points.”
The Battle of Kasserine Pass—more correctly stated, the operation, consisting of a series of battles—was a shock to the Americans, though it had little effect on the continuing advance on Tunis. But one final casualty was General Frendendall, who was replaced on March 6 by the considerably more aggressive Major General George S. Patton. Another outcome was a new combat doctrine promulgated by American commanding general Dwight D. Eisenhower, requiring all future land operations to be strongly supported by the Americans’ superior air forces.
This time around Trump has learned from his first term and has bypassed the deep state and the self serving “experts”. It appears he learned a lot more from his “defeat” than he learned from his initial victory.
Will this mean success for the country? I have faith, we will see.
Closing Thought: Faith isn’t believing in God’s existence, that’s is fact. Faith it believing that God knows what he’s doing even if he hasn’t told you.
