Monday, September 30, 2019

The Dark Room

gray stainless steel armor

If I were advising both sides in the upcoming impeachment debates, my advice would be as follows:

You are entering a pitch-black room with no idea of its contents. 

[An old curse: "May you be involved in a lawsuit in which you know you are right."] 

The only guarantee is that it will contain many unintended consequences, far more than existed when people were considering impeaching Andrew Johnson or Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton. The conversation at the center for the efforts can easily lead to questions about the current and past administrations as well as ones about the CIA and the FBI and the 2016 election. It will not be as narrowly focused as whether a president lied under oath or whether a quid pro quo was offered. I am not being critical of such an expansive approach. Letting everything come out is far better than the calculated release of a slanted portion.

But keep history and grand strategy in mind. Remember that large events have a propensity to get out of control. It is quite likely that - whichever way this winds up - the result will not be what you imagined. 

And if there is one area in which high-level decision-makers are notoriously deficient, it is imagination.



[Photo by Nik Shuliahin at Unsplash]

No comments: