Vice President Mike Pence's anger over Flynn's similar failure to provide him a full and accurate account of the call then led a panicked President Trump to fire his National Security Adviser and thus remove a key advocate for reduced tensions with Russia.
After Flynn's firing, a concern among some anti-war progressives was that the back story of the Flynn case was an attempt by U.S. intelligence agencies to sabotage a possible de'tente with Russia.
Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, commented: "General Flynn has admitted misleading the Vice President but I think we need to look at this a little bit deeper. A phone call from the incoming national security director was intercepted and the contents given to the media ... at the core of this is an effort by some in the intelligence community to upend a positive relationship between the U.S. and Russia... There are people trying to separate the U.S. and Russia so that the military industrial and intelligence axis can cash in... The American people need to know that there's a game going on inside the intelligence community there are those who 'want to reignite the cold war. That's what's at the bottom of all this 'Wake Up America!'"
However, for many liberals and progressives, Trump's policies on education, health care, environmental protection, immigration and law enforcement are horrible. Some on the Left are so alarmed by these policies that they are willing to ally themselves with neoconservatives and the national-security state to somehow "stop Trump."
The "bash Russia" club is considered a handy way of doing that. But that means siding with war hawks who are determined to derail Trump's campaign pledges to work with Russia in combating terrorism and his potential cooperation with President Putin on resolving international conflicts in Syria, Ukraine, Libya and elsewhere.
Such prospects for peace are anathema to neoconservatives and elements of the intelligence community which are fighting back with their own campaign of "leaks." But -- for Americans who are tired of "perpetual war" -- these "leaks" are not for the public good.
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