Annie Jacobsen

But this current president never ceases to amaze me.

And that was true in the last his last term as well.

And when I say amazed, meaning the playbook is not by any stretch.

predictable or rather it doesn't follow a foot.

Yes, it is not standard.

And but you it's it's interesting.

I almost use the word fun and that's a terrible word.

It's not fun, but it's intriguing to look at how these different presidents approach all this and also how they are impacted by their own successes or

or failures and that's where it gets really interesting because you can go all the way back to kennedy and look at how his personal embarrassment over one organization's failed killer capture mission impacts the world going forward you know um uh

Well, I think your observations are super interesting and and they point to something I think about also, which is like I write about history and it's easier to look at look at operations through the lens of history and then kind of.

reverse engineer your opinion.

I mean, and I mean that with all humility, that that is actually easier.

What you just commented on is saying, here's what's happening in the present day.

And that is a lot harder.

It is a lot harder to know.

And so it's kind of like a comfort being a historian.

But what's crazy about this is that I am repeatedly being

like asked to comment on things that we thought were history that are actually present day, right?

Like meaning I did not expect to be writing, you know, suggesting to the Jack Ryan writers team, hey, let's do an authentic killer capture mission inside the Venezuela and then have it essentially become kind of true reality.

That is where it gets awkward.