Have we found the real life version of General Jack D. Ripper in The Apprentice: WWIII Edition? Have you heard of Gorilla Kurilla? Donald Trump is deciding whether or not to send a bunker busting bomb to Iran. Trump doesn’t know a bunker busting bomb from a rubber baby buggy bumper, but that’s neither here nor there. He’s got “advisors.” Not necessarily the ones you would suppose, either, like the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense. We are given to understand that Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard are no longer part of Trump’s inner circle. So upon whom, then, does Trump rely?
As the United States moves additional military forces into the Middle East to help defend Israel from Iranian counterstrikes, protect U.S. assets and possibly launch bunker-busting bombs at Iran’s buried nuclear sites, Trump is relying more on a pair of four-star generals than on Hegseth, his defense secretary, according to three U.S. officials. The generals are Caine, the Joint Chiefs chairman; and Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, which has operational authority for the Middle East. […]
But two current U.S. officials said Kurilla and Caine have taken the lead on discussing military options with Trump, with the president largely sidestepping Hegseth and his team at the Pentagon. “Nobody is talking to Hegseth,” one official said. “There is no interface operationally between Hegseth and the White House at all.”
Kurilla has voiced support for an aggressive posture against Iran, which has backed militias in numerous attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East, including a drone attack last year in Jordan that killed three American soldiers. Still, Kurilla has not leaned one way or another in whether to strike Iran and has presented a wide range of options to the president, one of the U.S. officials said.
Michael Kurilla is a four-star general who has served as the 15th commander of United States Central Command since 1 April 2022.[2][3][4][5] He previously served as the commanding general of XVIII Airborne Corps and before that as the chief of staff of United States Central Command.[6][7]
The above is from Wikipedia. I just went over there because the name was not familiar to me. Here’s what else Wikipedia had to say about him. “As of November 2024, Kurilla was under investigation after shoving an airman upon being asked to take his seat and buckle up for his safety during a flight to Israel.[15] “That takes us to Stars & Stripes’ account of this incident.
NAPLES, Italy — The Pentagon’s top general in the Middle East is being investigated over a claim that he shoved a subordinate during a heated exchange on a recent flight to Israel, an official told Stars and Stripes on Friday. The incident reportedly occurred in early September during a C-17 Globemaster III flight when Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, grew annoyed by communications issues on the transport plane, Military.com reported Thursday, citing an unidentified defense official.
Kurilla is accused of pushing an airman who asked him to take his seat and buckle up, according to an NBC News report the same day, citing three defense officials familiar with the investigation.
The Army Criminal Investigation Division “is aware of an alleged incident (regarding Kurilla) and is currently looking into it,” agency spokesman Mark Lunardi said in an email Friday. “No additional information is available at this time.” CENTCOM did not immediately respond Friday to questions about the investigation.
As of Thursday, Kurilla had not been suspended from his position. Typically, officers who violate decorum or laws are suspended with pay pending the outcome of an investigation, according to Military.com.
A general shoving an airman is pretty screwed up on its face. Whatever annoyed the general, the airman was doing his job. That should have been recognized and respected. It was not. So we have a situation where a hot head, one who reacts first and thinks later, is in charge, along with the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of advising Donald Trump on how he should handle a possible war with Iran. What could possibly go wrong?
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trump will have the matter buried. the guy sounds like his kind of general.
The Secretary of Defense out of the loop, when the world is staring nuclear war in the face, with all parties involved being run by men who are religious fanatics? It’s a recipe for global suicide. I used to say somewhere in space and time we were already dead…but I sure would like to go out without my children’s future going with me. Maybe, given the continued bloodshed we call human history…we don’t deserve more time. Children’s laughter tells me otherwise. I guess I’ve got Jimmy Stewart’s disease from Mr. Smith Goes To Washington…I don’t give a tinker’s damn how hopeless it looks and FEELS…I plan to stay and fight in whatever way I can for this lost cause. My children at least deserve that much.