When staffers show incompetence or ignorance about things relevant to their jobs, one wonders what that says about the boss, the person who hired the ignoramus in the first place.
First guess is that the boss was impressed about the staffer's knowledge and ability. In turn, that suggests that the boss is just as ignorant and incompetent as the staffer.
So what are we to make of Sean Spicer, the new president's press secretary, who has shown many times his level of knowledge about world events -- current and past -- and his ability to answer adequately questions put to him by the White House press corps?
The latest episode involves Spicer's defense of the government's ability to deal with chemical weapon attacks by Syria against its own people.
He mentioned America's use of poison gas by the military during World War I, and Nazi Germany's use of gas during World War II, equating them with Syria's use of chemical weapons recently.
But gas attacks a hundred years ago were used only against military targets, and were quickly outlawed, partly because the wind could change and blow the gas into civilian territory, or back upon the attackers.
And in Nazi Germany, poison gas was not used for military purposes, but against civilians, primarily Jewish, in specially constructed chambers in concentration camps, as part of what became known as the Holocaust.
Both the Holocaust and the Syrian bombing of civilians are indeed horrific acts, but to explain or excuse the one by comparing it to the other shows ignorance and incompetence that rises to a level of -- dare we say it? -- stupidity.
All of which is to wonder whether and how America can remain a great nation when its leaders prove themselves to be arrogant in their ignorance, incompetence -- and stupidity.
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