By: Spartacus

Spartacus — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:41:22 +0000

Trying to reverse-engineer the “thinking” behind the nomination of the Three Stooges (Hagel, Kerry, Brennan) is an interesting exercise, if somewhat disturbing. (Note: this is a bit of a springboard off of Barry Rubin’s earlier piece.) In a nation of 315 million, with some amazingly brilliant and accomplished folks to choose from… why these clowns? A few random observations:

- Their common denominator seems to be “safe.” Dull and unprincipled in all cases, and also somewhere on the spectrum between “deeply anti-Israel” (Hagel) and “magically wrong on everything” (Kerry). Conveniently, all points on this spectrum round off to the same foreign policy responses. And they come from safe backgrounds (two fellow members of the country club, one underling). No one of the three is going to stand firmly on principle and oppose his boss. This fits in with the choice of Biden for veep (dull, unprincipled, pliable, member of the country club, knows where his bread is buttered, and will never outshine the boss… in other words, “safe”). It also fits with the stories of how Valerie Jarrett prevents access to Barack by anyone who might threaten to share a contrary view. Thin skin doesn’t like being irritated.

- So how did their predecessors slip through? Barack let down his guard in the early years and accepted some (relatively) good advice, out of fear. Hillary: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Panetta: don’t allow a defense “incident” to endanger re-election; take a DC veteran Dem who actually knows something about defense. Petraeus: national hero, Democrat, used to taking orders and saluting. Now, Hillary can’t believe that she hitched her cart to this ass; it’s like deja vu all over again, only this time she’s really done, and has given up on makeup and taken up “wine tasting” instead. Panetta, who likely had to give the green light on the Bin Laden raid, is terminally disgusted after the same inability to get a simple green light on Benghazi, and being a smart rat, he’s also leaving the ship. Petraeus, made of different stuff and recently shamed by one massive stain on his honor, would not further tarnish it by submitting to blackmail, and popped smoke to depart the AO.

- Emboldened by re-election, Barack is demonstrating a new level of hubris in every way. Lackeys who will simply implement policy that reflects the relatively happy part of his childhood (the madrassa in Indonesia) are now preferable to people with thoughts of their own.

By: David Foster

David Foster — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 03:39:57 +0000

See my post The Perfect Enemy.

Comments on: It’s okay to be politically incorrect — if you are Muslim or like Islam

By: Spartacus

By: David Foster