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Amidst the explosion of Orly Taitz head (with her hair how can you tell?) and Donald Trump being puffed up by the media like Rush Limbaugh after a truckload of Cialis over the President releasing his “long form” birth certificate there was some actual news which is mostly being overshadowed in by this silly season stuff.
Namely that it is expected that tomorrow the President will announce that CIA Director Leon Panetta will be moving to the position of Sec. Defense and, wait for it, General David Petraeus will be moving in to the CIA Directors job. Now whose heads are exploding?
I hate this announcement for a million different reasons. First off I don’t think that Panetta has done a stellar job as Director of CIA. While I understand that a clandestine service is not going to talk about what it does, as in almost never without a subpoena and a threat of contempt of Congress, but my impression is that he has not changed that much at the Spy agency since taking over there. I could be wrong, but that is my impression. Let’s all hope I am wrong.
The real problem is more with good ol’ General Dave. Ya’ll correct me if I am wrong but I thought that the reason we put him in command in Afghanistan was that he was the only one that could win it. Does that sound familiar to anyone? I am sure I read something like that half a million times from Right Wing sources. Maybe it was just a nightmare…
Now for those of you who are “glass half full” kind of folks, like myself, there is some good news. If we are pulling Gen. Dave out of Afghanistan, that pretty much means that the White House has figured out that there is not a whole hell of a lot they can do there anymore and it is time to fold our tents and get out of there. That is really crappy news for the Afghans, it will leave them with a totally corrupt government and an insurgent ex-government that is really licking its chops to get back into power. Still we have pretty much showed that at this late date there is nothing left to do in this war but leave.
On to more bad news; I have a real problem with the on going conflation of military and intelligence gathering. The two groups should be able to work together but putting military leaders into positions in the clandestine services just feel a little too much like “Seven Days in May” (if you haven’t seen it, rent it! Really).
We have already had too many examples of what can happen when the military is not properly constrained and is involved in a long war. The remarks of General McCrhystal and the revolution of psy-ops against Senators visiting our longest running war are just a couple of examples of what can happen. When you put folks like that behind the security wall of the CIA there has to be reason to be concerned.
The final problem with this new job for Petraeus is that we will have to be subjected to the fawning verbal Fellatio from the Republican senators during his confirmation hearings. You just know it is going to be televised and that the Republicans will be lining up to laud Gen. Dave for his service and to rush to vote to confirm him to a post that will be more important yet less visible than the one he occupies now.
All of that is bad news to this guy, but the worst thing it that we will probably not hear a lot about it tomorrow as our traditional media line up to cover the wedding a royalty instead of the workings of our own creaky democracy.
The floor is yours.
10 Comments
It is fitting that General Betrayus will be installed at the CIA.
I hope this doesn’t cause you to have a heart attack, but hey, Bill, on this one I agree all the way!
The only thing I believe you missed is that Director of the CIA can be a stepping stone to the Presidency. (See Bush, George H.W.)
Bill, did you see the news story where the U.S. media is ‘taking’ more abut the ‘royal wedding’ than the UK media?
As towards the news story about Petraeus and Panetta, well, I suspect there is more to the story than just the obvious BUT it does look like the MIC is truly taking over and doesn’t care who knows it.
Holy Shit! Isn’t that one of the signs of the apocalypse? ;~)
I agree also. Generals as CIA Director seems incestuous. “Seven Days in May” was a great movie. Do you think there is a Col in the Pentagon that would cross Gen. Dave? What’s the chance that Obama is covering his political ass by blocking Gen. Dave from entering the 2012 race?
I have never seen Gen. Dave as a really viable candidate. Look at it this way. There has been a willful looking away at some of the stuff that he has done in Iraq and Afghanistan and what some under his command have done.
That would all end if he becomes a candidate. Also the wars are not that that popular and that is all he has to run on. He has never held office and that would hurt him too.
But the President has shown in the past that he is willing to kneecap political adversaries by offering them positions in his administration and this would certainly do that.
“Ya’ll correct me if I am wrong but I thought that the reason we put him in command in Afghanistan was that he was the only one that could win it.”
All you have to do is change the names and geographical locations and you would swear you were listening to policy discussions and command changes associated with the Vietnam War in the mid 60′s.
And the last time I checked, that little fiasco cast the US in a rather dim light.
Epilogue: After recently reading a documentary style account of a combat recon unit in Iraq called ‘Generation Kill’ by Evan Wright, Berkley, Caliber 2004, I had only one question:
Will ‘god’ ever forgive the United States for what we have done to the Iraqi people?
As always, thanks Bill for your untiring work and ability to retain a sense of humour through all of this. :>)
Maybe God will, but not the Iraqis, Im most sure. And God may expect very sharp penance, imho.
US, Viet Nam…what is the lesson about forgetting the past? Surely we are smarter than this would indicate…but hubris is a terrible thing.
Sticking a military general like Petraeus in as CIA director, a civilian agency is another self serving act by Obama. To hell with finding a civilian best suited for the job.
No, Obama’s priority is for himself. His mission is to make sure Petraeus can’t run against him. What a narcissistic POS.
Gates tried as best he could to rein in the military and their congressional-big business cronies but at last he failed. It was Gates who said we had no strategic interset in Libya. He has been given his walking papers. The Afghan war expander is now our chief spy and the democratic party`s biggest big business cheerleader will soon replace Gates. This is a sad day for the peace makers. It is time now that we go all out on Paul`s bandwagon despite his social views that go against democratic scared cows. Where will Obama send our kids next week? How about Syria or Baharain. Anybody who supports Obama again places his or her immortal soul in jeopardy.
Zenostoa