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April 28, 2011
Opinion: Obama Announces Shake-Up Of National Security Team - Plays "Musical Chairs" At The Pentagon, The CIA, And The Defense Department (Updated)
Topics: Political News and commentariesBreaking news now on Fox News, our "Messianic" president appeared once more this morning in front of his beloved cameras, regaling us once again with one of his lofty teleprompter speeches, to announce he's playing "musical chairs" with the CIA, the Defense Department, and our leadership in Afghanistan, making some rather drastic changes to our national security team.
Obama has announced he has nominated former CIA director Leon Panetta to succeed Robert Gates as Defense Secretary.
At the expense of being cynical one has to wonder if Obama's dismissal of Gates has not been prompted by the fact that the current Secretary of Defense has been very publicly vocal and adamant, when asked about the possibility, that there would not be American boots on the ground in Libya Gates said "not as long as I am in this job."
Seems Obama, now forced by the grim reality on the ground in Libya, has taken Gates at his word, and is throwing him under the bus, to once again waffle on his stated policies while at the same time trying to save some face, even as he's forced by events he helped to unfold, to send American troops into Libya to end the current stalemate, oust Qaddafi once and for all, and clean-up the mess he himself - with all of his initial vacillation, deference to the United Nations, indecisiveness, and lack of leadership - helped create at the onset of the conflict; which has allowed Qaddafi to dig-in and be able to entrench himself - resulting in Obama's present disastrous Libyan policy that has so dismally failed.
Given Gates' very public assertion there would be no American troops on the ground in Libya under his watch, he would have been a thorn at Obama's side, if and when Obama has no other choice but to send American troops in.
But Gates was not the only casualty of Obama's "musical chairs." It seems that General David Petraeus - that most greatest of Generals since Hannibal, Caesar, and Attila the Hun - has finally succumbed to the dreaded "Curse of Afghanistan", and like his much disgraced and maligned predecessor, General McCrystal, whom he replaced with much pomp and fanfare, has been demoted as Commander of U.S. and Allied Forces in Afghanistan, to become the pencil-pushing bureaucrat replacement for Panetta as Director of the CIA. Alas! What an ignoble end for such a fierce, and legendary, warrior...And this time around, Rolling Stone Magazine was not even involved!
Petraeus will be replaced by Lieutenant General John Allen. And everyone is wondering how long Lieutenant General Allen will last, before he also falls prey to the "curse" and Obama throws him "under the bus" - Vegas bookies are already posting odds!
But the "musical chairs" and the shuffle did not end there. In what Obama terms changes designed to keep "a focused national security mission" (even as he plays golf and hobnobs with Oprah), Obama also appointed veteran diplomat Ryan Crocker as the next U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, no doubt because as his last name implies, Ambassador Crocker is uniquely qualified to deal, not only with the "crock of crap" he will be getting from corrupt Afghani president Hamid "Opium Poppy" Karzai and the corrupt Afghani government, but also with the "crock of crap" he will be getting from the White House (guess it takes a Crocker, to deal with so much crock...), a difficult balancing act, to say the least!
This comes at a time when NATO, our allies, and even our own military, are increasingly uncertain about what the official U.S. policy is, what president Obama's objectives in any given theater of action are, and or what his "policy of the day" will be - according to how the political wind is blowing on any particular day, and further erodes the leadership and standing of the United States in the world, even as we become bogged down, due to the Obama Administration's indecisiveness and Obama's lack of leadership, in three conflicts we keep pouring American lives and treasure into, but that Obama is unwilling to win!
One thing is absolutely certain, though, Obama is one hell of a bus driver! If you have the misfortune of getting in his way or of becoming obsolete to his political whims, he'll throw you under the bus, and run the bus over you with no qualms... Just ask Gates, Petraeus, McCrystal, Reverend Wright....and even his own grandmother!
Posted by Althor at April 28, 2011 6:01 PM
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