> Obama's Pentagon
- From: Patriot Games <Patriot@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:04:10 -0400
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29190
Obama's Pentagon
by Robert Maginnis
10/27/2008
If Barack Obama becomes president, his defense agenda and team will
cut defense spending, rely on international organizations for our
security and push for radical social change. His Pentagon appointees
will come from liberal think tanks, Ivy League schools and the Clinton
administration.
Most new presidents come to office with big plans but when their
appointees collide with the Pentagon?s bureaucrats and the realities
of war, those plans often crumble. The same will be true for Obama.
The professionals at the Pentagon focus on war not political
posturing.
And geopolitics such as Russia?s invasion of Georgia can overtake
election strategies as well. Ask President Bush about the impact 9/11
had on his promise to ?transform? the Pentagon.
Senator Obama?s security agenda includes little that is new. He
promises to end the Iraq war but President Bush may preempt that
promise by signing a Status of Forces Agreement with Baghdad that
transitions America out of Iraq by 2011. Geopolitics and logistical
realities make an earlier withdrawal foolhardy.
While Obama and Bush agree that Afghanistan must become the focal
point of the global war on terror, Bush has already announced troop
increases for Afghanistan beginning next year.
Senator Obama promises to refocus military capabilities on stability
and counterinsurgency but that?s already a Pentagon priority outlined
in the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review. The junior senator from
Illinois promises to build partnerships abroad but that too is a top
Bush priority and his Pentagon is already transforming America?s
security cooperation efforts.
What concerns many observers are Obama?s spending priorities. He has
promised to ?cut tens of billions? in ?wasteful spending? and
?investments in unproven missile defense systems.? It?s not clear,
however, whether he intends to replace the military?s critical war
ravaged equipment.
Obama is being pressured to make deep defense cuts. House liberals
and Obama constituencies like the Black Leadership Forum have argued
that cutting defense programs ?? would free up $1 trillion in the
federal budget.? Cutting such programs will be difficult, however,
because the defense budget is the most politically contentious in the
federal government.
Richard Danzig, a former Clinton navy secretary and chief Obama
defense advisor, expects Pentagon spending under an Obama
administration to remain at current levels. However, Danzig promises
?? to come to grips with affordability issues and the requirements
process? which should be a red flag for new acquisition programs like
the Army?s $160 billion-plus Future Combat Systems, the F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter which already faces significant cost overruns and the
DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer.
Obama plays to his liberal constituencies when he pledges to do away
with nuclear weapons without Russia, China and others also doing away
with theirs. Promises to radically reduce the nuclear threat, while
nothing new are nearly impossible to accomplish.
The primary policies Obama might change are Clinton-era social
experiments. Obama and a democratic controlled Congress will push to
dump the military?s homosexual exclusion policy and force more women
into direct combat. No military necessity exists for either change
but Obama?s liberal constituency demands nothing less.
Obama?s team overseeing his Pentagon agenda will be a predictable cast
of new and old characters with at least one surprise. Likely sitting
behind the defense secretary?s desk on the Pentagon?s E-ring will be a
member of Obama?s ?unity ticket,? retiring Republican Nebraska Senator
Chuck Hagel. Allegedly, Obama will tap Hagel for the job as part of a
?high profile? team that will ?command public confidence.?
Hagel is a Republican in name only. He has often taken positions that
rankle fellow Republicans. The Vietnam veteran agrees with Obama on
many defense issues. He?s an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, favors
direct talks with rogue nations like Iran and Syria and disparages the
so-called Jewish lobby. Like fellow Republican (and former
MaineSenator) William ?Bill? Cohen who served President Clinton as
secretary of defense, the addition of Republican Hagel fits Obama?s
?change? agenda and his promise to tackle Washington?s ?partisan
gridlock.?
Richard Danzig, a back-up candidate to Hagel for the top job, is most
likely Obama?s choice for deputy secretary of defense. Danzig, a Yale
lawyer and Rhodes Scholar who served in the Pentagon under both
Presidents Carter and Clinton, will be Obama?s chief ideologue to keep
the Pentagon on a liberal course. Recently, Danzig outlined the
?Obama doctrine? which includes three guiding principles: ?The US
can?t do everything by itself; the US must get its allies to assume
the burden militarily; and international security problems require the
US to use non-military assets.? This sounds like the failed Clinton
principles that resulted in ?Black Hawk Down,? the USS Cole, Khobar
Towers and the Kosovo bombing fiasco.
The Pentagon has approximately 250 political appointee positions. Most
of those positions will likely be filled with
know-nothing-about-national-defense youthful campaign workers, a move
typical of new administrations pressed to find jobs to reward party
loyalty but many will never get security clearances required for their
jobs. Basically, it means political appointees below the third tier
level will require a lot of on-the-job-training and handholding by
seasoned bureaucrats and uniformed members.
The Democrat Party has plenty of loyalists with defense credentials
ready to join the Obama Pentagon. Some, like Harvard professor and
Obama national security advisor Sarah Sewall, are very credible.
Sewall served in the Clinton Pentagon as a deputy assistant secretary
of defense and recently collaborated with General David Petraeus to
rewrite the military?s counterinsurgency field guide. But she will
push the Pentagon toward more nation-building projects.
Members of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal advocacy
group headed by Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, could play a
prominent role in an Obama Pentagon. Obama might rehire CAP staffer
Rudy deLeon, a former Clinton under secretary of defense for personnel
and readiness, to advance liberal social issues. DeLeon was Clinton?s
front man for homosexuals in the military and he pushed for women in
more combat roles. Other CAP staffers that might join Obama?s
Pentagon team include Denis McDonough, who wants to combat climate
change, and James Ludes, a former defense adviser to Senator John
Kerry who rightly sees the current financial crisis as a national
security problem.
Obama will dip into liberal think tanks like Washington?s Brookings
Institution for Pentagon staffers. Philip Gordon and Ivo Daalder are
among 83 scholars identified as foreign policy experts at Brookings?
website. Both men worked in the Clinton administration and now serve
as Obama campaign advisors. Daalder wants the US to unilaterally
reduce our nuclear weapons arsenal to 1,000 warheads and Gordon
wishfully declares the war on terror will end once Muslims turn
against extremists.
Obama?s campaign has tapped many retired military advisors but most of
these former soldiers won?t be front and center at the Pentagon.
Retired Air Force Major General Jonathan Gration, a former combat
fighter pilot and campaign adviser, is the exception and could land a
policy position in Obama?s Pentagon. Gration is the son of missionary
parents who were in the Congo where he learned Swahili. After
retirement, he translated his Africa experience into the Millennium
Development, a non-profit organization that aims to lift African
villages out of poverty, an issue that Obama appears to favor.
Predictably, an Obama Pentagon will be run by liberal national
security experts who will put the Pentagon on a crash diet and refocus
security priorities on other than combat missions. And soldiers will
pay in blood for their liberal agenda.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Maginnis is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, a national security
and foreign affairs analyst for radio and television and a senior
strategist with the U.S. Army.
.
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