Government Work.
Spoke Wednesday 6 to Larry Johnson, No Quarter, re John Brennan of the NSS and the clumsiness of the Obama White House this last week since Flight 253. Larry Johnson's opinion of the Brennan is that he is a run-of-the-mill "pencil-pusher" who served two decades in the CIA without distinction, and whose tour as head of station in Saudia Arabia was dismal. Brennan was in place in 2001 as George Tenet's chief-of-staff, and so he is part of the failure of the first Al Q attack. He inserted himself in the Obama administration with officious conduct during the inauguration; and he is now the commander-in-chief of homeland paranoia at the White House, the man called "John" by POTUS. John Bolton told me Tuesday 5 that John Brennan has his own problems, that his statement that the Obama team security was good for all other days, just not Christmas, was a way of saying, "It was good enough for government work." Mention that other information speaks to the unlikelihood that the Obama administration can solve the defenses. I am told that a full body scan machine will not detect the small amount of PETN on Abdulmutallab. I am told that Yemen leaders know the Obama team is not serious about confronting Al Qaeda Arbian Peninsula, and therefore they did not give permission to JSOC to strike the terror camps last summer. I am told that the the Yemenis in GITMO will be returned to Yemen asap, when the emergency abates, when the media is not looking closely. Situation normal, all fouled up. CINC Brennan on the pencil. This will be one of those episodes in the Obama years that, when we look back, will seem trivial and corny. The polls reflect a deep distrust of the Obama administration re national security. The Brennanizing of the Obama White House is a confirmation that the Obama White House is knows that it is amateurish and hesitant. Choosing to call the war on terror instead the war on Al Qaeda was a primary problem, because there are many Al Qaeda's, there are many jihadist gangs, there are many punks just trying to get lucky.
Khost.
Late news from the BBC that there is a blast in Khost Province, and that the governor and officials are injured. This is the Haqqani Network, working with or for Al Q.
John Brennan, it seems, is in charge of Washington's war of words on the terror front. It is both a hopeful and disturbing clue as the current administration continues to reveal itself. It is hopeful insofar as the administration appears content not to fundamentally change anything and to just use different words to talk about it. If this assessment holds true for every other initiative Obama has promised, we can be reasonably confident that a future administration will find a way to reverse any resulting damage relatively easily. It is also disturbing in that verbiage alone seldom changes the fundamental nature of a problem. Thinking it does, would rather serve as a lethal diversion at the very time when the world does not stop (rushing into a vacuum) and actual events threaten to overtake us.
A similar problem exists with Republicans. They smugly feel they must do nothing as the Obama administration happily implodes. ‘Nothing’ is static; everything else is dynamic and requires us to be on our toes at all times to be able to react and anticipate appropriately. The world is one of action where elbows are constantly in motion for the purpose of cutting in line. I said 'elbows', not 'words'. Words are not heard when everybody's shouting. Refusing to elbow assures one of being last in the queue (which could easily translate into much worse than lost time). ”Sorry, we just ran out.”
We run a high risk by being unwilling or unable to engage. Any working system requires a constant flow of energy to maintain its momentum. Otherwise, entropy sets in and the system winds down and dies. Words alone, though they do no harm, cannot provide the energy needed to sustain it. Otherwise we could do away with eating and subsist just on talking alone. There is, of course, an additional danger in talking too much. Words can hamstring legitimate processes to the point of kindling cancers - which, again, atrophies elbows.
So far, most of us have assumed that Barack Hussein Obama’s veil of words does nothing but attempt to hide ineptness. It allows us to ignore Obama’s elbows. We have basically never come to terms with the reality that the office of the POTUS is a powerful post; that its power could some day be used against us. Today, every one of us who gripes and complains with varying degrees of aplomb and cheerfulness is merely ‘whistling past the graveyard’. This was especially true during the Bush administration. It brought us Obama. “Buffoon” still remains the all-time favorite in our lexicon of expressions relating to our government. As “Marxist stooge” begins to vie for second place, it is perhaps time for us to begin asking where we might have gone wrong.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/