"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." - Sir Winston Churchill
Showing posts with label Secretary of Defense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Secretary of Defense. Show all posts
John Hamre may be the nicest guy in the world. He may also be an absolute cold-blooded killer in disguise who would strike terror in the hearts of our enemies and keep us safe. The problem is that we don't know. We need to know. More importantly, our enemies need to know. Bad choice.
Richard Danzig, on the other hand, has a different problem. He is a known quantity. As Secretary of the Navy, he showed himself to lack the spine for armed conflict - even for retaliation after an attack (e.g. USS Cole). This is sort of a problem for a Secretary of Defense. He would be like Secretary Cohen, Part Deaux. Again, bad choice.
The only logical choice is Senator Chuck Hagel. I know, I know. He's a Republican. But even ultra-partisan Obama knows that the last Democrat to even go so far as to see a war movie was probably LBJ. You want someone to coddle you? Look no further than the big blue donkey. But defense? It's just never been the Democrats' schtick. Leave that to the grownups. Like Hagel.
MOCKBADOC Prediction: Obama will shock the world with his apparent magnanimity and solidify his claim to "post-partisan" and beneficent rule by proclaiming...
The Hope and Change Secretary of Defense will be Nebraska Senator Charles "Chuck" Hagel.
John Hamre is a 58-year-old government insider. He graduated from AugustanaCollege in North Dakota in 1972 with a degree in economics and political science.He then earned an MDiv from HarvardUniversity and a PhD from JohnsHopkinsUniversity.
His work history pretty much begins and ends with government. After starting out in the Congressional Budget Office as an entry-level staffer, he rose quickly to the rank of Deputy Assistant Director by 1984. Until 1993, when he was named Comptroller for the Clinton Department of Defense, he worked in the Senate Armed Services Committee with responsibilities for oversight of R&D, budget, and relations issues.
In 1997, he was elevated to Deputy Defense Secretary under Clinton’s SecDef William S. Cohen.
Since G.W. Bush’s election in 2000, Hamre has busied himself as the President and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a foreign policy “think tank” with a $20-million annual budget to spread around.
Philosophy:
Who in the world knows?He is a shadow man. One can presume that he agreed, at least to some degree, with his boss William Cohen, who presided over the following:
Iraq - Failed to hold Saddam Hussein to UN mandates. Presided over containment efforts, including no-fly zones and mistargeted Tomahawk missile and air strikes with negligible effects.
Somalia - Peacekeeping and toothless efforts to relieve suffering and distribute food. Culminated in U.S. failure in “Blackhawk Down” incident and then shameful withdrawal.
Bosnia/Herzegovina - Containment of conflict to prevent widening of war. War widened, ultimately spawning Macedonian and Kosovo conflicts. Succeeded in helping the Muslim extremists to win.
Macedonia - Peacekeeping operation.
Kosovo - Air strikes and attempted containment.
Haiti - Peacekeeping mission until “democratically-elected” ruler could be re-installed.
Liberia – evacuation of Americans
Central African Republic – evacuation of Americans
Albania – evacuation of Americans
Congo & Gabon – evacuation of Americans
Sierra Leone – evacuation of Americans
Cambodia – evacuation of Americans
Guinea-Bissau – evacuation of Americans
Kenya and Tanzania – intelligence failure & U.S. attacked; American lives lost
Afghanistan and Sudan – tomahawk strikes with negligible effects
East Timor - peacekeeping
Yemen – intelligence failure, USS Cole attacked; American lives lost
Job Fitness:
Once again, who knows?The following do appear to be limitations on his fitness for such a serious job in such a serious time:
He has no military experience
His experience with the DoD has been mainly as a glorified accountant
The only real example of leadership he ever had was William Cohen, arguably the least capable and weakest Secretary of Defense in recent American history.
Final Tally
MOCKBADOC believes that John Hamre is not a safe or appropriate choice for Secretary of Defense in these dangerous times. Perhaps after President Obama has placated all our enemies, but not now.
Biography: Richard Danzig is a 64-year-old attorney who previously served as Secretary of the Navy under President Bill Clinton.
Born in the Bronx, NYC, Danzig eventually attended Reed College and earned a law degree from Yale. He was also a Rhodes Scholar and holds a PhD from Oxford University. After law school, Mr. Danzig served as clerk to SCOTUS Justice Byron White.
Mr. Danzig was a professor of law at Stanford and Harvard before serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. After the election of Ronald Reagan, Danzig left government to practice law at Latham & Watkins, and also served as Vice Chairman of the International Human Rights Law Group, and Traveling Fellow of the Center for International Political Economy.
The election of Democrat Bill Clinton to President afforded Danzig another opportunity to serve in government. He worked as Undersecretary of the Navy from 1993 to 1997, and then was sworn in as the Secretary of the Navy in November of 1998.
Career Accomplishments: Iraq Failed to hold Saddam Hussein to UN mandates. Presided over containment efforts, including no-fly zones and mistargeted Tomahawk missile and air strikes with negligible effects.
Somalia Peacekeeping and toothless efforts to relieve suffering and distribute food. Culminated in U.S. failure in “Blackhawk Down” incident and then shameful withdrawal.
Bosnia/Herzegovina Containment of conflict to prevent widening of war. War widened, ultimately spawning Macedonian and Kosovo conflicts. Succeeded in helping the Muslim extremists to win.
Macedonia - Peacekeeping operation.
Kosovo - Air strikes and attempted containment.
Haiti - Peacekeeping mission until “democratically-elected” ruler could be re-installed.
Liberia – evacuation of Americans
Central African Republic – evacuation of Americans
Albania – evacuation of Americans
Congo & Gabon – evacuation of Americans
Sierra Leone – evacuation of Americans
Cambodia – evacuation of Americans
Guinea-Bissau – evacuation of Americans
Kenya and Tanzania – intelligence failure & U.S. attacked; American lives lost
Afghanistan and Sudan – tomahawk strikes with negligible effects
East Timor - peacekeeping
Yemen – intelligence failure, USS Cole attacked; American lives lost
Philosophy: Seems to be to contain conflict if and only if a consensus and coalition can be reached and allies can be found to help. In all other cases, evacuate Americans and get out of the way of those who don’t like us.
Job Fitness: As Undersecretary, then Secretary of the Navy, showed himself to be unprepared to provide any leadership or oversight to the military. Running at the first sign of danger is not a strategy.
MOCKBADOC’s Final Opinion: This selection will undoubtedly embolden our enemies and put Americans at risk. Well, American civilians, that is. The military that remains after the inevitable drastic DOD budget cuts, will be safely on base for at least four years. MOCKBADOC believes that Richard Danzig would be a weak, do-nothing pushover as Secretary of Defense, just like he was as Secretary of the Navy.
Biography: Chuck Hagel is a 62-year-old Republican from Nebraska. He was raised in a middle class, Catholic, immigrant family. He attended parochial schools, then attended a communications school briefly after graduation from high school. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at the peak of the Vietnam War, and served as an infantryman, earning the rank of sergeant (E5), the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Combat Infantry Badge.
Hagel returned from the war, and re-entered college, graduating from the University of Nebraska in 1972. He served as a Congressional staffer until 1977, then left to start a company, Vanguard Cellular. When Reagan won the Presidency in 1980, Hagel served briefly as a Deputy Administrator of Veteran’s Affairs. He resigned after about a year as a result of a disagreement with VA Administrator Robert Nimmo about the nature of the services that should be provided. Hagel was supportive of greater veteran’s benefits.
As founder of Vanguard Cellular, Hagel is a multi-millionaire. His Senate career began in 1996 during the Clinton administration.
Philosophy:
Senator Hagel has supported the provisions of the Patriot Act, almost without exception. He wisely voted against implementing the partisan findings of the 9/11 Commission report. He also correctly recognized that the detainees at Guantanemo, as enemy combatants, are not eligible for and should not be extended Geneva Convention protections like habeas corpus. He also voted to protect the CIA from interference in their interrogations of detainees.
He has been a vocal supporter of the military, voting for their pay raise of 4.8% in 1999, and limiting their deployments to 12 months. He also voted wisely against prohibiting same-sex basic training, like that employed by the Marines. His support for the military found him at odds with some of his Republican colleagues, however, when it came to Iraq. He opposed Iraq as an unjust “war of choice – like Vietnam” from the beginning, and consistently accused the CIA of lying about intelligence that led the U.S. into war. He never saw Iraq as a legitimate threat, and was very vocal about that. He did, however, vote to authorize military force against Iraq in 2002, and has voted against timetables for withdrawal subsequently.
Ironically, he was supportive of air striking Kosovo during the Clinton years, an action that certainly could also be attacked on the basis of a similar “war of choice”.
Job Fitness:
Senator Hagel’s history suggests that he is (1) not afraid to use military force when necessary, but his experiences as an enlistedman in Vietnam have made him (2) appropriately cautious about sending troops into harm’s way. He is (3) a military and veteran’s advocate, a reputation he has continued to earn for years. He is (4) not afraid to take unpopular positions, even when it places him at odds with his own party.
As a (5) veteran, especially former enlisted, he would be (6) very respectable to the military. He is (7) tenacious, and believes that (8) once the military is employed, victory must be the outcome.
It is the opinion of MOCKBADOC that he would make a good Secretary of Defense.
John Hamre may be the nicest guy in the world. He may also be an absolute cold-blooded killer in disguise who would strike terror in the hearts of our enemies and keep us safe. The problem is that we don't know. We need to know. More importantly, our enemies need to know. Bad choice.
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