Really?DOD Announces New Defense Policy Board MembersSecretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta today announced the following new members to the Defense Policy Board: Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state; Jamie Gorelick, former deputy attorney general; Jane Harman, former U.S. congresswoman; Retired Gen. James Cartwright, former vice chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Retired Adm. Gary Roughead, former chief of naval operations.
Really.
Shall we review?
- Madeleine Albright. C-.
"What's the point of having this superb military that you're always talking about if we can't use it?"Nothing more needs to be said there.
- Jamie Gorelick. F. What do you want to talk about first, the fact she created the CIA-FBI wall that resulted in a large part for our inability to prevent the attacks of 911, or the fact that she sat on the board of Freddie Mac as it created the conditions for the financial collapse of 2007-09?
- Jane Harman? B. You could do worse from a Democrat administration, I guess. If you wanted a former member of Congress and you were a Democrat; she is on the short list of people who could at least understand the issues.
- Cartwright? A-. You know my opinion of the guy - but he is qualified; I just think he is wrong about the Constitutional role of the military.
- Roughead? D. OK. Look at the condition of ships, shipbuilding, and readiness when he became CNO - then when he left. That isn't even folding in his Cultural Marxism advocacy via his racialist fetish.
This is who is going to be advising over the next few years.
Also note that none of the members who used to wear the uniform have any combat leadership experience in over a decade of war. None. Think that at least one with that skill set would be nice? Just one? Perhaps ....
33 comments:
Even as an outsider, I am dumbstruck. But the appointment that baffled me most was Gorelick's. Gorelick's career can imho best be described as the process whereby a turd lighter than water floats upwards.
This IS a sick joke, right? RIGHT?
What does having do unlike because trespass for being incontinent gnats vexing incrutably the kudzu!
Note that the previous sentence makes more sense than picking Gorelick for anything.
<p><span><span><span>The three females have NEVER served in the military! And I question the following:</span></span></span>
</p><p><span><span><span></span></span></span>
</p><p><span><span><span>Jamie Gorelick:<span> </span>From 1998 to 2002 Gorelick received a total of $26,466,834.00 in income from <span>Fannie Mae</span></span></span></span>
</p><p><span> </span>
</p><p><span><span><span>Jane Harman:<span> </span>Portfolio:</span><span> </span>$236 – 559 million (2007 Personal Financial Disclosure) but the bigger question is why such a big variance? Who the hell needs $559,000,000?<span> </span></span></span></p>
This list is incomplete without Wesley Clark.
We are so screwed...2012 can't come fast enough.
I have a feeling that Obama will buy his way back into the WH. Plus the Reps do not have a contender.
...or Merrill "Skeletor" McPeak...
Can we get a plumber to the E-Ring? Bath water is backed up and the occupants have started to drink it.
You made me read "Roughead" and "fetish" in the same sentence before my first cup of coffee? Gee, thanks a lot.
"Destroy the culture". Patsy Schroeder meant Naval Aviation. Obama/Clinton mean the entire military. With willing little minions like Roughead and Mullen.
Cartwright, Seven Days in May tendencies aside, will sit with his head in his hands.....
There is an interesting blog, New Zeal, http://trevorloudon.com which sometimes strikes me as a bit over the top. Still, when Panetta was announced as SecDef, he had some interesting and seemingly valid documentation on Panetta's association with people who were in fact Marxist. Almost a cliché, but it does seem to fit with the general pattern.
just..just..geez, words fail...
FML
Phib, when you post stuff like this, at least you could pass around poison in little cups for us. It would make it easier to read.
Barry and his happy little minions are doubling-down on their push to destroy the US...is anyone actually surprised about a board that will toe his line 110%? Heck, when the time comes to "defer" elections Cartwright and Gorelick will be front and center (Roughhead doesn't have the balls to be front-and-center on anything). Jane Harmon (she got her money from her husband, founder of Harmon-Kardon Audio) wants to be National Security Advisor in the worst way...
The GPA for this little escapade is 1.70...a little higher on the scale than I thought it should rate. Sal, you were a littel too generous with Cartwright and Harmon, as well as Roughead. Cartwright rates a "D" - the Constitution is what he was sworn to uphold and defend - not subvert. Harmon gets a "C" at best and Roughead gets an "F" for the state in which he has left the fleet from a cultural, personnel, and materiel perspective. I come up with a 0.95 for the group...an "F+". They should all be on double secret probation.
I was all of maybe 3 years old at the time, but I am missing the days of Cap Weinberger. Cap established the Defense Requirements Board......and opportunity to capture the goodness that was the old school Navy and War departments. The service secretaries were principal members in advocating and discussing department budgets and priorities.
instead, we now insulate the SECDEF with OSD and the CJCS. And when he needs more advice, this motley crue of misfits. Compelling arguments, dissenting opinion be damned. We call that "joint." Not joint in terms of the great work being done by our Cocoms, that is different.
I shake my head in sadness. When there are so few requirements on the SECNAV to actually be the civilian head of the Navy, is it any surprise that we get who we get? Could you ever imagine Lehman going along with this?!
Take a look at the existing members as well: there is a lot of fail in this group.
John Hamre, chairman; Harold Brown; J.D. Crouch; Richard Danzig; Rudy deLeon, Chuck Hagel; Retired Gen. Jack Keane; Henry Kissinger; Frank Miller; John Nagl; Sam Nunn; Joseph Nye; William Perry; James Schlesinger; Brent Scowcroft; Sarah Sewall; and Retired Gen. Larry Welch.
One quibble...John Nagle is a prior uniformed member of the DPB who was awarded the Combat Action Badge by General Mattis for operations in Al Anbar. Don't know if that meets your definition of combat experience or not. On balance you're point is well taken, but I suspect it is a matter of timing rather than intentional oversight.
Potential candidates in my mind:
Mattis - Busy at CENTCOM
Patraeus - Busy at CIA
Odieno - Busy at JCS
Who else is out there that should have been picked?
<span><span><span>"The three females have NEVER served in the military!" -- Look at their birthdates and ask yourself why this might not be that surprising.</span></span></span>
<span><span><span></span></span></span>
<span><span><span>As for income and personal wealth, aren't these the people that many call the "job makers" or "job providers." I for one would be happy to create new jobs if my personal wealth was $559,000,000, and I'm talking about high paying, high quality jobs at that.</span></span></span>
<span><span><span></span></span></span>
<span><span><span>The range is allowed on a personal financial disclosure in order to protect the limited privacy of public figures as far as their personal finances go. </span></span></span>
Brings to mind a Sherrif J. W. Pepper's quote (modified): "Defense Policy Board? On whose side?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2GVOe_eNf4
I particularly like the inclusion of Gorelick. She's been a reliable dem fonctionnaire for years and seems to have a real talent for both being on the exact wrong side of any issue, profiting from disasters she helped cause, and coming out with her skirts clean. I'd venture a guess she's either being stuck on the DPB as yet another sinecure or it's hoped she'll do for them what she helped do for Fannie Mae. If she showed up on the Board of Directors of a company I held stock in I'd short them real quick.
Also Sal, you left out her work to ban the public use of encryption technologies as a Deputy AG under Clinton and defending Duke University in a lawsuit brought by members of the lacrosse team they railroaded.
The quality of recommendations from a board comprised of 35 members is suspect from the get-go. Adding squirrely replacements will hardly effect the advice out of such a non-august body.
There is no doubt, however, that someone is making a point with the recent selection, however.
Complaining about such luminaries as Gorelick and Albright would only invite standard admonitions of political incorrectness.
The appointments of more civilian lawyers signals the change in priorities from Sec'y Gates (non-lawyer) to Panetta. Formerly a budget director and chief of staff in the Clinton White House, Panetta's brings not only another Juris Doctor to the Pentagon, but heavy political polish to the regime.
I want to like this one twice.
Maybe we can double down and have Joe Biden chair the board.
Every one is unfit for this duty.
Is Panetta that clueless, or merely bowing to the will of his master who is wilfully destroying our coutry and its vital institutions?
Any one of these would be objectionable, but the selection of so many idiots all at once is diabolical and evil.
Peter Pace, USMC
Van Riper
It also seems like Robert Kaplan left the DPB?
The Ripper? HAH!
God help all of them!
As far as I can tell General Pace served on the DPB, but has since departed. Van Riper seems like an interesting choice and has combat experience, but I don't know where he is now. Anyone got the scoop?
This is like the O5 that could make O6, retires and comes back as a GS15/DISL/SES.
Gorelick should be prosecuted with the rest for the cowardly oversight and lack of due diligence associated with financial meltdown. Her misdeeds have charged the current administration with zealous advocacy, over-regulation of financials, and ultimately negative consumer (i.e. regular people) impacts. Increased regulation ALWAYS flows downstream, just like the pee from the Clydsdale in the pasture.
Only if he's out of office.
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