“WASHINGTON — When President-elect Barack Obama introduces his national security team on Monday, it will include two veteran cold warriors and a political rival whose records are all more hawkish than that of the new president who will face them in the White House Situation Room.
Yet all three of his choices — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as the rival turned secretary of state; Gen. James L. Jones, the former NATO commander, as national security adviser, and Robert M. Gates, the current and future defense secretary — have embraced a sweeping shift of priorities and resources in the national security arena.
The shift would create a greatly expanded corps of diplomats and aid workers that, in the vision of the incoming Obama administration, would be engaged in projects around the world aimed at preventing conflicts and rebuilding failed states. However, it is unclear whether the financing would be shifted from the Pentagon; Mr. Obama has also committed to increasing the number of American combat troops. Whether they can make the change — one that Mr. Obama started talking about in the summer of 2007, when his candidacy was a long shot at best — “will be the great foreign policy experiment of the Obama presidency,” one of his senior advisers said recently.
The adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the three have all embraced “a rebalancing of America’s national security portfolio” after a huge investment in new combat capabilities during the Bush years.”
Just what we need I say to combat another wave of Islamofacist activity! Translation? A gutting of the military such as was done under Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter before him.
Of course Obama is following the “Lincoln Model” of selecting his former rivals as friends.
Unfortunately it didn’t work too good for Lincoln.
3 Responses
James
December 1st, 2008 at 1:08 pm
1clinton voted for the iraq war, but went against it during her campaign. that shows how much foreign policy experience she has. i can’t even fathom to think how she would handle national security issues, like a 9/11 type of siutation. obama created this cabinet of “clintonites” because of political motives – keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
retire05
December 1st, 2008 at 2:30 pm
2Mac, perhaps now would be a good time to advise your readers of what a disaster the appointment of Susan Rice is going to be. This was a woman who had close ties to the Clinton Administration and was concerned that calling Rwanda what it was, a genocide, would have an adverse effect on the 2004 (congressional) elections.
Rwanda is a failure of the Clinton administration that cannot be washed away. As was Somolia. Rice was heavily involved during that time frame.
As I said the night of Nov. 4th, ‘we’re screwed’.
Lula
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:01 am
3Get over it and let the county move toward restoration
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