President Obama’s choices of John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, and John Brennan to lead respectively the State Department, Pentagon, and Central Intelligence Agency confirm that Obama wishes to position his legacy somewhat to the left even of Jimmy Carter. There has been a lot of attention to Chuck Hagel’s record over the last couple of weeks, but John Brennan has benefited from flying under the radar, if only because of the controversy surrounding Hagel.
It’s worth recalling, however, Brennan’s comments in 2010 upon returning from a visit to Lebanon. From a Reuters report at the time:
The Obama administration is looking for ways to build up “moderate elements” within the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla movement and to diminish the influence of hard-liners, a top White House official said on Tuesday. John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, met with Lebanese leaders during a recent visit. “Hezbollah is a very interesting organization,” Brennan told a Washington conference, citing its evolution from “purely a terrorist organization” to a militia to an organization that now has members within the parliament and the cabinet. “There is certainly the elements of Hezbollah that are truly a concern to us what they’re doing. And what we need to do is to find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements,” Brennan said.
I have added the emphasis regarding Brennan’s suggestion that U.S. policy should be to build up “moderate” Hezbollah elements rather than seek that group’s destruction. The question should be especially important now, because Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fall could starve Hezbollah of the oxygen it needs; never has Hezbollah’s future been so tenuous.
While back in 2010, I took a tongue-in-cheek approach to figuring out what a Hezbollah moderate might be, the questions senators should ask first would be whether a second term Obama administration will outstretch its hands not only to adversarial regimes, but also to terrorist groups, and second, what Brennan’s instincts would mean for a CIA under his leadership.
This is why I feel that we should fastpath Brennen's and Hagel's approval. These are the guys Obama picked. These are the guys Obama wants. These are the people who, after reviewing every choice the President of the United States had, he selected. These are the choices Obama needs to own. That way whatever happens, good bad or other we can all agree that they're Obama's decisions and they can't send their flying monkeys in the media forth to cackle how it's all the GOP's fault or Israel's fault or 'someone else's fault'. If progressives and liberals want to scream and pout about Obama's drones let THEM be the ones to object to Brennen – he's the architect and Obama is his boss. If they don't like homophobia in the Armed Forces then THEY need to take that up with Hagel themselves. American liberal Jews who voted for Obama are hopeless so we can safely take them out of the discussion. They'll endorse Obama slicing their heads off and there's nothing to be done about that. But in fact he IS the President and if or when Iran goes nuclear or 3 or 4 other Arab or Muslim states descend into genocide it will be on HIS watch. Executed by HIS staff who were approved w/o any objection that anyone could point to. Not even Chris Matthews. Of course those who've supped deeply from the Kool Aid will never acknowledge a single a shortcoming or failure by Obama which is fine, none the less Obama will have to own each and every one of those things.
Is he the guy who called Jerusalem 'Al Quds', or was that another of Obama's chosen helpers?
He's Senor Al Quds. Apparently, it's his most favorite city on earth…or so he says.
that was Brennan. it was right around the same time that James Clapper told a congressional committee the Muslim Brotherhood was "largely secular." yup, quite a brain trust Obama's got up there! I feel comfortable about the future of the country. not. n n
I thought maybe a prerequisite for being named to lead the Central Intelligence Agency might be intelligence.
Wow! The Conga line of buffoon’s that Obama puts in his administration is unbelievable. Obama should be impeached based on some of the people that are in his administration.