Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Michele Flournoy for Secretary of Defense?

Over at antiwar.com, Jason Ditz is reporting that President Obama may be weakening on nominating Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense. Hagel has come under sustained attack by D.C.'s neocon crowd because of his generally dovish views on Iran and expanding the Empire.

Ditz writes that former Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy has been pushed as the primary alternative candidate. If she is nominated, she'll get the D.C. nod of approval. Not only is she a hawk on Empire expansion, she has come up with new reasons to justify American adventurism.

Flournoy is co-founder of a D.C. think tank, Center for a New American Security. Although no longer active on a day-to-day basis at the 5 year old institution, she remains on the Board of Directors, which also lists the war criminal, Madeline Albright as a director. The very curious, likely CIA operative,  Robert Leslie Deak is on the Board of Advisors. The bright flashing light, though, that signals the way Flournoy really swings is that her organization has at the helm, as president, Richard Fontaine. Fontaine's prior position was, for more than five years, as foreign policy advisor to nut job warmonger Senator John McCain.

Flournoy is is a member of the Defense Policy Board, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Aspen Strategy Group. In a 2008 paper she co-authored, she outlined why the U.S. needs to be a major dominant factor across the globe. From a summary of the paper:
Years of debate over the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the so-called “war on terror” have prevented Americans from grappling with the deeper challenges posed by changes in the international system.  Beyond the threats posed by terrorism, new great powers such as India and China are rising, the process of globalization is accelerating, and the challenges of climate change and energy security grow more ominous by the day. The absence of an overarching strategic framework beyond simple debates over wartime tactics has contributed to an erosion of America’s position in the world. The authors of Making America Grand Again argue that America’s leaders must broaden their strategic aperture and recognize the value in renewing their commitment to sustaining the pillars of the global system – common global goods such as stability in key regions, a vibrant global economy, and fair access to the global commons. Arguing that America’s Cold War strategy consisted of two parts – containing the Soviet Union while building and sustaining a resilient international system – the authors lay out a case for why sustaining America’s power and influence in the 21st century requires reinvesting in, and innovating within, the very global architecture that helped make America a superpower. 
"Fair access to the global commons"? Yikes. Prepare for more U.S. global military excursions.

What's that? You say the military is spread to thin to consider even more global adventurism.  Flournoy has a solution for that. In 2008 testimony before Congress, she called for an "Increase the supply of ground forces:  Grow the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Forces to planned levels to achieve a minimum 1:2 deployment to dwell time ratio, but ensure the pace of expansion does not outstrip our ability to recruit and retain the highest quality personnel.  [...]Over time, seek to reestablish a larger ready reserve of ground forces to enable rapid U.S. response to other contingencies[...]Invest in recapitalizing and modernizing aging Air Force and Navy fleets to ensure
readiness for future missions."

A big spending war hawk, now this is the kind of dame that will fly through a Senate confirmation hearing.

1 comment:

  1. They've certainly created enough unemployment to get increasing numbers of people to sign up for the draft. What a depressing though.

    ReplyDelete