Here Come The Hawks
Well, it’s gonna be a Chicagocentric few months, isn’t it? Rahm Emanuel’s elevation to Chief of Staff will see to that — for all of the good tidings that the President of the United States, Barack Obama (damn, that sounds soooo good) will bring to D.C., Rahm will bring some Daley-style muscle to the equation.
But what of the Defense Department? There’s some good news, obviously. Missile defense contractors? Thanks for playing, but we have some lovely parting gifts for you. A handful of obsolete weapons systems (not enough, of course — this is the DoD, after all) will go by the boards too, as would Camp Delta in lovely downtown Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. All to the good.
But it seems that they are beginning to dial back the whole withdrawal from Iraq thing, bit by bit. Yes, by God, there will be a timetable — but it will be less than satisfactory to us on the Angry Left, I fear. And Afghanistan may not go as well as planned. Plus, those favoring a de-Bushification cannot be at all pleased with the whispers about Robert Gates staying on.
All of this commentary comes, of course, from somebody who understands the Defense Department only at the most superficial level. But: it seems that, if the whole national security thing is going to be prioritized, we will have some answers this week — and not all of them good answers. Dream, meet reality.
No surprises if, y’know, politics intervenes. And Barry can blow off the left as casually as Republicans used to blow off the fundies. Just don’t call it triangulation, because he transcends that shit.
But I made my peace with all that when he tacked to the middle after the primaries. I’ll take the morsels he deigns to toss our way, and an economic crisis would be a great excuse to ditch SDI.
Prezdint Obama’s first military action:
a) missile strike (air, sub)
b) Predator hit
c) Special Ops in n’ out
d) Boots on the Ground
e) Major Standoff
f) The Very Bright War
Choose one, choose wisely
The left is going to be disappointed with Prezdint Obama for a number of reasons. Defense will probably be one of those areas; health care may be another. Gay rights are most def another because he might be able to get through some basic protections for federal employees and possibly the Matthew Shepard Act through, it’s not going to be all sunshine and rainbows. Likewise with h/c, he may be able to get some non-expensive policy changes through, but the grand insurance plan will not happen in the first year.
It’s still better than what we might have had from Maverick McWalnuts and Sister Glossolalia, though. A Clintonian restoration via Obama would be better than what the Maverick (TM) team would provide.
Pragmatism trumps politics. Eyes are on 2010, I can assure you.
@rptrcub:
You’re probably right. Repairing the mess of W will take time (decades even centuries.)
“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you get what you need.”
I just opened my 401k statement from October. I have just enough left for a pint of Jack Daniel’s.
Drinks on DB!
@IanJ: I think it’s part of the foundation of Jewish, and Irish, humor — you have to laugh, what else can you do?
@Dodgerblue: Yep. I’m just glad I’m still 30ish years away from retirement. I’m hopeful the stock market will rebound in that time…
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