Barry Rubin
He's simultaneously even dumber than you think but also, to use an old expression, dumb like a fox. Let me explain.
He's simultaneously even dumber than you think but also, to use an old expression, dumb like a fox. Let me explain.
In
his public
self-management and especially during his confirmation hearings as
secretary of defense, Hagel handled himself in a manner that showed he
is incapable of fulfilling a cabinet-level position.
Here’s the main example.
Hagel
said, “I support the president’s strong position on containment.” Now
the truth is that there’s nothing wrong with that. He did not say the
president’s position advocating containment of Iran. Contrary to the way
that many writers are portraying it, what he said wasn’t incorrect,
just ambiguous. He could easily have recovered.
So then some of his handlers asked him to clarify and what did he do?
“I
was just handed a note that I misspoke,” he
announced, “that I said I supported the president’s position on
containment. If I said that, I meant to say that we don’t have a
position on containment.”
Now
this management alone is enough to bar him from handling one of the
most important and complex jobs in the world. Let’s count the ways:
--Never
admit that you’ve just been told you were wrong! He should have
pocketed the note without mentioning it and simply added to his
statement (see below). What he did instead is on the level of stupidity
of a television host being shown a cue card reading, “Wrap up the show,
moron!” and then reading that aloud to the live audience.
--He
should have said something like this: “I do not want any ambiguity in
my clear statements of support for the president and for a tough policy
on Iran. I support the president’s position of asserting that
containment is insufficient and that our goal is to prevent Iran from
obtaining nuclear
weapons, leaving all options open for doing so.”
In
other words, he doesn’t just not know the facts; he doesn’t know how to
be a high-level official at all. He doesn't just not know the details
of international affairs; his thought is simply not coherent at all. And
unlike Obama and Kerry, he doesn't know how to hide his radicalism
behind smooth phrases.
--And
then he makes it worse by saying that the administration doesn't have a
policy on containment! Of course, the U.S. government does have a
position on containment of Iran! It is supposedly against doing that.
[Accepting that Iran has nuclear weapons and then trying to limit the
damage by isolating Iran, surround it with forces, installing
anti-missile and early-warning stations, etc.] President Obama,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and two now ex-defense sectaries
along with tens of others expressed it daily. [Of course, it is 99
percent likely that they will end up trying containment anyway.]
For Hagel, that’s a triple goof, sort of equivalent to an Olympics gold medal winning move by a figure-skater, only in reverse!
But
I have a theory. As everyone knows, Hagel is a “Republican.” Perhaps
Obama was conspiring to make Hagel secretary of defense, have him show
how dumb and incompetent he was, and then lead the public to conclude
that all Republicans are dumb and incompetent. Brilliant as always!
Want
proof? How about Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, arguably the
dumbest—I didn’t say most terrible but just dumbest—member of Obama’s
cabinet who is a—wait for it—Republican!
Seriously
though. Can you imagine the kind of mentality that would put the lives
of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers and the national security
of the country in the hands of a man like Hagel?
Extra
credit question: How many readers of this article will reply: "Oh yeah?
Well, can you imagine the kind of mentality that would re-elect [guess
who] as president?" I didn't say that; you did.
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------------------------
And
speaking of dumb, or perhaps I should say lying, Al Gore misrepresented
his
highly profitable sale of his television network to anti-American,
Islamist al-Jazira by saying that Qatar, which owns al-Jazira, was the
most pro-American country in the Arab world and that's where the U.S.
fleet in the Gulf was based. Of course, the fleet is based in Bahrain,
not Qatar, and Qatar has been pro-Iran, pro-Islamist, and pro-Muslim
Brotherhood, the most hostile against the United States of the Gulf Arab
monarchies. Gore, of course, was vice-president and almost president.
Meanwhile,
a man who has created a policy of helping empower the Muslim
Brotherhood in order supposedly to moderate it and stop even worse
Islamists
(who are actually quite disorganized, bickering among themselves, and
incapable of taking power) from taking power.
There
is a deep malady of ignorance and very bad ideas in the American
foreign policy leadership and it has lost the correction mechanisms of
criticism from the mass media and academia. Hagel is really rather
typical of this group but just not adept at pretending otherwise.
Yet
Hagel is not some stereotyped cloistered academic who has learned
everything from books. He is a Middle Western equivalent of a "good old
boy," a backslapping, genial sort who merely thinks of his own
advancement.
And
that's why he is so scary. There is only one reason for Hagel to be so
extreme: he has picked up on the game plan of the winning time, the
dominant ideas of this era which he tries to copy in his dimwitted way
like a country bumpkin trying to follow the latest fashions from the big
city.
In
other words, Hagel is the purest, most showy example that
anti-Americanism, apologies for America's enemies, the fixation that the
United States has been an evil bully that must be curbed, and contempt
for its courageous soldiers and foreign friends is the obsession of the
"in" crowd, the decision-making elite. And if you want to be one of them
those are the ideas one has to mouth, even if one doesn't even
understand them. Hagel's brain is the mass market version of Kerry's and
Kerry's is the collector's edition of Obama.
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