OBAMA IS TRULY A GREAT PRESIDENT

I try to figure out what Obama is thinking but often fail to appreciate HIS logic until after the fact. Ordinarily that would have been the case with the two appointments to his cabinet. Chuck Hagel and John Brennan. What is the man thinking? He has been right so often in the past that I have decided to take the approach that what he is doing is right; therefore, I am left with figuring out why it is right—how will it help to have these two men in such high positions? As a result of this approach, I have come to the conclusion that Obama is truly a great President.

First Chuck Hagel is not an avowed supporter of Israel but he is not anti Israel either. He like Obama, at least as I perceive Obama‘s position to be, is interested to arriving at a fair peace between Israel and the neighbors, not just Palestine.  That kind of peace would not be possible if Obama were to have an anti Arab-pro Zionist cabinet, which is precisely what has happened in the past, including Hillary Clinton, which in one sense was only half way; she was pro Israel but not anti Arab. Gates as secretary of defense stands against Afghanistan, Iraq, but especially Iran, which makes him anti Arab but not necessarily pro Israel. Thus, as it stands now he is half way there but with Hagel he will be in a better position to establish a lasting peace.

An additional benefit for picking Hagel is that he is a combat veteran and as such knows the trials of war but also is willing to stand toe to toe and slug it out with a true enemy. He has clearly rejected the neo-con pro military industrial complex war for profit machine as well as the war for the glory of war—the macho John Wayne approach to life.

The selection of John Brennan for CIA Director is more complex. There has been mission creep in the Defense department. Under the last several Secretaries of Defense, starting with Rumsfeld, the Defense department has taken over State Department functions. The Republican supported bloated Pentagon budget has allowed them to do that. Obama wants to cut the Pentagon budget but he also wants to redirect the missions of the two departments, which includes keeping but shunting the drone strike capability back to the Defense Department where it belongs. What better way to do that then to use Brennan’s influence over drone usage and knowledge of drone strikes then to appoint him head of the CIA.  He has held the responsibility for the program, understood its toxic nature, and does not want the responsibility. Obama apparently realizes how toxic it is to have both the intelligence gathering and the mission work in the same agency and how it could dangerously shifts decision making out of his hands.

In addition, I am sure the president realizes the dangers of having a military person in the form of a General or Admiral of some sort in charge of intelligence gathering; the exact thing we have had for years. This is also aides and abets pentagon mission creep. He has had experience of right wing politicians and their advisors influencing Generals decision making. As Commander in Chief he has to rely on generals for tactical advice not policy advice. Again, a person like Gates as secretary of defense is a buried form of shifting presidential responsibility as Commandeer in Chief to politicians like Jim DeMint, McCain, and Lindsey Graham. General Stanly McChrystal learned the hard way that this is not the thing to do when dealing with a strong commander in chief . . . Barack Obama.

Therefore, I come to the conclusion that Obama is making the appointment he is making, Hagel in the Department of Defense and Brennan over the CIA, to reorder the government back to what it was intended to be before Reagan (out of control defense spending) and George W. Bush (putting the military under the control of conservative politicians), to kick the Pentagon out of the State Department, to act as constitutionally mandated Commander in Chief of a Military mission (drone strikes), and finally to try to settle the middle east disputes in a way that will not alienate the Arab world. Obama will go down in history as one of our greatest presidents if not the greatest.