Leon Panetta Is What’s Wrong With D.C.

[kpete]

Leon Panetta Is What’s Wrong With D.C.
Obama’s former defense secretary is out with a scathing new memoir about his time in the White House. But why should we buy anything he says?


When Harry Truman apocryphally said, “if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog” he might have had someone like Leon Panetta in mind. Not content with letting Republicans pummel his old boss, President Obama’s former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense released a new memoir this week that attacks Obama for “losing his way” on foreign policy, for sending “mixed messages” to allies and enemies alike and for failing to use military force more promiscuously in protecting US interests in the Middle East.

There is more here, however, than just DC-style situational loyalty. In Panetta’s obsessive focus on the politics of national security, his fetishization of military force and his utter lack of strategic vision, what is also evident is the one-dimensional foreign policy thinking that so dominates Washington—and which Panetta has long embodied.

.........


Panetta likes to present himself an “honest,” “straight-talking,” aw-shucks kind of guy—the son of Italian immigrants who has lived the American Dream. But in reality he is the quintessential example of how Washington corrupts. Principles are conditional and where you sit is where you stand; politics trumps policy, even bad policy that puts American lives at risk; military force is a magic elixir not only in solving international problems but in burnishing one’s public image (though it appears for Panetta that this mainly applies to Democrats); it’s also the most important criteria in how you judge a president’s national security decision-making and his or her requisite strength.

During a recent interview on CNN, Panetta took a break from bashing the president who appointed him to two Cabinet offices to offer one of those platitudes that long-time DC denizens love to state without a moment of introspection. “Logic doesn’t work in Washington,” he said.

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the rest:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/08/leon-panetta-is-what-s-wrong-with-dc.html

[rusty fender]

1. Yup

Why was he even appointed by Obama?

[truebluegreen]

4. Um, look at all the other people Obama appointed....

Geithner, Summers, Holder, Gates....not what you would expect from a liberal Democrat, are they?

[kentuck]

2. I was always a little skeptical of Leon...

...from the time I learned he was a "former" Republican.

[KG]

3. Leon Panetta Is What’s Wrong With the obama admin.