CNN: Jones leading choice for national security advisor

[nsd]

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) – Two sources close to the Obama transition team tell CNN retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones has emerged as President-elect's leading choice to become national security adviser in the White House.

The sources said Jones has been given the impression by the President-elect that the job is his if he wants it. But the officials said there are still private discussions underway and no final decision has been made.

The discussions are focused on precisely how much power Jones will have in the staff job since he is used to being in a command role. Among his many posts, Jones served for several years as the operational commander for NATO.

In the third and final presidential debate, Obama noted that he deeply values advice from Jones, who has four decades of military service.

One person close to the transition noted Jones is a bipartisan figure who has warm relationships with both current Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who may stay on the job for at least a brief period, as well as Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is now on track to be nominated as Secretary of State after Thanksgiving.
CNN first reported last week that Jones was getting serious consideration for either national security adviser or Energy Secretary.

link

[bluestateguy]

1. I'm sure somebody here will find something to bitch about

3,2,1...

[Skwmom]

3. Heck no. He was pro-war. I'm so glad that Obama is appointing the best and the brightest!

People whine but in the long run they will really thank Bush and the Democrats and Republicans who voted for the war.
I mean, anyone with a brain would have known going to war with Iraq was a stroke of genius.

:sarcasm:

You know, I never knew that to further your career in Washington you needed to have demonstrated remarkably bad judgment. Stupid me, I would have thought it was the exact opposite.

I wonder how the stupid suckers that wanted this job (but that were against the war) are feeling?

[MadBadger]

6. Are you like the Queen of Concern Trolls? Good Riddance!

[ieoeja]

10. He was in favor of Iraq?

That's not what was reported at the time. From January 2003:

"But in our interview, he expressed the belief that, as of late December, the Iraqi leader had been contained. Jones noted that Saddam hadn’t attacked his neighbors again, he’d kept his planes out of the no-fly zones patrolled by U.S. and British forces, and he had not left Iraq."

http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2003/edition_01-19-2003/General_Jones


He grew up in France. Refused to join the "revolt of the officers", but has been quoted as making scathing remarks about Rumsfeld in private. Turned down TWO offers from Condi Rice to join the Bush White House.

He *does* believe we have to stay in Iraq and help them get stable, however. I strongly disagree with that. His comments on Vietnam concern me as he says it was not a military defeat. I am worried he has slipped into the myth that "we didn't do enough". When I was at Quantico, I was taught that we tried to do too much. I know the current guy in Iraq agrees with that sentiment. I hope I am wrong about Jones vis-a-vis the Vietnam Myth. Cause that belief has led to a lot of really stupid national security decisions in the past.


And he stumped for McCain during the election. Served under his command at one time during their careers.

[Skwmom]

13. CNN reported he was pro-war.

[Telly Savalas]

17. Well, fuck. If CNN said it, it must be true.

Impeach Obama! TRUTH TO POWER!!!111

[No Elephants]

23. CNN tries to appeal to the right. I would not trust what they say.

[grantcart]

16. Vietnam was a policy disaster and a defeat of American objectives but

the American military was not defeated in the field. The Vietcong on the other hand were completely distroyed, in large part due to the betrayal of the North Vietnamese during the Tet offensive which was seen as a huge military victory for the communists but was in fact an annhilation of the Viet Cong as a military force.

The United States signed a peace accord on Jan 27th 1973 ending direct conflict with North Vietnam. American combat forces left Vietnam by April 1973.

North Vietnam and South Vietnam returned to hostilities and South Vietnam fell 2 years after the United States Military left. The Vietcong had been completely wiped out as a military force and by the end of 1969 there were no 'liberated zones' left in South Vietnam.

The Myth of military loss in the public psychic is so entrenched that the fact that no combat troops were in Vietnam in 1975 nor had they been there for 2 years is commonly misunderstood.

[coalition_unwilling]

22. The notion that the US military was not

"defeated" in Vietnam "in the field" is sophistry at its finest, eliding as it does any distinction between tactical victory {Tet '68} and strategic disaster (Westmoreland's goal of victory through attrition).

See Stanley Karnow's account of a post-war encounter between Col. Harry G. Summers, Jr. and his NVA counterpart:

"'You know,' he (Summers) boasted . . . after the war, 'you never defeated us on the battlefield.' To which the Communist officer replied, 'That may be so, but it is also irrelevant.'" (Karnow, "Vietnam: A History," p. 19)

[No Elephants]

24. IMO, saying that we did not suffer a military defeat in Vietnam is very different from saying we

should have done more. The two issues are highly severable. I don't know precisely what Jones meant, but I am not going to jump to conclusions.

[democrat2thecore]

11. Should we not?????

Gates at Defense?
Jones as National Security Adviser?

I was giving him a pass on some of the appointments - at this point, it's almost looking like bait and switch!

These are just BIZARRE choices for "real and fundamental change."

[Parche]

2. Just Dont Let Him Take You To Guyana and drink the koolaid

:woohoo: :woohoo: :hi:

[davidinalameda]

4. Paula Jones?

sorry couldn't resist

:evilgrin:

[matcom]

5. Pacman Jones

rumor has it he isn't going to last long with the Cowboys

[Poiuyt]

7. John Paul Jones?

He's still waiting to start fighting

[LynneSin]

9. I thought John Paul Jones was trying to do a Led Zeppelin reunion tour

[davidinalameda]

14. don't bring up Pacman to me

I'm a WVU grad

[Seen the light]

8. Jones is a long-time friend of John McCain's who sits on Chevron and Boeing's boards

http://people.forbes.com/profile/james-l-jones/45166

Excuse me please while I go throw up.

[democrat2thecore]

12. It. Simply. Makes. No. Sense.

I've never seen cabinet picks so at odds with two years of "real and fundamental change" rhetoric.

[SuperTrouper]

15. Susan Rice would fit nicely as NSA

[Jennicut]

18. Guys, Jim Jones thought Rumsfeld was an idiot and the Iraq War was a mistake

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/06/10/more-on-gen-jim-jones-vp-contender.aspx

Please read more about the man before you condemn him, then again it seems like many "so-called" progressives won't even give Obama a chance to put a team in place. How do we know how any of them will be until then? Besides, Jones is fluent in French, he can't be all that bad.

[SoxFan]

19. General=Right Winger=Evil=Must Bitch and Moan

Come on, you know the drill by now!

[Jennicut]

20. Oops, I forgot.

[SoxFan]

21. DU Rulebook, Appendix C, Part II (C)

[No Elephants]

25. I would have preferred that this spot had not gone to a member of the military.