Has anyone else noticed how Leon Panetta, once a liberal congressman, has been totally captured by the defense/intelligence establishment? First as CIA Director, now Secretary of Defense, he has become the ultimate cold warrior/neocon. At CIA he seemed to defend and even justify CIA abuses and protected those involved in waterboarding and other crimes. I'm sure that many liberals such as myself had hoped he would change the culture at the CIA and hold to account those who violated laws and policies. While the CIA seems to have backed off on torture, things such as rendition seem to continue. As Secretary of Defense he recently said that Medicare and Social Security should be cut before defense, a truly mind boggling statement by a Democrat. Also, the Defense Department has brought pressure to bear on the Iraqi government to extend the presence of US forces in Iraq beyond the December deadline for withdrawal (negotiated by President Bush). In response, Shiite militia leader Sadr has vowed to attack US forces should they remain beyond the deadline. Panetta seems to also favor extending the time for the reduction of troops in Afghanistan.
Panetta seems emblematic of the Obama Administrations failed policies in defense and intelligence. They have failed to prosecute torturers and have adopted military/defense policies that seem only marginally better than the Bush regime. I have not commented on Afghanistan to any extent previously because I have been somewhat undecided. I am hoping that the President has acted tough in order to protect his political flank from attack for being soft on terrorism and will return to a rational policy after 2012, but there is no guarantee that this will happen. I think it is clear from the "surge" in Afghanistan that no military success is possible, especially with the Karzai government in power. We should draw down our troops as quickly as possible from Iraq this year and Afghanistan next year. Unfortunately, Panetta doesn't seem to be the man for that job. He seems much more hawkish than Gates, who was a traditional Republican Cold Warrior.
Now that the Democrats have failed miserably in the debt ceiling debate, they finally are talking about jobs, jobs, and jobs. Of course all they are doing is talking so far. One exception is Representative Jan Schakowski who has prepared an actual jobs bill, which, of course, will get nowhere in the Republican dominated House. Others are talking about things like an infrastructure bank and people are talking about the need to rebuild infrastructure--bridges, roads, pipelines, water plants, etc. The Republican's recent shutdown of most of the FAA, cutting off funding for about 70,000 construction jobs, is indicative of how much they care about this issue--hardly a whit.
Because of the debt ceiling imbroglio, the FAA shutdown was overlooked by many. There is a 10% tax on airline tickets which goes to fund the FAA. This money pays for FAA employees and airport improvement construction projects. There were two main sticking points between the parties--the method for voting for union representation and subsidies (a whopping $13.5 million) for airlines to service rural areas. The Republicans want to make it more difficult to vote in union representation and wanted to do away with the subsidies. Eventually the Democrats agreed to do away with the subsidies and the Republicans agreed to not make the union issue part of the funding bill. Another interesting aspect is that when the FAA stopped collecting the tax, the airlines raised their prices so that consumers still paid the same amount for their tickets. In effect, the government was indirectly subsidizing the airlines. So what we got during the shutdown was no decrease in fares, a shutdown in construction jobs, and a reduction in airline safety. Way to go, Congress.
To return to the point of infrastructure spending, conservatives seem unlikely to support much of anything. Here is my idea. Speed up withdrawal of forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. It costs about one million per year to keep one soldier in the field. Removing 1,000 soldiers saves $1 billion per year. Removing 50,000 saves $50 billion. Take the savings and spend it on infrastructure on bases here in the United States instead of bases overseas. New barracks, roads, other facilities, and replace worn out military equipment manufactured in the US. How could any conservative oppose this?
In my previous post I discussed Obama's failure as a negotiator. One thing I should have mentioned. Obama always seems eager to make a deal, any deal. He seems to prefer a bad deal to no deal at all. As long as you project that attitude, all you will ever get is a bad deal. Obama needs to show sometime that he is willing to accept no deal ahead of a bad deal. He should walk away from some negotiations. Unless and until he does that, he will come out on the losing end.
Finally, in reviewing my previous post I noticed a bad typo and was unable to correct it. The word processing function at this blog site has not always been the best, so it comes as no surprise that after posting, when I try to go back to edit, I am unable to do so. Anyway, I want to apologize for any typos and misspellings which get past me. As vigilant as you may be, there will always be some unnoticed misteaks that get bbuy.
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