Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Chas Freeman follow-up

David Rothkopf at Foreign Policy has what is for the most important perspective on the matter of Obama caving and letting Chas Freeman withdraw his name from consideration for Chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

The United States will get along fine without Freeman and without each and every one of the casualties of this latest hiring cycle. But we will ultimately suffer irreparable damage if we do not reverse this pernicious trend. Further, those who celebrate keeping out Freeman or any others whose views do not align with theirs or who feared his associations would do well to remember that the same kind of criteria can be applied by other groups. The result is not a government of people without conflicts of interest or troubling ties, rather it is a government full of people whose conflicts and ties are with groups powerful enough to protect them. This among other reasons is why I, as a Jew with a memory, was so opposed to the attacks on Freeman. But for the record, the most compelling reason I found for believing Chas Freeman would have been a superb Chairman of the National Intelligence Council was one that seldom came up in all the articles I read. I actually know him.

(emphasis mine)

I'm also pretty sickened by the fact that our government seems to be puppets manipulated by a handful of powerful religious zealots.

0 talk back: