• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

Gates gone -- Panetta at DOD, Patraeus to CIA

mmx1 said:
undermined the tradition of civilian control that the SecDef represents
Click to expand...

Most important reason why we have 'politicians' and political operatives in these positions... not former Flag / General officers.
 
True enough. I don't want a retired flag officer, necessarily, but military experience of some sort is of great use. I think it gives insight into the culture and values of the military as an organization. For example, Gates had a short stint in the USAF and Rumsfeld did some time in the Navy. Ideally, I'd want a senior politician or business leader with some military experience.
 
phrogdriver said:
True enough. I don't want a retired flag officer, necessarily, but military experience of some sort is of great use. I think it gives insight into the culture and values of the military as an organization. For example, Gates had a short stint in the USAF and Rumsfeld did some time in the Navy. Ideally, I'd want a senior politician or business leader with some military experience.
Click to expand...

Like say, someone who got out as an O-5, and was offered SecDef while president of Ford?
 
. . . and, of course, there are those who say Obama chose to park Patraeus at the CIA where he could not later become a political threat to him.
 
Scoob said:
Like say, someone who got out as an O-5, and was offered SecDef while president of Ford?
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing... talented businessman/administrator/analyst, cut a lot of fat from DoD (and yes, some meat too), but the wrong man for the job of wartime SECDEF.
 
Fog said:
. . . and, of course, there are those who say Obama chose to park Patraeus at the CIA where he could not later become a political threat to him.
Click to expand...

Petreus is on record as not being interested in running for political office. Not that that can't change, but your statement is characteristically conspiratorial.

Brett
 
Brett327 said:
. . . your statement is characteristically conspiratorial.
.
Brett
Click to expand...

Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright, 'guns & bibles' remark, Dreams of My Father . . . I just don't know why I find it difficult to trust this person. Must be some inherent failing in me, is all I can guess.
 
Brett327 said:
Petreus is on record as not being interested in running for political office.

Brett
Click to expand...

I dont know what Fog meant by that comment, so I won't speculate, but there may have been some inadvertent truth to his statement...

Petraeus may not want to run for political office, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be a political threat.

I dont know what the Generals politics are but with the 2012 election coming up the President may have wanted to take him out of the equation... Imagine worst case for the President the General, after having retired from the Army just ahead of the election, becomes very critical of the Obama administration and is outspoken. VERY Damaging.

Medium / bad case scenario the General endorses the Republican nominee. Public opinion of the General has been pretty high, that could sway A LOT of voters, and you can bet CNN, FOX, MSNBC would be all over that endorsement.

As CIA director he is off the board so to speak...
 
Jeez. man, that's exactly what I meant. I need to lighten up on this political stuff, I guess. Maybe when you guys are in your 60's you'll worry more about the future of your country than you do now. I didn't care much for LBJ, even when I was an ensign in RVN and he & McNamara were picking targets & bombloads for airstrikes, but I wasn't as worked up about it as I seem to be now. Must be an age-related malady.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top