National security: Political pandering
A recent Military Times survey of 2,300 active-duty military personnel reveals a shocking number of people in uniform have lost trust in the leadership (or, lack thereof) being exhibited by the Pentagon and the Obama White House. Reenlistment rates are plummeting. Frequent overseas deployments are killing family life. Former enlisted personnel who served in war as captains and even majors are being forced to retire at their former enlisted pay grades.
What happened last week in Washington provides glaring examples of the political hypocrisy that is causing such wide-spread disaffection. For example, there is a tie-in between Jonathan Gruber, Ph.D., one of the main architects of ObamaCare, and last week’s report by the Democrat majority on the Senate Intelligence Committee about the CIA’s use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EIT).
Professor Gruber, you may recall, was paid $400,000 by U.S. taxpayers to help write the Affordable Care Act (AKA ObamaCare). Recently, he has been shown in a least three videos telling multiple audiences how it was necessary to write the ObamaCare legislation in way that it could not be understood by the "stupid" American taxpayers. He said if the "stupid" American voters had known what was in the ObamaCare legislation, even the Democrats in the Senate and House would not have voted for ObamaCare. Note: Not one single Republican voted for ObamaCare. (Also, to knowingly deceive others and to profit from it constitutes the crime of Fraud. Unless the Statute of Limitations has expired, Dr. Gruber could be prosecuted for fraud.) Last week, Dr. Gruber was scheduled to testify before a House government oversight committee on December 9, 2014.
Now, some intelligence background: There are four U.S. Senators and four U.S. House members who are briefed on even the "black" operations of the CIA. Senator Diane Feinstein is one of those eight. Right after the 9/11 attacks, she and seven others were told by the CIA that the prevention of further attacks might require the use of EIT. Senator Feinstein and the other seven congresspersons told the CIA to do whatever is necessary to protect American lives.
Now, 12-years-later, Senator Feinstein and the Democrat members of her Senate Intelligence Committee are charging the CIA with the unauthorized use of EIT on captured Islamic terrorists. Hypocrisy on steroids. People can differ as to the efficacy of EIT; however, it is beyond dispute that some EITs saved some U.S. lives and that the water-boarding (which, by the way, does no physical harm to the subject) led to the identification of the courier going to Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and, ultimately, to President Obama’s bragging about killing Osama bin Laden.
The Feinstein Report has been ready for over five months. But Senator Feinstein chose to release the report on December 9th, the very day when Dr. Gruber was to testify before the House committee. Her political timing was perfect because the CIA "torture" story almost totally wiped out any media coverage of Dr. Gruber trying to explain away how he duped the "stupid" American people about ObamaCare. No wonder military morale is so low. Our troops know when they are being led by people who put politics before national security.
Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame. He was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.
©2014. William Hamilton.
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