General Shinseki For Secretary Of Defense

by tristero

Now that I have your attention…

We all know why Bush chose Robert Gates. Yes, he’s apparently a competent bureaucrat but that’s not the real reason. The real reason is he’s a longtime Bush family fluffer. And Crawford’s Own Churchill – bold, brave George – is too insecure to work with anyone else.

Those are Gates’ only two qualifications. Now, what’s the downside to this guy? Well, among other things, as we all know by now he was so close to Iran/Contra he nearly got indicted. That’s kind of a big downside, given how scandal-prone this administration is. But there’s another problem with him:

Robert Gates has no specific qualifications to run the Department of Defense.

The only job experience that comes close is that he was in the Air Force from 1967 to 1969. Now this just may be fuzzy math, but by my calculation that’s, let’s see…yup, that’s 37 years ago. But let’s not exaggerate. It’s true, back then they did have computers just like they do now! Of course, many were the size of a warehouse and were programmed as often from punch cards as they were terminals, but they were computers. I’m sure Gates can easily grasp the basics of modern weapons technology to make informed decisions in no more than, oh, about 5 or 6 years. (That, of course, leaves him no time to study anything else connected with the operation of the modern military, like tactics, deployment issues, and overall strategery. Anyone remember Tom Ridge? Gates may be smarter but still…)

So what else makes Bush think Gates can run the Pentagon? Well, Gates has been in the Baker/Hamilton Iraq study group for at least 5 or 6 hours now, or is it minutes? But I’m sure he’s been working real hard.

Meanwhile, General Eric Shinseki has spent his entire career in the military. Plus he had the guts to challenge Rumsfeld’s lowball numbers, and he did it in public.

Shinseki: Competent. Knowledgeable. Independent. Not even a whiff of scandal.

Gates: Competent. Not knowledgeable. Bush family loyalist. The best that can be said is there wasn’t enough evidence to indict him in Iran/Contra.

I see no reason why Congress shouldn’t insist on the best.

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Ok, lemme make it plain what I’ve been saying here.

Of course, I know that Bush would never accept Shinseki. And of course, just about no one with an ounce of self-respect or talent would agree to report directly to George W. Bush unless they were a longtime family friend.

The real point of this post is two-fold. First of all, Bush hasn’t changed in the slightest and is still jerking the country around, including the troops who are laying down their lives implementing his utterly insane war.

More importantly, given how much political capital Dems have right now, there is only one reason I can think of why this country should tolerate any more of Bush’s clowning: We’re so used to it we can’t think of anything better. But let’s conduct a quick thought experiment: Imagine a presidency where top positions were filled by qualified women and and men, not goons so unconditionally loyal they had knee pads surgically attached.

In truth, I don’t have to imagine such a presidency. I can easily remember one.

So I can’t think of a single reason why Bush can’t start behaving like a real president instead of a scared rabbit. There is nothing to stop him from appointing competent AND knowledgeable people to high positions who don’t have incidents in their past that seriously call into question their integrity. Provided Democrats insist.

And I think, for a lot of reasons the Democrats should insist. Bush can start right now. Gates should never have been nominated and he should not be confirmed.