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The declinists win
NY Post ^ | Oct. 11, 2010 | Arthur Herman

Posted on 10/11/2010 9:53:16 AM PDT by fightinJAG

If anyone still doubted that America's foreign policy is in crisis, the appointment Friday of Thomas Donilon to be our new national-security adviser should be final proof.

Set aside the fact that Donilon served as in-house counsel at Fannie Mae, the epicenter of the subprime-mortgage mess and subsequent financial meltdown — something any other administration would see as evidence of less than stellar judgment. Set aside the reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had said Donilon's appointment would be a "disaster" or that Donilon fought hard against our military's strategy for winning in Afghanistan — although that seems precisely why Obama now wants him in the White House.

Even set aside the fact that Donilon's mentor is our buffoon-in-chief, Vice President Joe Biden.

The fact that such a lightweight now occupies the single most important job for shaping the future of American power, short of the presidency itself, shows that the administration sees national security as a relatively minor priority compared to, say, currying favor with the Muslim world or running down allies like Britain and Israel.

Some background is in order.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: thomasdonilon; tomdonilon

1 posted on 10/11/2010 9:53:17 AM PDT by fightinJAG
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To: fightinJAG

The mask will come off for the final two years of the Obama regime. Once he’s lost Congress there’s no reason to keep it on any longer. All-out communist subversion by executive order from the White House from now on.


2 posted on 10/11/2010 9:58:12 AM PDT by Argus
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To: fightinJAG

Sounds like a real turd-bucket don’t he.


3 posted on 10/11/2010 9:59:34 AM PDT by Waco (From Seward to Sarah)
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To: Argus

“Declinists” is another way to say anti-colonialists. To that extent, D’Souza is, on some level, wrong to say Obama is the “last anti-colonialists.”

There is a group of people who have their own reasons for being anti-America (the idea of America) and this dovetails very neatly into Obama’s larger ideology motivated by anti-colonialism.

Obama has his own motivations and drives. But he got a whole bunch of Rats, for their own reasons, to go along with his plan to take America down a notch — or, preferably, several.


4 posted on 10/11/2010 10:03:03 AM PDT by fightinJAG (Step away from the toilet. Let the housing market flush.)
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To: Argus
All-out communist subversion by executive order from the White House from now on.

If we win a majority in the House, we need to demand they defund Obamacare, the EPA, the FDA, etc.; all the agencies the commies would use to bypass the legislative body. Starve them out. We should meet cries about "shutting down the government" with applause. If Harry somehow holds the Senate, any funding bill coming from the Senate should flushed.

5 posted on 10/11/2010 10:03:24 AM PDT by IamConservative (Gentleman, we have no money. We must now use our brains.)
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To: fightinJAG
In short, the National Security Agency has to be a Gulliver who pulls the president free from the strings and red tape that Lilliputian bureaucrats, ambitious politicians and assorted self-interested policy wonks try to throw over him.

Now, the men from Lilliput have won.

Donilon is the anti-Kissinger, the bureaucrat's bureaucrat.

I did not trust and despised Kissinger. To this day I cannot see why Nixon chose him. But the descripton of Donilon's whimps is very to the point. It is obvious that Obozo has no intention of acting in U.S. interest anywhere in the world.

6 posted on 10/11/2010 10:03:41 AM PDT by Texas Fossil (Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.)
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To: Waco
Yes.

[Donilon]learned this working as chief of staff for the most colorless and ineffectual 20th century secretary of state, Warren Christopher. Formerly No. 2 at State in the Jimmy Carter years, Christopher embodied the Carter mindset of seeing America as an arrogant problem child that needs to be spanked and grounded if the world is to have any peace.

That mindset now rules the Obama White House.

My only quibble with the author's assessment is his use of the qualifier "now." This mindset has ruled the Obama White House from the beginning, because it IS Obama.

D'Souze is so very right.

7 posted on 10/11/2010 10:08:22 AM PDT by fightinJAG (Step away from the toilet. Let the housing market flush.)
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To: Texas Fossil

Obama’s sole purpose in life is to make America less powerful. To do that requires ruining our economy, which requires destroying our freedom, because as a free people, we would otherwise continue to make our nation prosperous through hard work and ingenuity.


8 posted on 10/11/2010 10:15:09 AM PDT by fightinJAG (Step away from the toilet. Let the housing market flush.)
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To: fightinJAG

Agreed.

We must Remember, November is Coming!

Winston Churchill:

“The pessimist sees the problems in every opportunity. Whereas the optimist sees the opportunity in every problem”

“Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense”


9 posted on 10/11/2010 10:27:59 AM PDT by Texas Fossil (Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.)
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To: fightinJAG

If you think Obama has declined fast over the last year, just wait for the next two. His failures will mount fast and furious. Last year, the guy was just going downhill, now he is going over a cliff.


10 posted on 10/11/2010 10:48:06 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: fightinJAG

The post article gets it right.

There is no purpose in a President’s National Security Council, and its leader, the National Security Adviser UNLESS it is to cut through the smoke and turf wars of the intelligence and military bureaucracies under the cabinet secretaries and provide a singularly greater clarity on national security issues to the President. Kissinger did that for Nixon when the post was created.

Frankly, (I disagree with Mr. Herman) I don’t think anyone since Kissinger has ranked (in terms of what they were able to do) above the power of the Cabinet Secretaries and their bureaucracies, in terms of actually leading in how the President shapes the national security policy.


11 posted on 10/11/2010 1:31:55 PM PDT by Wuli
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