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Panetta plays playground politics
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AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Remember the days of your youth in the playground during recess? If so, do you remember how children would go pouting to the nearest teacher when they felt they were being picked on?
"Tommy's not playing fair," his friend declares. "I'm going to tell on you," and his friend rushes off to tattle to the nearest teacher.
As is usually the case, these tantrums are nothing more than children involved in childish behavior - the result of having things not go the way they wanted, or having someone play the game better than they were capable of playing.
In the policy discussion on national security that is taking place between former Vice President, Dick Cheney and the current C.I.A. Director, Leon Panetta, it would appear that Mr. Panetta has resorted to some of the same playground behavior when it comes to defending the policy decisions of his boss, President Obama.
Over the past many months, Cheney has made his opinions known on how he feels the policies of the Obama administration are making America less safe. Some of the points he has brought to light are:
- Obama's arbitrary closing of Guantanamo Bay prison
- Obama's buy-in on the "waterboarding is torture" rhetoric of left-wing extremists
- Obama's decision to meet with countries connected with Islamic terrorism without condition
- Obama's release of Top Secret memos concerning enhanced interrogation techniques
- Obama's decision to treat terrorism as a "police" matter instead of a matter of war
During this same period, C.I.A. Director Leon Panetta, a man with absolutely no experience for the job, has been struggling to defend these controversial matters.However, things reached a new low for Panetta when he told the New Yorker in an interview on the subject, that Mr. Cheney was only saying these things because he was hoping for another attack.
It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics.
Sounds alot like Mr. Panetta feels "picked on," doesn't it? And just like Tommy's friend above, it seems that he has to go running to the nearest teacher - in this case, the New Yorker - to complain about the Vice President. No discussion about differences, just accusations and left-wing rhetoric.
Why did Leon Panetta - like most liberals - resort to this type of behavior when faced with defending his policies?
Sounds like playground politics to me.
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