Richard Clarke-'Bush Admin=Grown-Up 7 Year-Olds Playing Herd Ball With Iraq-As Fires Burn Elsewhere'

[kpete]

While You Were at War . . .

By Richard A. Clarke
Sunday, December 31, 2006; B01

....................

In every administration, there are usually only about a dozen barons who can really initiate and manage meaningful changes in national security policy. For most of 2006, some of these critical slots in the Bush administration have been vacant, such as the deputy secretary of state (empty since Robert B. Zoellick left for investment bank Goldman Sachs) and the deputy director of national intelligence (with Gen. Michael V. Hayden now CIA director). And with the nation involved in a messy war spiraling toward a bad conclusion, the key deputies and Cabinet members and advisers are all focusing on one issue, at the expense of all others: Iraq.

National Security Council veteran Rand Beers has called this the "7-year-old's soccer syndrome" -- just like little kids playing soccer, everyone forgets their particular positions and responsibilities and runs like a herd after the ball.

...........................

Without the distraction of the Iraq war, the administration would have spent this past year -- indeed, every year since Sept. 11, 2001 -- focused on al-Qaeda. But beyond al-Qaeda and the broader struggle for peaceful coexistence with (and within) Islam, seven key "fires in the in-box" national security issues remain unattended, deteriorating and threatening, all while Washington's grown-up 7-year-olds play herd ball with Iraq.

Clarke elaborates on these 7 examples

Global warming

Russian revanchism

Latin America's leftist lurch

Africa at war

Arms control freeze

Transnational crime

The Pakistani-Afghan border


As the president contemplates sending even more U.S. forces into the Iraqi sinkhole, he should consider not only the thousands of fatalities, the tens of thousands of casualties and the hundreds of billions of dollars already lost. He must also weigh the opportunity cost of taking his national security barons off all the other critical problems they should be addressing -- problems whose windows of opportunity are slamming shut, unheard over the wail of Baghdad sirens.

much more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122901238_pf.html

[MN ChimpH8R]

1. Latin American leftism?

Since when is the democratic election of leftist politicians a national security crisis in any real sense of the term? Such pols (I think here of the new presidents of Chile and Ecuador) represent no threat to the US, though they just might view the best interests of US corporations as considerably less important than those of the people they were elected to actually represent.

[unkachuck]

2. hey Dick, do you know....

....what I think?....

....Global warming: they make their money off oil and perpetual war, they don't give a sh_t about 'global warming'....

....Russian revanchism: Russia can HURT you, you smack Russia, Russia will smack you back....better to leave Russia alone while they get petro-rich....

....Latin Americas leftist-lurch: sorry Dick, I disagree, we need MORE leftist-lurches, not only in Latin America, but all over the world....

....Africa at war: Africa is full of black people, they are Republicans, enough said....

....Transnational crime: c'mon Dick, they're not going to investigate themselves....

....Pakistani-Afghan border: inconvenient-truth, without Osama, they'd have to invent a new bogie-man....

[Wiley50]

3. I read This and I agree BUT

What the hell is Herd ball?

I never played that as as kid

[NYC]

4. An earlier paragraph described 7 year olds all dropping

their positions to run like a herd after the ball. He is referring to the current administration running like a herd in one direction, ignoring everything else.

[IndyOp]

5. LoL! All little kids who think they've played soccer have played "Herd Ball"

they have no clue that there are supposed to be different roles for different kids on the team -- they all watch each other and do what everyone else is doing. They can't think of what to do independently of one another and they can't think strategically. You wind up with 12 kids in a tight little group all trying to kick the ball and not getting anywhere.

It's cute in 7-year-olds.

[calimary]

6. This, mind you, was the same group that boasted how "the adults

are back in charge" when bush "TOOK" office the first time. If this is what "adults" are like, I'd hate to see what their idea of kids is.