The Failure Factory
I have just finished reading this excellent book written by Bill Gertz, defense and national security reporter for the Washington Times. The premise of the book is how the bureaucracy, unelected political appointments within the federal government, are subverting, even destroying, the national policy, the rule of law, and the Constitution of the United States. I highly recommend this book to everyone.
In my last blog, "The Obama administration, Democrats, Justice Department, and the Black Panthers," I described how unelected officials in the Justice Department subverted the laws of the United States when they dismissed the case against members of the New Black Panther Party charged with voter intimidation. We do not know whether the final decision was made in the White House or the Justice Department. What we do know was that a bureaucrat in the Justice Department was confirmed as the person who ordered the dismissal.
The Justice Department, in collusion with the State Department in the Obama administration, has been overtly soft on terrorism. The decision to try the 9/11 conspirators in criminal court in the U.S., the push to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, the refusal to use interrogation techniques on captured terrorists, the decision to treat terrorism as a "law enforcement" problem, and the decision to immediately give constitutional rights reserved for U.S. citizens to captured terrorists are but a few of the circumstances in which these bureaucrats were instrumental.
The State Department has been infested with Progressives over many years. They adopted appeasement as policy in foreign affairs and in their approach to dealing with Islamic terrorism. They have been operating under the false assumption that the percentage of Islamic radicals who want to destroy the U.S. and western values is a small percentage. Nothing could be more misguided, but that doesn't align with the Progressive agenda -- blame America first.
The ultra-liberals waged a war with the Reagan agenda and tried to undercut his policy decisions at every turn. Colin Powell was one of the worst offenders. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he advocated weak military policy in dealing with the threat of Islam in the early years of their radicalization. While it is true that he presided over a successful operation against Saddam Husein's invasion of Kuwait, the policy he advocated to then President George H.W. Bush left Saddam in power, resulting in the war we have been waging in Iraq for the past eight years. The threat of weapons of mass destruction controversy in Iraq is a side issue used to distract by the Progressives; every responsible intelligence service in the world believed they were there. If the State Department had not opposed increasing our intelligence capabilities, especially human intelligence, that misjudgment might not have been made.
In his role as Secretary of State, he and the bureaucrats in the upper levels of the department did everything they could to undermine policy set by President George W. Bush and the Congress. Powell was a RINO (Republican in name only) and consistently opposed a firm stance against America's enemies. I find it hard to believe that he allowed himself to be led around by these radical bureaucrats. They continued advocating appeasement in dealing with international terrorism and their sponsors, Iran, Syria, and North Korea and now Yemen.
The Defense Department, and Secretary Gates, have failed miserably in understanding the grave threat that Islam poses. Anyone who disagreed with their Progressive agenda has either been purged or forced underground. As a result, we have let the international community dictate our military policy, right down to the rules of engagement for our armed forces. They have their strongest supporter in President Obama.
President Obama, with the urging and advice of the State Department, continues to underestimate the danger posed by China and a resurgent Russia to our national interests.
This book will really open your eyes as to how much damage these bureaucrats have done to our national interest. I, again, urge everyone to read it.