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Let's not gloss over some of Obama's choirces

I refer to the Malaysiakini article Towards 'an adult US foreign policy' .

Thompson has extolled the qualities of the new presidential appointee for the post of Director of National Intelligence, former Commander-in-Chief of United States Pacific Command (Cincpac), Dennis Cutler Blair.

Thompson commented on president-elect Obama's choice of Blair as ‘…the most obvious choice. Perhaps it is just because he is too nice a guy, too honourable, and far too thoughtful, someone who always takes a long view.’

Honourable? I didn't realise that Thompson appreciates this quality, based on how he had sneered at the loser in the recent US presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, as ‘a 'national hero' who supposedly had earned the presidency for five years squatting in a Vietnamese jail (heroism defined as endurance rather than courageous choice).

I had then written a letter to enlighten Thompson on the meaning of 'honour' as exemplified by John McCain who had time and time again demonstrated the finest example of his Annapolis training, that of honour (decency) and duty.

Anyway, back to Blair – Thompson bemoaned that Blair ‘retired as (Cincpac) with dignity but disappointment. The Navy had passed over him for all its top posts’, presenting that as a seeming gross injustice. Well, I guess we need to examine why.

While Thompson has crooned generously about the wonderful sterling qualities of his mate Blair, he forgot to inform us that Blair as Cincpac during the 1999 East Timor crisis reportedly disobeyed orders from senior civilian officials in the Clinton Administration to meet with General Wiranto, the commander of the Indonesian military, to tell the latter to curtail the violent activities of the pro-Indonesian militia amid growing international concern over violence against the independence movement in East Timor.

It would appear that Blair had reportedly failed to deliver this message during his meeting with Wiranto, but instead gave Wiranto an offer of military assistance and a personal invitation to be Blair's guest in Hawaii!

If the report had been true, just beat that - not only for not carrying out administration orders as a military man, especially as one in a democracy should.

We all know that the pro-Indonesian militants eventually slaughtered many independence supporters in East Timor, a shameful indictment of the complicity of Indonesian military officials.

I wonder whether the East Timorese might have been spared the senseless slaughter if Blair had carried out his orders to tell General Wiranto to instruct the pro-Indonesian militia to cease and desist.

But regardless, one can only puzzle over Blair's reported failure to do as he was told by an elected civilian administration. Did this alleged failure in his duty lead to the US Navy passing over him for all its top posts? Regretfully, Thompson omitted informing us of his thoughts on this possibility.

I first came across Thompson in 2005 when he wrote an article entitled 'The Middle East Bismarck' in which he (Thompson) had outlandishly suggested Ariel Sharon, yes, of the Sabra and Shatila infamy, had qualities like the most famous German statesman.

Perhaps I was, then, too kind to him in my letter where I only pointed out that if Sharon were to be compared with Bismarck, it would be in the area of deceit and treachery.

Quite frankly, if Sharon had not been an Israeli Jew, he would undoubtedly have been tried as a criminal in the International Court of Justice like Serb Slobodan Milosevic or indicted like Arab President Omar of Sudan.

Then, I didn't know where Thompson was coming from. Perhaps we need to examine his political allegiance and proclivity.

Thompson has membership of the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), which is a right wing advocacy organisation with members like President Bush's favourite Democrat, Senator, Joseph Lieberman, neo con Zionist Richard Perle (known in Washington circles as the 'Prince of Darkness') and other associates of the right wing think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, and the powerful Israeli lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, more notoriously known as Aipac.

Not exactly your typical members of Amnesty International or Oxfam. Additionally, Thompson is also a director of the US Institute of Peace (a sad misnomer) which has among its members ultra neoc on Zionists Douglas Feith and Daniel Pipes.

If we recall, Thompson's article on the recent Georgian-Russian conflict, he commends to us Professor Richard Pipes' view on Russia.

Richard Pipes is Daniel Pipes' father, who like his son, has an invincible bias; while Pipes Junior is reputed to be virulently against Arabs, Pipes Senior is against the old USSR and by extension, present day Russia. Thompson's referral to Richard Pipes for an assessment on Russia would be like inviting us to read Iranian President Ahmadinejad's views on Israel.

Naturally lost in Thompson's article was Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's reckless and first strike aggression against the Ossetians, as confirmed by independent military observers.

With such a political association, I wasn't surprised by Thompson's ungracious and gossipy sniping at former US President Clinton about the latter's social activities at Oxford University, England some 40 years ago.

Now, McCain comes from an impeccable naval lineage, where his father and grandfather were both four-star admirals in the United States Navy. McCain himself served honourably and bravely in the US Navy as a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War.

As I mentioned earlier, Thompson had in a previous article snobbishly sneered at McCain's Annapolis background when comparing it to Barack Obama's, and even attempted to diminish McCain' courageous and honourable ordeal in the ‘Hanoi Hilton’.

Yet, when it came to his buddy Dennis C Blair, what did Thompson say?

Quote: ‘In the naming of former Cincpac Commander Dennis Blair as Director of National Intelligence, Barack Obama has made a remarkable choice indeed. […] Admiral Blair's forebears are the naval history of America, back to Commodores at the time of the Civil War. Of course, he attended the Naval Academy ... ’Unquote.

Well…

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