Who Is Responsible?

Lorelei Kelly is, in the words at the "Huffington Post," a national security specialist focused on helping citizens and elected leaders "reframe" security for the challenges revealed by 9/11.  She directs the National Security program at the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation--an organizational hub between the new progressive movement and its elected leadership in Congress.  In three words, a liberal blogger.  But, that is not condemnation--just orientation.  Remember the OODA Loop.

And, I think that Lorelei is a wonderful name.  Like Clifford, a wonderful name, but seldom given.  Maybe that is part of its charm.  But, on to the subject at hand.

In her most recent post on the Huffington Post, Ms Kelly, on the anniversary of our invasion of Iraq, talks about the failure of the Congress and the People with regard to our military.

Now that America's exit from Iraq is on the horizon -- we need to begin the long overdue conversation about how we got ourselves into this war.  Beyond blaming the Bush administration and the neo-cons. Fingering them is the easy part.  We need to talk about the civic and cultural reasons for getting into Iraq, because it will reveal a new way for Americans to understand national security.  Blame the Bush administration.  Fine.  Blame the media.  Okay.  But "we the people" need to take a few hits as well.

I think she left out the US Congress, which has the responsibility to declare war and to fund the military.

My take on the whole question of Bush and Iraq is that if people are unhappy, they need to replace their elected representatives in the US Congress.  Our Democracy is endangered by those 535 (soon to be 537 if they ignore the US Constitution) legislators on Capitol Hill who duck the hard choices and then join the throng in saying how bad it is.  That said, I will stipulate that there were folks who voted authority to President Bush to go into Iraq who thought it was the right thing to do.  The problem is, war is like child birth.  The outcome is never guaranteed.

But, back to Ms Kelly, here is the end of her post and her punch line:

As a culture, we have loved the military to death.  When we're scared, we love it even more. Our elected leaders, in response, offer inadequate critical decision making about the institution, how to respect it professionally by keeping it out of politics, by keeping it out of civilian tasks and by developing alternatives now that the world has changed.  The military is the consummate planning organization -- it has known for a long time that the world has changed -- but lacked the civilian leadership to fundamentally shift how we match means to ends, and tactics to strategy.  Today is the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war.  If we Americans truly value the lives sacrificed there -- we will require that our elected leaders -- at long last -- create and fund a security strategy that keeps us safer, costs less and restores the boundaries of a healthy civil-military relationship.

She is so correct here.

Regards  --  Clifford