By PAUL WOLFOWITZ
Now that Michele Flournoy is being mentioned as a serious candidate to succeed Leon Panetta as secretary of defense, it is important that she be judged on her merits—not because she'd be the first woman in that job, not simply because she was an effective defender of President Obama's policies during the recent campaign, and not because she isn't Chuck Hagel.
Having only a slight acquaintance with Ms. Flournoy, I can't judge her overall record or compare her with other candidates. But I do know that she made a critical contribution as undersecretary of defense for policy to what could be the Obama administration's most important achievement in Afghanistan, the substantial strengthening of that country's own security forces.
That achievement is not one that I've seen reported before. I only know of it because Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who was previously my senior military assistant, told me about the support Ms. Flournoy provided him when he was in charge of training the Afghan army and police from 2009 to 2011. This story demonstrates some qualities that Democrats and Republicans alike should be looking for in a secretary of defense.
Gen. Caldwell was sent to Afghanistan in November 2009 to take charge of training the Afghan National Security Forces (or ANSF, principally consisting of the army and the national police). Ms. Flournoy told him—very correctly—that his mission held the key to U.S. success, and she didn't think we were doing well. "I'm not sure what it takes to do better, but we must," she said. "I hope you will tell me what we need."
In truth, the training mission was on the brink of failure. More personnel had left the ANSF in the previous month than had joined it.
Gen. Caldwell quickly concluded that he couldn't get the job done with just the 1,200 U.S. troops in his command. At a minimum, he told the NATO command in Afghanistan, he needed two or three thousand more. But the command's priority was for combat troops, not trainers, and his request was turned down. He was told to make do with what he had.
The rest is at the
link (Wall Street Journal)There's more info out there on the web that Chuck Hagel is running into problems with confirmation should he be nominated as SecDef to replace Panetta. Barney Frank is apparently pissed off because of disparaging comments that Hagel made about the appointment to ambassador of Luxembourg that Slick Willie made in 1998. Apparently the ambassador was a card-carrying screaming faggot and Hagel called the pole-smoker "aggressively gay."
Barney, take your boy toy and go away. You've already done enough damage in your career.
