RECENT ARTICLES BY SENIOR FELLOW MELVIN GOODMAN

Robert Gates' Disappointing Legacy
(June 29, 2011. Baltimore Sun)
CIA Director Leon Panetta becomes secretary of defense Thursday, taking over Washington's largest and most powerful bureaucracy with a budget that amounts to nearly 60 percent of discretionary federal spending. He will be stepping into the shoes of the most influential member of the Obama administration, Robert M. Gates, who has been canonized for his efforts over the past five years. For the past two months, Secretary of Defense Gates has been on a farewell tour of U.S. think tanks, universities and military academies, advocating policies that will make Mr. Panetta's job extremely difficult.

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Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates: A Tough Act to Follow
(June 23, 2011 Truthout.org)
CIA director Leon Panetta soon will become secretary of defense, taking over Washington's largest and most powerful bureaucracy with a budget that amounts to nearly 60 percent of discretionary federal spending. He will be stepping into the shoes of the most influential member of the Obama administration, Robert M. Gates, who has been canonized for his performance over the past five years.

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US-Pakistani Relations: The Tail Still Wags the Dog
(June 14, 2011 Truthout.org)
During the worst days of the cold war, the United States and the Soviet Union learned that their third-world clients had great leverage over their benefactors. The Soviets could not get assistance to the Palestinians in Lebanon without paying off Syria. The Soviets became increasingly involved in Africa because the Cubans shamed Moscow into greater support for Angola and Ethiopia. A succession of US administrations has learned that Israel has more influence over US policy than Washington would like to acknowledge. Until the United States agreed to a "one China" policy, Taiwan had far too much leverage over the actions of the United States in East Asia. And for the past 60 years, the tail has wagged the dog in US-Pakistani relations.

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Panetta and Obama Gut CIA Oversight .
(October 27, 2010 Truthout.org)
President Barack Obama and CIA Director Leon Panetta have managed to accomplish what the Bush administration and three CIA directors failed to do over a five-year period - significantly compromise the position of the CIA's statutory Inspector General (IG) and its Office of the Inspector General (OIG). In announcing the completion of the CIA's internal review of the tragic suicide bombing at an agency base in Afghanistan in late December, Panetta acknowledged that the review was prepared by senior officers of the CIA's counterintelligence division, that the report would be provided to the OIG in "keeping with past practice," and that - despite the deaths of seven agency operatives and contractors - no one would be held accountable.

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The Uses and Misuses of Intelligence in Four US Wars.
(October 15, 2010 Truthout.org)
President Harry S. Truman created the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947 to ensure that the policy community would have access to independent intelligence analysis that was free of the policy advocacy of the Department of State and the Department of Defense. The CIA's most important analytic mission was the production of national intelligence estimates (NIEs) and assessments that tracked significant political and military developments and provided premonitory intelligence on looming threats and confrontations.

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Bob Woodward's "Obama's Wars" and the Importance of Reportage.
(October 4, 2010 Truthout.org)
Bob Woodward's "Obama's Wars" offers a disturbing account of President Barack Obama's lack of leadership and the flawed decision-making practices of his national security team. Although Woodward never explicitly says so, he makes a strong case that President Obama has redefined and expanded a war that neither he nor his leading advisers believe will end successfully for the United States. The bottom line is that Obama endorsed a decision in which he almost certainly doesn't believe. He and his national security team must realize that the Afghan situation in July 2011, when we are supposed to begin the withdrawal of troops, will be no different than it is today.

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President Obama's Most Inexplicable Failure.
(July 15, Truthout.org)
President Barack Obama has been a major disappointment to a liberal community that rallied to his call for genuine change. His administration has made no attempt to investigate the crimes that were committed by the Bush administration, including torture and abuse, secret prisons and renditions. President Obama rescued Wall Street, but not Main Street. And he has expanded the self-destructive war in Afghanistan, where there is no end in sight.

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Obama's Bungled Military Strategies-Part III. (July 8, Consortiumnews.com) President Barack Obama inherited a difficult national security situation — wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; an exaggerated and counterproductive war on terror; debilitating deficits and rising debt; an obstructionist Congress; and a corporate media that has abandoned its watchdog ethos. Unfortunately, President Obama did not have the experience to manage this daunting challenge. He had scant background in foreign policy, military policy or defense expenditures. Nor did he have much knowledge about the major players in these fields.

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The Military Complex's Win, Part II. (July 7, Consortiumnews.com) Barack Obama’s crippling inheritance as President of the United States is the near-five-decade failure of the nation’s political leadership to heed President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s warning that “in the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”

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What Eisenhower Could Teach Obama, Part I. (July 5, Consortiumnews.com) Fifty years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told his senior advisers in the Oval Office of the White House, “God help this country when someone sits in this chair who doesn’t know the military as well as I do.” Several months later, he issued his famous warning about the military-industrial complex.

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Pentagons Threat to the Republic (June 28, Truthout.org) President Barack Obama's appointment of retired Gen. James Clapper as the director of national intelligence (DNI) demonstrates the Pentagon's enormous influence over the president and indicates that there is little likelihood of genuine reform of the hidebound intelligence community. Once again, the president has appointed a general officer to an important strategic position that should be in the hands of an experienced civilian who understands the need for change.

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Pentagon Tightens Grip on the Obama Administration and the Intelligence Community (June 8, Truthout.org) President Barack Obama's appointment of retired Gen. James Clapper as the director of national intelligence (DNI) demonstrates the Pentagon's enormous influence over the president and indicates that there is little likelihood of genuine reform of the hidebound intelligence community. Once again, the president has appointed a general officer to an important strategic position that should be in the hands of an experienced civilian who understands the need for change.

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David Ignatius: CIA's Senior Apologist Strike Again. (May 8, Truthout.org) Former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban once said that the Palestinians "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." Well, the same can be said for the Israelis and particularly their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. For the first time, the Israelis are confronting a Palestinian leadership on the West Bank that genuinely wants to pursue a political settlement and a two-state solution. Yasir Arafat envisaged more power in blocking any agreement, but Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and his boss, President Mahmoud Abbas, are dedicated to a peaceful solution. Unlike Arafat, who played to the extremists in the Middle East, Abbas and Fayyad are ignoring Iran's opposition to Israel as well as the firebrands among Hamas and Hezbollah, who favor delegitimizing Israel. Netanyahu's predecessors never had such counterparts on the West Bank.

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