This Week in Babylon

George Casey: should failure be rewarded?

On Meet the Press last Sunday, Senator John McCain said that he might vote against President Bush's nomination of General George W. Casey to be the new Army chief of staff. Casey has directed the Iraq war since 2004, which gives McCain pause. “I'm concerned about failed leadership,” said McCain, “and the message that sends to the rest of the military.” Other senators said that they too would closely scrutinize the nomination, and from what I understand, McCain may not just vote against Casey but try to block his nomination as well.

Casey isn't solely to blame for the horrifying mess in Iraq, but there's no denying that the situation there has deteriorated steadily on his watch. Nominating him to be chief of staff would be as dumb as it was to award Paul Bremer a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

I asked a former U.S. official with wide-ranging military and intelligence experience what he thought of Casey's nomination. “It is an absolute disgrace that Casey was even considered for the job,” he told me. “Casey's core job as a four-star general is to successfully lead an army in war, and to win. He has been at the helm for more than two years, and everything he has tried has failed to produce the stated or desired results. It's not about liking or disliking him. Casey is a nice guy and a gentleman. But that does not mitigate the cold hard facts on the ground: he is a failure as a combat leader. There is no longer any accountability in the U.S. government system. Mediocrity is an acceptable level of performance. I don't understand why people aren't fired anymore for failing to deliver results. I look back in history, when General Marshall fired fifty-four flag-ranked officers in one day. Casey should be relieved and retired from the service, immediately.”

This view, I would guess, is fairly common in the military.

GitmoTube

You know that detainees at Guantánamo Bay are doomed when the best defense strategy open to them is to post videos on YouTube. Given a lack of alternatives, that's the route being taken by public defenders in Oregon who represent a Sudanese-born detainee named Adel Hamad.

Hamad was captured by security forces in Pakistan in 2002, handed over to American troops, and is being held at Guantánamo as an “enemy combatant.” Hamad denies any ties to terrorism and says he was employed as a humanitarian relief worker in Pakistan.

The video posted by his attorneys makes a strong case in his defense—and his claim of innocence is further bolstered by the fact that even the stacked Pentagon panel that deemed him an “enemy combatant” reached only a split decision. “If more people knew about this case, maybe the Department of Defense would release this guy,” Patrick Ehlers, one of Hamad's lawyers, told the Miami Herald. “Nobody could justify this detention.”

Union Restated

The only thing I like about the annual State of the Union address is that I get through the newspaper so much faster when I can skip page after page of vapid analyses of President Bush's empty promises. The only commentary worth watching, predictably, comes from Jon Stewart (via One Good Move).

Iran: better dying through advertising

Inspired by the American Enterprise Institute's role in leading the charge for war in Iraq, several conservative think tanks (including AEI) are seeking to replicate that success with Iran. The most enthusiastic whooping noises are emanating from the American Foreign Policy Council, whose Iran Freedom Initiative “is committed to assisting American policymakers develop and implement strategy” toward Tehran, which it describes as “the single greatest challenge to American objectives in the Middle East, and to long-term success in the Global War on Terror.” This week, noted Laura Rozen at warandpiece.com, the Council kicked off an advertising campaign “aimed at educating the American public about the growing threat posed by a nuclear Iran.” Its two thirty-second spots on CNN, MSNBC, and FoxNews all but call for the immediate firebombing of Tehran, closing with this tagline: “Stand up for peace. Call the White House and tell them to enforce sanctions against Iran today.”

Does Iran pose a difficult foreign policy problem? Yes. Has it organized an army of 25,000 suicide bombers to unleash on the West? Doubtful.

Baghdad Confidential

Scott Horton prepares a terrific summary of political news, which he somehow manages to put out several times a week (to subscribe, send a request to Shorton99@aol.com). Today his newsletter features an email from a CBS correspondent in Baghdad and a link to an important story that ran only on the network's website.

From: Lara Logan, CBS News Baghdad

Subject: Help

The story below only appeared on our CBS website and was not aired on CBS. It is a story that is largely being ignored, even though this is taking place every single day in central Baghdad, two blocks from where our office is located. Our crew had to be pulled out because we got a call saying they were about to be killed, and on their way out, a civilian man was shot dead in front of them as they ran. . . . People should know about this.

The video itself is everything television news reporting should be: immediate, informative, and thoughtful. It's hard to imagine why CBS would choose not to air it, but at least it's available online.

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