Waving aside any pretense of diversity, invoking seldom heard themes of merit and competence, President Barack Obama is about to appoint to his cabinet three of the most naive older white guys that ever walked up the Capitol steps.
For an administration that has made “diversity” a worn shibboleth for almost every other series of appointments, why this sudden departure from generating a photo-op like a Benetton ad of Christmas past? Were there no “wise Latina women,” “academically distinguished African-Americans,” or “experienced white women” available? What is it that makes these three candidates so phenomenal as to cause Obama to drop the diversity consideration?
All of these candidates are rabidly pro-Islam, pro-Arab, or both. All are apologists for those causes. All are strong proponents of Obama’s vision of the world, a diminished U.S. military, and a more sympathetic outreach to Islam.
The nominee for director of Central Intelligence, John Brennan, has told audiences that Jihad is internal struggle, and not Holy War. Brennan thinks Jerusalem is Al-Quds, and that conflating Islam with the actions of those who yell “Allah Akbar” before they blow themselves up is simply wrong.
Brennan wants to engage the Iranians and is against sanctions, though engagement has been ongoing for decades through the European Union, and has simply allowed Iran to move forward with the creation of nuclear weapons.
Brennan’s advocated policy with regard to Iran is all too reminiscent of the behavior of the Department of State vis-à-vis William Dodd, in 1933 the newly appointed American ambassador to Berlin. In their treatment of the Jews, the Nazis had exposed to Dodd what they really were. But State dismissed the Jews as being of no consequence and pressured Dodd to engage the Nazis and even to attend the Nuremberg rallies, which Dodd detested and managed to avoid.
Similarly, that Iran publicly announces its murderous intentions toward Jews is of no consequence for the Obama administration. “Let Hitler have his way with them [the Jews],” Hitler admirer and publishing tycoon Charles Crane told Dodd in an interview arranged by the Department of State before Dodd’s departure for Berlin. So too, the Obama administration is unmoved by Iran’s repeated and public calls for genocide against the Jews.
Like Brennan, Obama’s nominee for secretary of Defense, Charles Hagel, espouses engagement with Iran and has embraced the Islamic narrative of the Arab/Israeli conflict. On several occasions, Hagel refused to denounce Arafat’s use of terrorism. He has become an apologist for Palestinian suicide bombings, claiming that desperate people resort to desperate measures. Hagel has consistently seen Israel as the obstacle to resolving the conflict.
