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June 30, 2009
Exclusive: White House Continues to be MIA on Critical World and Defense Issues
James Jay Carafano, PhD, Presidential Policy: Does It Make the Grade?
Though the president made a big deal about national security matters on Father’s Day, the White House continues to look like an absent father.
Last week, the President Obama continued his efforts at “spin control,” after being criticized for not speaking out more forcefully on events in Iran. Initially, the president sought to restrain his support for protesters to avoid the charge that the unrest was U.S.-inspired, rather than reflecting a genuine Iranian grassroots movements. He failed. Despite subdued rhetoric from the White House, the administration found itself pummeled by claims of interference, including a charge that innocent bystander had been shot by the CIA to foment a riot.
The government’s online engagement proved equally unfocused and ineffective. Heritage analyst Helle Dale noted, initially most government outreach was limited to the “State Department’s revelation that it requested that the social Web site Twitter postpone its scheduled maintenance operation in the days after the election as protesting Iranians were relying heavily on its service to communicate – causing some to suggest that these protests could end up being called the Twitter Revolution. Undoubtedly, this action was important, but given the resources of the U.S. government, it was hardly proactive.” The lack of effective Web 2.0 engagement represented a lost opportunity for the White House to demonstrate global leadership during the crisis. Even the new Administration, with a well-earned reputation as “web savvy,” has its troubles. A panel of experts assembled by The Washington Post gave the new WhiteHouse.gov Web site an averaged grade of C plus.
It is also not clear that the White House is tracking defense issues too closely. The Senate Armed Services Committee recently voted to add funding for the F-22 fighter program (similar provision recently passed in the House). The original proposed administration defense budget would terminate the program with about 60 less aircraft than what the Air Force really needs. As Heritage chief defense analyst Mackenzie Eaglen pointed out in her recent paper, “President Obama's decision to cap F-22 production at 186 fighters would in actuality yield only about 127 combat-ready aircraft because some fighters will also be used for training and testing. This reduced level will also ensure a more rapid expiration of the fleet's service life.” Obstinately, Obama immediately declared he would veto the defense authorization bill. Then Defense Secretary Gates said he wasn’t sure he would recommend a veto. Are our leaders talking to each other?
Finally, there’s more bad news on the homeland security front, where the White House seems to be offering no leadership at all. Here, some members of Congress are out of control. Without a firm hand from the president or Congressional leaders under the guise of homeland security they are introducing all kinds of bogus bills. I recently compiled a short list of some of Congressional “dumb and dumber ideas.”
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., is a leading expert in defense affaires, intelligence, military operations and strategy, and homeland security at the Heritage Foundation. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.
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