[Peace] If “Saudi Fan Flournoy” Must Be SecDef, Give Us “Diplomacy Murphy” at State

[Robert Naiman]

If “Saudi Fan Flournoy” Must Be SecDef, Give Us “Diplomacy Murphy” as
Secretary of State

President-Elect Biden has promised us a diverse Cabinet that “looks like
America.”

If this were to apply to views on diplomacy, war and peace and not only to
gender and skin color, then it would follow that not every single member of
the President’s National Security Cabinet should be such a fierce advocate
for the Saudi government as Michele Flournoy, reportedly the “inevitable”
Biden nominee for Secretary of Defense. Not every American “looks like
that.” Not every American advocates on behalf of the Saudi government as
passionately as “inevitable” Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy does.
Indeed, there are even some Americans who don’t advocate for the Saudi
government at all. Ask a focus group of Yemeni-Americans how wonderful the
Saudi government is. Then “duck and cover” just in case any shoes come
flying near your head.

If “personnel is policy” at Treasury, surely it follows that “personnel is
policy” at the Pentagon and State. Don’t the “personnel is policy” people
care anymore how many wars we have in the Middle East?

It has been said that Flournoy at Pentagon is already baked into the cake.
The marketing for the multitude is that this is about “first woman
Secretary of Defense.” Of course that’s not how Washington really works -
you don’t hear anyone talking about Tulsi Gabbard as “first woman Secretary
of Defense” - but if it’s baked into the cake already, then there’s no
point in fighting about it. Let’s assume for the purposes of this
discussion that Flournoy at Pentagon is already baked into the cake. Then
there should be some compensation for the peace and diplomacy people who
supported Bernie in the primary in the form of having a pro-diplomacy
person at the State Department, so it’s not only people who “never met a
war they didn’t like” all the way down.

Four names have surfaced repeatedly in recent press speculation about
Secretary of State: Chris Murphy, Chris Coons, Susan Rice, Tony Blinken.

The problem with Rice right now for any post that requires Senate
confirmation is that she has severe Republican lightning rod issues.
Whether it’s true or not, whether it’s fair or not, many Congressional
Republicans believe that Susan Rice lied to America about what the U.S.
government knew and when they knew it about who did the armed jihadi attack
on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador to
Libya, and about what the armed jihadis’ motivations for the attack were.
Maybe Democrats will be able draw to the inside straight in the Georgia
Senate races. But Biden’s not going to know that when he makes his pick for
Secretary of State. He will have to assume that he might face a Senate with
a Republican majority. Susan Rice will probably hold a national security
post in the early Biden Administration. But it probably won’t be a post
subject to Senate confirmation. Just as Senate Democrats told Obama no to
John Brennan as CIA director in 2008 because he had CIA torture issues, so
he had to go to the White House, Senate Republicans will likely say no to
Biden on Susan Rice as Secretary of State because of their belief that she
lied about the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, so she’ll have to go to
the White House.

The problem with Blinken is that he’s such a close and trusted Biden
adviser on foreign policy that press reports say Biden wants to keep
Blinken close by, in the White House. The Secretary of State has to fly all
over the world for international meetings. Sure, there are “secure” phone
lines back to the White House. But you have to go to a special place like
the U.S. Embassy for the “secure” phone line, and even that line is not
necessarily 100% secure, plus now the SecState is in a totally different
time zone from the POTUS, plus there’s no technology on Earth that can
replace the quiet conversation of two people walking in the White House
Rose Garden. That suggests that Blinken is likely to go to a national
security slot in the White House rather than SecState, just like Susan
Rice.

That just leaves Chris “Diplomacy” Murphy, who led efforts to end
unconstitutional U.S. participation in the biblically catastrophic Saudi
war and blockade on Yemen, and Chris “I voted for Obama’s Iran deal before
I helped AIPAC undermine Obama's Iran deal” Coons, who also voted for the
Yemen war twice in opposition to Murphy and Bernie.

If Flournoy is at the Pentagon and Coons is at State, it’s a Dream Team for
the Joe Lieberman neocon Middle East warmongers. It’s Back to the Future.
It’s de ja vu all over again. It’s the Clintonista Neocon All Stars. It’s a
field day for the Clintonista Neocons who helped bring the world every
biblical catastrophe in the Middle East since January 1993. “The price is
right,” Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State told Leslie Stahl of CBS News
about the Bill Clinton blockade that killed half a million Iraqi children.
That set the stage for Bush’s Iraq War. The Bill Clinton Administration
teed up Bush’s Iraq war. That’s a key reason why the Clintons were such
enthusiastic boosters for Bush's Iraq war. Their Clinton Administration
teed it up.

Of course, it could be argued, Biden won the primary. Elections matter. To
the victor go the spoils. Woe to the vanquished.

But the Obama Administration foreign policy crew was more diverse on
military force and diplomacy than a Flournoy-Coons regime would be.
Whatever happened to the people who brought us the Iran deal? John Kerry,
Wendy Sherman, Ernie Moniz. Where are they now? How come we’re not seeing
their names now? How come we’re only seeing the names of Clintonista
neocons like Flournoy and Coons who never met a war they didn’t like?

Say it ain’t so, Joe. Throw the peace and diplomacy Bernie people a bone.
If we have to eat our spinach on Saudi fan Flournoy at the Pentagon, give
us a little “Diplomacy Murphy” sugar at the State Department to help the
Saudi fan Flournoy Pentagon medicine go down.
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