Ted Bromund writes at Contentions:
I’m trying to track down a hard-copy of the petition, and will post as soon as I do, but there is no reason to doubt what Bromund says. The man who the Obama administration appointed to oversee the creation of national intelligence estimates was, just a few months ago, signing petitions for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. This is the man who James Fallows would praise for his “contrarianism,” which included extremely contrarian views on Israel, China, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and now Afghanistan. Was Dennis Blair aware that the man he was bringing on to head the NIC had been singing public petitions that would directly contradict the policies of the Obama administration? Imagine if Freeman hadn’t withdrawn from consideration (or been tossed overboard depending on who you believe), the IG reports would still be in the offing, members of Congress would still be protesting the choice, and now we’d have the new head of Obama’s National Intelligence Council explaining how his name got onto a petition calling for the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan — and how those views would never interfere with his assessment of the war there and the prospect for an American victory (which he would surely be working diligently to secure). Imagine that. Update: I now have a copy of the petition, titled “Not This Time.” It reads:
That is the full text. “The Taliban is not a direct military threat to the United States.” That is the view of the man whom Dennis Blair would have installed as the head of the National Intelligence Council.
