Sometimes the world gets so hot, its difficult to prioritize the scalding issues. With key words like drone strikes, targeted assignations, extraordinary rendition and leaked Justice Department memos magically circulating just prior to the President's CIA nominee is scheduled to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee is something to be more than concerned with.
While there's little chance of his confirmation being in jeopardy, John Brennan had better bring his A game. Another train wreck of a performance like Chuck Hagel's fiasco could make for an unexpected disaster. Questions of torture and drone assassinations must be handled with the utmost of care. Stammering, stuttering, stumbling or any semblance of being unprepared during responses won't exactly inspire confidence in the intelligence chief wannabe. And if there's anything the CIA needs of late, is the nation's confidence they can get the job done.
As if the aforementioned weren't enough to chew on, we're still choking on the words of the Turkish FM's very public castigation of Syria's Bashar al Assad's for not retaliating militarily against Israel. Joining the Iranians, the Russians and oddly enough the Syrian opposition, they'll all clamoring for some form of payback.
Left a bit startled over America's NATO partner veering so far off script, the U.S. needed a day or two to regain its diplomatic footing. Maybe our shock would have been lessened if the U.S response was a bit stronger than a few words of disappointment and regret.
Apparently taking cover behind domestic issues, President Obama is throwing everything, including the kitchen sink at the GOP to keep them rumbling and bumbling amongst themselves. If there is a strategy to discern for the administration's new look inward, it would be to step behind the curtain of the world's stage and play second fiddle until it can come up with another strategy.
Perhaps the White House has given the word, that the United States needs to just lay low for awhile. Perhaps John Kerry is still trying to get his legs underneath him. If the new Secretary of State has to sift through the all unintelligible intelligence provided by an overwhelmed and underperforming intelligence community, he's gonna need more than a minute to get acclimated.
On the other hand, it could be all these things or none at all. It could be, that the Unites States has just found itself out of the loop.
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