HerbEly

Senator Warner Obliqely Raises Fundamental Challenge to the President

    Yesterday’s WaPo has a front-page story by Michael Shear  on how Vietnam shaped Senator John Warner’s reluctance to support President Bush’s “surge” of troops in Iraq. Good story – but he might have noted that Warner’s reluctance goes at least as far back as his August 3, 2006 appearance on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

At that time, as this blog noted on September 5, 2006,  Senator Warner nailed some basic strategic and moral issues.

Warner is well aware of the Clausewitzian trinity of the Government, Army and the People and how the ever-shifting relationships among the three influence the outcome of the war.  (For my April, 1991 Army magazine article how failure to understand its import led to strategic failure in Vietnam, go here.)
    The just war issue of legitimate authority (Only duly constituted public authorities may use deadly force or wage war) comes into play at this point. Warner grants that the President has the authority but suggests that as the causes for which the war is being fought shift, the President is close to loosing that authority. It will be up to Congress to restore it. If the President continues without it, the public, already opposed, will turn decisively against the war. Then we will lose, for much the same reason as we lost in Vietnam.

    Given the reality that US troops, the national interest, and the President’s legacy are all at risk, Senator Warner is moving carefully. Still, he is raising challenge that is much more fundamental that most people recognize.

NOTE: This post linked to Beltway Traffic Jam for 01/29/2007

Spirituality in the Intelligence Workplace

    On Jan. 25th, I was privileged to give a talk to the Second International Conference on The Ethics of National Security Intelligence. As so often happens, the live talk did not quite match the written paper. Here it is:

    This talk should start with a disclaimer. My dad used to quote a Pennsylvania Dutch proverb: “We grow too soon old and too late smart”. I come to you as a former intelligence insider, having spent 32 years at the National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville. I worked as an analyst and Supervisor specializing in Soviet Weapons research and Development Programs. At this point I don’t consider myself “too soon old.” Looking back on my career there were definitely times when I was “too late smart.” Maybe my experience and errors of omission and commission can be a source of strength for others. Having retired in March of 1996, I’ve had almost ten years to put some perspective on that experience.

    Chicago publisher Gregory F. A. Pierce’s book, Spirituality at Work: 10 Ways to Balance Your Life on the Job offers a unique and useful way to discuss spirituality in the intelligence workplace. I will reflect on Pierce’s approach in terms of my own 32 years in intelligence.

    Pierce’s book is the result of an on-line discussion amongst business executives. It is down-to earth, practical and worth the time to read and re-read.

    All any of us can do is “the next right thing.” The challenge is developing our own faculties of so that we will be able to identify the next right thing and get it done. In this regard, I can claim spiritual progress not perfection.