The Disturbing Brennan Appointment

It is such a relief to have a sane, intelligent person in charge again after the insanity of the last 8 years. Yet I have never held out hopes that Obama would radically up-end the status quo and implement policies progressive enough for my liking, such as drastically reducing the military budget and addressing structural economic inequality. His rhetoric on foreign policy is extremely hawkish (yes, even though he would talk with enemies). During the campaign, except for moderate progressive taxation, he never went near any number of things considered "too left" to even touch with a pole.

I can echo the sentiments of Glen Greenwald here:

I'm both entirely unsurprised and basically undisturbed by the fact that Obama's most significant appointments thus far are composed largely of standard Washington establishment figures and pro-Iraq-War hawks, and are devoid of people "on the Left". That is who Obama is -- he's an establishment politician who, with a few exceptions, is situated smack in the mainstream middle of the national Democratic Party. The mentor he sought out when arriving in the Senate was Joe Lieberman, who he then actively supported against Ned Lamont. The notion that Obama is some sort of aggressive or radical Leftist challenger of establishment power is and always was the by-product of fear-mongering from the Right and, to a lesser extent, the projected desires of some progressives. As I've said many times, I intend to wait and judge Obama on the policies he pursues, not the administrators he appoints to carry out those policies.

But John Brennan is a different matter. To appoint someone as CIA Director or Director of National Intelligence who was one of George Tenet's closest aides when The Dark Side of the last eight years was conceived and implemented, and who, to this day, continues to defend and support policies such as "enhanced interrogation techniques" and rendition (to say nothing of telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping), is to cross multiple lines that no Obama supporter should sanction.

One of Obama's first announced actions is the intention to close Gitmo--thank God! But John Brennan as CIA Director, you might as well re-open it in an ethical sense.

And everyone responsible for the revolting policies of torture needs to be prosecuted. No question.