Obama, not so military

The appointments of Chuck Hagel to head the Pentagon and of John O. Brennan for the CIA — which are still awaiting congressional approval — broadly follow the political line taken by Barack Obama during his first mandate with regard to matters of national security. But the second mandate need not mean more of the same. On the contrary, it offers the opportunity — indeed, points to the need — for certain radical changes.

With the Republican Hagel, after Robert Gates, Obama is looking to keep the door open to a party that he needs in order to govern, as it dominates the House of Representatives. He has chosen a complex and controversial personality: critical of gays, decorated in Vietnam, in disagreement with the Iraq war, and in favor of a prompt withdrawal from Afghanistan. Hagel has come out against an attack on Iran, leading to certain lobbies, for no reason other than this, to attack him as being anti-Israeli. But in terms of his overall brief, all this matters less than the need to begin making drastic cutbacks (barring surprises) in the US Defense budget — a process that will go on for years, and might begin to translate into fewer military adventures for what is still the world’s top-ranking power.

In fact, the boost given by Obama to the use of drones in America’s “war on terror,” and in wars in general, in part reflects this need to reduce the US contingents in several areas of the world. Brennan — who has spent 25 years in the CIA, and whose position on the use of torture to extract information from supposed terrorists in secret prisons is not clear — is one of the promoters of the use of drones for selective attacks in Pakistan and other places such as Yemen, a view that seems to be fully shared by Obama.

Ceding activities

This policy has not only marked a growing and worrying trend in the Agency, but has drawn it further away from its traditional briefs of espionage, and further removes these activities from political and judicial control — and from the attention of the media. Indeed, the new director of the CIA may have to cede some of these activities to the Pentagon, which is more subject to such controls.

In any case, the appearances of both men in Congress must serve to produce a clarification of the Obama administration’s policy in this respect. Though the detention camp at Guantánamo remains open, there is room for Obama to take a radical turn in security policy. He still has time.