The disturbing pattern: Obama rids America's military of yet another top general

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By Andrew Malcolm
Posted 02/20/2013 09:02 AM ET

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But Tuesday Obama announced that unspecified health challenges have emerged in Allen's family requiring his full attention and Allen has resigned the NATO nomination, which Obama feels compelled to accept. While, of course, deeply appreciating Allen's long service to the country. One more gone. No mess. Never Obama's fault.

What's particularly striking is Obama's meticulous demands over the conduct of top military commanders, those general officer boots on the ground with decades of experience at the front lines of leading our troops, guiding the nation's national security protection and assisting the enemy to die for their cause.

And yet the Democrat is beyond tolerant of widespread and costly incompetence among his civilian Cabinet officers.

Can you say Solyndra? Energy Secy. Stephen Chu, for instance, cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars with ill-advised government investment backing of some three dozen alleged clean energy companies, some connected to Obama bundlers, many now defunct, other beneficiaries of taxpayer-support now sold off cheaply to China, of all places. But Chu too is leaving with exuberant praise from the Chicago Democrat.

Atty. Gen. Eric Holder keeps his job as the country's top law enforcement officer after claiming blissful ignorance of his department's illegal gun-running operation supplying hundreds of weapons to Mexican drug cartels. Whose members subsequently killed scores of people, including at least one American.

Who would ever hold a top administrator responsible for such deadly malfeasance, as long as he was clueless about what was going on in his own department?

And if you doubt Holder's story, too bad. Because Obama has conveniently claimed executive privilege over documents sought by House investigators concerning when Holder new what about the "Fast and Furious" operation.

Or Homeland Security Secy. Janet Napolitano, whose alleged security inspection tours to cities across the country just happen to coincide frequently with the performance schedules of her real passion, civic operas in the cities she's visiting at taxpayer expense.

Now Obama seeks as secretary of Defense a former senator named Chuck Hagel, whose main attraction to the president is that he was once considered a Republican. That could provide a modicum of political cover as the president goes about gutting the defense budget to fund his other spending priorities. Obama has already retired one of the nation's 10 nuclear carriers.

And although Obama now professes great telepromptered loathing for the huge March 1 defense cuts, those sequester budget-cutting gimmicks were actually his idea two years ago.

Hagel, a staunch critic of the Mideast's only democracy, Israel, which Obama professes grand respect for, had quite likely the worst Senate confirmation hearing in modern history. His ignorance of U.S. defense and diplomatic policies was appaling. Democrats had to help with "I think what you meant to say, senator,...." Hagel said he'd learn on the job and he wasn't really going to be a commander anyway.

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