Leon Panetta
Obama and the Search for Audacity
Obama needed to pay more attention to Ronald Reagan’s dictum that “personnel is policy.” Instead of appointing serious managers of national security policy who could think outside the box—perhaps audaciously—he filled his national security team with tired veterans of Cold War thinking.
Obama’s Memoir Offers Insights Into Major Shortcomings
With the possible exception of the memoir of President Ulysses Grant, there has never been a presidential memoir as useful or insightful as Barack Obama’s “The Promised Land.” Interestingly, he provides clues to the shortcomings of his performance that was successful in many ways but nevertheless disappointing to his devoted following.
Recent News and Latest Book
Biden’s Quandary: Proxy Wars and Endless Wars
From the end of the Second World War until the administration of Ronald Reagan, there were very few American battlefield deaths in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, and Southwest Asia. Since the administration of George H.W. Bush, however, most American battlefield deaths have taken place in those regions.