Question for discussion: Michèle Flournoy for Secretary of Defense.

[w8liftinglady]

Someone brought this up at The DMN today,and I'm having a tough time arguing against it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mich%C3%A8le_Flournoy

"Michèle Angelique Flournoy (born December 14, 1960)[1] is the former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy of the United States. She was confirmed in the position by the U.S. Senate on February 9, 2009 and was at the time the highest-ranking woman to hold a post at the Pentagon in the facility's history.[2] Flournoy founded and was named President of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in 2007.[2] Prior to co-founding CNAS with Kurt Campbell,[2] she was a Senior Adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she worked on a broad range of defense policy and international security issues. Previously, Flournoy was a distinguished research professor at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University (NDU), where she founded and led the university’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) working group, which was chartered by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop intellectual capital in preparation for the Department of Defense’s 2001 QDR. On December 12, 2011, Flournoy announced that she would step down in February 2012 to return to private life and contribute to President Barack Obama's re-election bid.[3]"

[elleng]

1. I like her a lot,

saw her in a discussion group a few years ago, certainly knows her stuff. The position is probably no longer available, tho (depending, of course, on what Senate does about Hagel.)

[TwilightGardener]

2. The big lesson she drew from the Iraq war is that Bush was "overambitious"

and didn't throw enough resources at it. No thanks. There's a reason why Bill Kristol is pushing her.

[w8liftinglady]

3. LOL..Thanks for that

[elleng]

5. You saw this where?

[TwilightGardener]

6. Will have to dig it up--from a couple weeks ago. Here:

From Bloomberg:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-12-28/obama-has-double-dilemma-in-choice-of-new-pentagon-chief.html

She represented “the hawkish wing of the Democratic party, particularly when she was out of office during the Bush years,” said Feaver, who was a national security council aide to Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush and supported Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Where Hagel was critical of the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq, Flournoy criticized the Republican administration “for failing to properly resource its overly ambitious goals.”

[elleng]

7. Thanks

[w8liftinglady]

4. OK...now I'm a little suspect.

The Repub columnist in the DMN just endorsed her.
Hmmm.