Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

April 28, 2011

It?s ironically appropriate that President Obama chose Gen. David Petraeus to head the CIA. The new assignment would merely deepen Petraeus?s war resume: Having commanded wars in two countries, his post at the CIA would put him in charge of a third.

Notes the Washington Post: ?[T]he CIA functions ? as an extension of the nation?s lethal military force. C IA teams operate alongside U.S. special operations forces in conflict zones from Afghanistan to Yemen. The agency has also built up a substantial paramilitary capability of its own.? This includes an air force of missile-equipped remotely piloted drones. The paper reports that ?Petraeus has quietly lobbied for the CIA post, drawn in part by the chance for a position that would keep him involved in the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Yemen.?

Gen. Michael Hayden, who preceded outgoing Director Leon Panetta, was appointed to the CIA post after presiding over the Bush administration?s illegal domestic wiretapping program at the National Security Agency. Petraeus?s appointment offers another illustration that the Homeland Security State is a militarized, vertically integrated monolith ? exactly the kind of system our Founders wanted to avoid.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.