In the months since the war in Iraq ended, the Bush administration has seen a number of defense and intelligence officials accuse the White House of several misdeeds: exaggerating the Iraqi threat, pressuring CIA officials to produce politically-expedient results, “hyping” Saddam Hussein’s WMD arsenal, and lying about connections between Iraq and al Queda.
For a variety of reasons, however, nearly all of these sources have been anonymous in the media. No one wants to destroy their career by criticizing the administration on the record, so people with insider knowledge of the administration’s mistakes talk to reporters under the condition of not being identified by name.
Unfortunately, this makes it a little easier for the administration to dismiss their claims, as folks like Ari Fleischer and Condoleezza Rice can simply say that they can’t be expected to respond to anonymous accusations.
Not all the charges, however, are anonymous. Consider Rand Beers.
Beers is no lightweight intellectual or bitter partisan when it comes to national security issues. He’s worked for Reagan, Clinton, and both Bushes, most recently as a special assistant to the president for combating terrorism at the National Security Council for Bush II. (On Reagan’s NSC staff, he had replaced Oliver North as director for counterterrorism and counternarcotics.)
Just five days before Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq to begin, Beers quit. In a must-read front page article from yesterday’s Washington Post, Beers explained that he saw first-hand that the Bush administration wasn’t being forthright in its claims. He couldn’t get away with saying anything as an NSC employee, but now that he’s gone, Beers can speak freely.
“The administration wasn’t matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism,” Beers said. “They’re making us less secure, not more secure. As an insider, I saw the things that weren’t being done. And the longer I sat and watched, the more concerned I became, until I got up and walked out.”
Beers went on to say, “Counterterrorism is like a team sport. The game is deadly. There has to be offense and defense. The Bush administration is primarily offense, and not into teamwork.” Beers added that the Bush administration has failed to address the root causes of terror.
“The difficult, long-term issues both at home and abroad have been avoided, neglected or shortchanged and generally underfunded,” Beers said.
He’s seen the intelligence on Iraq and still doesn’t see why the White House made an invasion a “policy priority.” He reviews the data on cybersecurity, port security, infrastructure protection, and immigration management, and sees little if any follow-through from the Bush administration. He’s seen the reports on Afghanistan and sees it as a job that the U.S. started then abandoned.
“Terrorists move around [Afghanistan] with ease,” Beers said. “We don’t even know what’s going on. Osama bin Laden could be almost anywhere in Afghanistan.”
Beers, 60-years-old, is not a political activist or a disgruntled employee with an axe to grind. As the Post described him, Beers is a “lifelong bureaucrat, unassuming and tight-lipped.”
“Randy’s your model government worker,” said Wendy Chamberlin, a U.S. Agency for International Development administrator for Iraq, who worked with Beers on counterterrorism on the NSC of the first Bush administration. “He works for the common good of the American people. He’s fair, balanced, honest. No one ever gets hurt feelings hearing the truth from Randy.”
So what does this fair, balanced, and honest public servant think we should do now? Get Bush out of office.
In fact, just eight weeks after resigning in disgust from the NSC, Beers decided he was so anxious to get his former boss out of the White House that he signed on as a national security adviser to John Kerry’s presidential campaign.
Beers apparently considered a career at a think tank but realized he wanted to see a change in U.S. leadership and “never felt so strongly about something in my life.”
So why Kerry? Beers sees Kerry having the greatest expertise in foreign affairs and security issues of the Dem candidates. Plus, Beers, like Kerry, is a Vietnam veteran.
Regardless, Beers’ sobering indictment of the Bush administration is devastating. After a career serving the public on national security issues, his experience and expertise offers him unique credibility.
In short, if Beers believes Bush is making us “less secure, not more secure,” the nation should take heed of his concerns.