Marty Peretz writes of the decision not to attend Durban II and of the appointment of Chas Freeman:

I have an instinct that the finale for Geneva was hastened by the Freeman disaster about which I wrote thrice yesterday. No one can explain what the president sees in him that would allow such a crude propagandist and bigot to be judge of what intelligence information the president sees and what he does not. The intelligence machinery of the country has been under suspicion for years  because of ignorance or bureaucratic conflicts. Add now the fact that Freeman loves the Chinese dictatorship and that he is a shill for the king of Saudi Arabia. Oh yes, and he clearly despises friends of Israel, Jewish or not.

Perhaps this is so, but then there is no rhyme or reason to our national security apparatus. We have a president who ricochets from one set of critics to the next without regard for the merits of the issue before him. Is this is what we are to expect — the toady of the House of Saud in a key role “balanced” by a “boycott” of Durban II? This is a peculiar compromise indeed: to be just a little bit in the thrall of the Israel-bashers. And it raises the troubling question as to who really is in charge of decision making: everyone or no one or a very confused president?

Coming out of the election, one theory on Barack Obama was that he was a “moderate” on national security who simply played to the netroots in the primary.  That’s the “bet” Colin Powell and others placed. Another explanation, particularly after the appointments of solid establishment types, was that he really didn’t care that much about foreign policy and wanted to devote himself to domestic policy.

Perhaps re-inventing American society and dismantling the free market system have taken most of his time of late. But if that is the case, he better start paying attention and stop leaving national security to others. National security is not self-executing. Without a strong hand at the rudder and a clear chain of command we will have incoherence.