Slotkin: Gen X War Hawk
Senator Elissa Slotkin recently assumed her role in the Senate on January 3rd of this year, and this week she took to the Senate floor to argue against Tulsi Gabbard’s appointment as the National Intelligence Director. Senator Slotkin’s unconvincing words reveal the stark emptiness of two-and-a-half decades of war-propaganda that has defined her career and her worldview. If she is the forerunner of Gen X war hawks, her ascension into national politics marks the tail end of the aging neocon war establishment.
Senator Slotkin begins her first four minutes with an introduction to her background as a CIA agent during the War on Terror and Iraq War years, beginning with her watershed moment she described as becoming a "9/11 Baby" while attending college in New York during the attacks. "9/11 Baby" is such an interesting and unusual idiom, we should note that the implied meaning here is one who experienced a significant coming-of-age worldview that was precipitated by the government's narrative of the terrorism on Sep. 11th, 2001.
Elissa Slotkin was attending Columbia University when 9/11 occurred, and in September 2003 she was recruited by the CIA to serve three tours in Iraq as a CIA analyst. During the George W. Bush administration, she worked on the Iraq portfolio for the National Security Council.
Today, it is well-known that the Iraq war was not only based on faulty intelligence and false allegations of anthrax, WMD, and even bogus ties to 9/11, but that certain forces in the intelligence community, military, White House, and Congress were actively conspiring in a narrative of lies to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq, removal of Saddam Hussein, and the planned launching point for taking out "7 countries in 5 years" (Gen. Wesley Clark). These same forces are sometimes referred to as the unelected, unaccountable "Deep State" that wield enormous power over the President and Congress. (see Prof. Jeffery Sachs speaking about the focus group studies conducted in the fall of 2002 that were done in order to best sell the Iraq war to the American people).
Ex-CIA Officer Slotkin's background in driving the US-Iraq War sheds light on her ineffective appeal against Tulsi Gabbard .
The main outline of Slotkin's critique on Gabbard is as follows:
1. Gabbard has repeatedly questioned the integrity of the intelligence community, therefore she won’t be able to lead National Intelligence.
2. Gabbard labeled 10,000's of intelligence personnel as 'deep state,' so she is unfit.
3. Gabbard questioned the findings of the intelligence community, which makes her a poor leader.
and, Slotkin adds, more "egregious than anything,"
4. Gabbard shows a preference for our adversaries over US intelligence
The "adversaries" comment required further explanation:
4-A. Gabbard went and visited the now ousted Syrian President, Bashar al Assad in 2017
Senator Slotkin turns this against Gabbard by listing President Bashar's crimes, which seem to be a pale reflection of Netanyahu's "chutzpah" in crimes:
i. Bashar has killed thousands of his countrymen, including relatives of Michiganders
ii. Bashar violated international law and devastated communities
iii. Bashar allowed terrorists group to come in and take territory
To set the record straight, the US funded and armed terrorists to take over Syria with a new leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani. Abu Mohammad al-Julani's pedigree is clearly known. Wikipedia acknowledges that he "fought for three years [against the US] in the Iraqi insurgency. American forces captured and imprisoned him from 2006 to 2011."
If Elissa Slotkin was an intelligence agent in the Iraq War, or a lay-person spending 3 minutes doing basic online searching, she would know the US's traitorous role in aiding and arming its enemies to create war and commit crimes, against their own citizens and against leaders like Bashar al Assad.
Senator Slotkin then extends the "guilty by association" allegation to Putin:
4-B. Gabbard has a "seeming glorification" of Putin, showing interest in Putin and even taking his side of the argument while questioning US intelligence
The Senator harkens back to Cold War sentiments that were declining in popularity from when she was an actual baby, born in 1976, igniting a Cold War passion against the contemporary President of Russia:
"It is hard to understand, coming from the country that defeated the Soviet Union in the Cold War, that we would put a woman in charge of our entire intelligence community who has shown over and over repeated interest in Vladimir Putin, taking his side of the argument, wondering what he's done right and our intelligence community has done wrong."
The end of the Cold War brought a promise of peace and mutual understanding among great powers, even if short lived, that all of us should be promoting each and every day. The Senator’s misconstrued history does just the opposite, and further divides the US and the rest of the world.
The Senator's last and final point is a moot string of words resulting in a non-critique. She accuses Gabbard of flip-flopping, though intentionally vague on which side of the issue she, herself stands:
5. "We've watched her flip-flop on a bunch of issues, issues that Democrats and Republicans have concerns with. She used to have A LOT of concern about what's called Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act. She fought against it. Now she's somehow for it. I'm not saying people can't change..."
Ironically, Gabbard's words supporting a recently amended "Section 702" bill are cause for alarm, as both Republicans and Democrats are rightly concerned with the unconstitutional surveillance that has taken place under Section 702, but Slotkin completely overlooks the violation of rights. The point the Senator wants to make, rather, is that Gabbard merely changed her mind. Which is then contradicted as soon as she says, "I'm not saying people can't change, but I'm just saying someone who doesn't have the backbone to stand up and be clear with their principles, it's- I'm having a hard time imagining them lead in the heat of the moment, when you're in the situation room"
In listening to her Senate speech, the Ex-CIA Officer has learned nothing from war nor does she have the foggiest notion of the consequences of war. Her weak argument, fallacies, and gross ignorance of the obvious reflect not only a failure of intelligence, but it reflects the struggle of a mature adult, unable to wean herself from the anemic supply of propaganda that the government is always right, always, no matter what, even when it is wrong, it is right.
We know Senator Slotkin is not alone. Many of us, and many of our dear friends and family members have struggled to make sense of the long litany of crimes and injustices committed by our governments, the institutions that are supposed to uphold justice. We would be lying today if we didn't admit we still struggle every day to make sense of the gross crimes currently being committed by our Congress and President.
It doesn’t matter if we are born in the US or the Ukraine, or if we went to university at Columbia or at the Islamic University of Gaza (which was destroyed by US bombs on Oct. 11, 2023), we have an innate desire to do work that we want to be proud of. We have an innate desire to help others we see suffering. And we have an innate desire to be united with others, even over our differences, for a higher, common good.
Elissa Slotkin showed none of those values in her floor speech. She did not take the time to articulate any positive value, or promote any democratic principle. Instead she made the authoritarian argument that questioning one’s own government and holding it accountable is a social crime. And she went to great lengths to cover up any wrong-doing and treachery the US intelligence has been conducting the past 25 years (and much longer).
I hope Senator Slotkin can learn from her uninspiring remarks from her early Senate speech. I hope she can change. I hope she can be clear on her principles, as she said, and in the future be sure to articulate them. I hope she can lead when the moment comes. It is a great accomplishment to become a Senator. I hope she doesn't take it for granted as gift from her promoters, but instead connects with the people who will vote for if they feel she is relatable. It is the People she’s truly accountable to, not campaign donors.
Similarly, I hope Tulsi Gabbard knows her place in history as National Intelligence Director, and that her time under the Trump administration is not yet certain. Trump is weighing in on profiting over the graves of Palestinians, which is a shocking disregard of US and international law, and common decency. And in Ukraine, Trump is using Nuclear Disarmament as a reckless pawn in "negotiating" with the Russian people while his country has spent the past three years trying to actively destroy them. Gabbard’s tenure will be judged based on peaceful outcomes, not promises she made.
Election years come and go, administrations rise and fall, and the Deep State becomes so intensely divided it is probably its own worst enemy right now. Their failure to recruit and sustain younger generations of war propagandists is clearly evident with the junior Senator from Michigan’s performance, but it is our time to unite for peace and connect with one another.
The only true retention of power that peacefully passes on from generation to generation, year after year, is the peaceful power transfer among diverse groups of people who identify as We The People of the United States of America, who defend democracy tirelessly, speak truth to power, and promote peace, justice, and liberty for all.