Does Former CIA Director Mike Morell's Endorsement of Hillary Mean Anything

Casey Pops is back -- let's hope the system holds. ~~~~~~ On Friday, the Daily Bell Staff published the following quote from the New York Times by Michael Morell, a former CIA director titled "I Ran the CIA. Now I’m Endorsing Hillary Clinton" : "During a 33-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency, I served presidents of both parties -- three Republicans and three Democrats. I was at President George W. Bush’s side when we were attacked on Sept. 11; as deputy director of the agency, I was with President Obama when we killed Osama bin Laden in 2011....On Nov. 8, I will vote for Hillary Clinton." ___New York Times, Michael J. Morell. ~~~~~~ The Daily Bell describes the editorial as "a great example of how in politics the better and more willing liar can gain the most support. Even when the lying is obvious." Morell has endorsed Hillary Clinton, but his reasons for supporting her are "controversial and in some cases outright fabrications." The main reason to vote for Hillary, according to Morell, is because she is far more knowledgeable about national security, which is a key issue for many Hillary supporters. Morell says he's in favor of Hillary because she will “deliver on the most important duty of a president -- keeping our nation safe.” This is the reason Morell is not going to support Donald Trump who “may well pose a threat to our national security.” Morell says Hillary was an early proponent of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and she was also a “strong proponent” of how to respond to the “Syrian Civil War.” ~~~~~~ The problem with Morell's reasoning is multiple : many experts think Bin Laden probably died in the early 2000s, long before Obama was President and could appoint Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, and there was no civil war conflagration in Syria until the West, specifically President Obama, created one by ignoring the pleas of reformer rebels for support, thus ensuring that ISIS would take over the rebel movement for its own islamic jihadist ends. It is true that unlike Mrs. Clinton, Donald Trump has no governmental experience in national security, leaving us somewhat uncertain about how he would manage US foreign policy as President. But, Trump has expressed skepticism about current US foreign policy and the choice of wars in the recent past, and that should be seen as a positive. The NYT article also criticizes Trump for not being negative enough regarding Russia and Putin. In fact, it is fairly obvious that the West, led by NATO, is provoking Putin to create more military tension in both Syria and, more importantly, in the Ukraine and eastern Europe. Morell ends the NYT article this way : "My training as an intelligence officer taught me to call it as I see it. This is what I did for the CIA. This is what I am doing now. Our nation will be much safer with Hillary Clinton as president." ~~~~~~ Let's consider just what the CIA did for the US in the 33 years that Michael Morell was climbing up the ladder to the directorship. The CIA probably : failed to uncover or alert the US to the first New York City terrorist attack; failed to uncover or alert the US to the 9/11 Trade Center attack; failed to find Osama bin Laden in a timely fashion; failed to convince President George H. W. Bush to take out Saddam Hussein when the US was in Iraq the first time and had the strong coalition needed to do the job; blew the task of stating firmly whether there were or were not WMD in Iraq before President G. W. Bush went back into Iraq; muffed the job of providing solid intelligence about the growth of nuclear weapons R&D in Iran; failed to convince either President Bush or Obama to remove al-Malaki from his leadership role in Iraq in time to save Iraq from becoming a satellite state of shiite Iran; missed the growth of Putin's power in eastern Ukraine and his surprise invasion of eastern Ukraine and takeover of Crimea; failed to successfully advise the State Department about islamic terrorist threats to US diplomatic stations, including Benghazi; and, last but by no means least, the CIA has totally blown the job of knowing where islamic terrorists are hiding in the US and being out in front of their terrorist attack plans. ~~~~~~ Dear readers, you will notice I said the CIA has PROBABLY failed to do these things, because IF the CIA actually did its job and provided all these critical intelligence points, then the conclusion is crystal clear. No President or Secretary of State in the past 33 years has taken the CIA's advice seriously enough or acted on it adequately. AND that includes Hillary Clinton during the critical years 2009-2012. So, Morell and his CIA staff either did not do their primary job of gathering usable intelligence; or, they failed miserably to convince their clients -- Presidents, Secretaries of State and Defense, and Congress -- to make use of the intelligence they offered. Either way, Mike Morell, based on what he "did for the CIA," has little credibility in endorsing Hillary Clinton or anybody to be President, and, with Hillary as President, America has very little chance of being “much safer” than if Donald Trump were President. At least Trump says things that indicate he thinks independently and critically about America's foreign policy issues, and his expressed conclusions make it clear he understands just how abysmal has been the record of the Obama/Hillary team when it comes to foreign policy. So, thank you, Mike Morell, but no thank you. We will call you if we need your advice, but you don't need to sit close to your phone.