Gen. Jones and the.... 'Anonymous' Long Knives

In the WaPo, here with a comment by Col. WPL, here

".... the trashing of the national security adviser takes longer...

Today, the sniping is reportedly coming mostly from State Department officials and some staffers at the White House. Jones, not surprisingly, has a good relationship with the Pentagon. So who's out to get him? Reporters across town are being called and spun. Jones is out of it, they are told, doesn't show up; doesn't speak up at meetings; works only a 12 1/2 -hour day; doesn't stand next to the president in photographs; doesn't like to give interviews. Funny, but those all sound like things the national security adviser should be doing. Reporters are protecting their sources, but Hillary Clinton is apparently not behind the stories. She likes her job, those who have been spun say, and gets along well with Jones.

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"Sally Quinn, the wife of the retired managing editor of the Washington Post has published this oped in the Post.  The editorial page of the Post has become notoriously (delicious word) neocon in its orientation.   The likely source of the whispering campaign against General Jones is the neocon/AIPAC/Likudnik camp.  Jones is unlikely to be emotionally engaged in the fate of any foreign country and is therefore automatically considered an enemy by those folks.  Quinn obviously has a lot of "clout."  Otherwise this piece would never have been published.

The "substance" of the campaign against Jones is made up of standard neocon agitprop themes.  These themes are; laziness, inattentiveness, implied creeping senility and most especially not working enough hours...  Heaven forbid that anyone in the White House should get enough sleep to be healthy or spend enough time in "real life" pursuits to think clearly!!  Heaven forbid.  The neocons have used these same themes (successfully) over and over again against people they wanted to bar from public service. 

Jones stands too close to the president for their taste.  They are now engaged in trying to pressure or persuade Obama to eliminating Israel's Iranian rival's chance of becoming a competing regional power.  They do not want to take the chance that Jones (or Clinton) might oppose that.  Therefore...

Quinn is right about Jones.  One should not confuse reserve with timidity.  A former commandant of the US Marine Corps is a dangerous enemy."  pl