Should U.S. President Obama Replace His National Security Team?

Pete Souza/White House

Leslie Gelb, Daily Beast: This Is Obama’s Last Foreign Policy Chance

The failure of Obama or Biden to show up in Paris made clear that most of the president’s team can’t be trusted to conduct U.S national security policy and must be replaced—at once.

WNU Editor: Leslie Gelb has been working and writing on Washington politics and foreign policy/national security for the past few decades .... but after reading his above commentary .... I have to wonder what has he been doing during the Obama Presidency. His call for President Obama to replace his staff is not going to happen and the reason why is simple .... President Obama's advisers are exactly like him .... that is why they are there. They think like him, they believe in his vision of the world, they believe in his policies, and more importantly .... they share the same view of how the U.S. should position itself in this world. Case in point .... when Nelson Mandela died .... President Obama's staff did not need to be told by President Obama that everything had to be cancelled .... and he had to be in South Africa in the next few days ... they just knew. Security considerations, flights, transportation, etc. .... not a problem .... the planning, logistics and timing were done within a few hours .... the implementation for the rest of the week. The end result was a successful trip ....at least in President Obama's eyes.

Flash forward to today .... by Friday the decision was made to hold a massive rally in France .... scores of dignitaries and world leaders immediately signaled their intention that they wanted to show up .... and no surprise .... timing, planning and logistics were implemented right away. But no word from the White House ... and the reason why was simple .... everyone knew that President Obama did not want to go. One of the cornerstones of his foreign policy has been his outreach to the Muslim world .... especially to the activist part of the faith .... and he was not going to throw it away by showing up at a rally supporting a magazine that enjoyed ridiculing Muhammad and the Muslim faith. His staff knew this. His Vice President knew it. His Secretary of State knew it. Everyone in the White House knew what was happening ... and why. Everyone but the U.S. main stream media .... including Leslie Gelb. On a side note .... the Europeans know why President Obama decided to not  show up .... and that is why his stature, reputation, and influence is never going to be same in Europe.