OBAMA FAILS IN THE GULF
AND A BLUEPRINT FOR EXECUTIVE ACTION
By Jon Rappoport
Author of the LOGIC AND ANALYSIS COURSE
JUNE 21, 2010. There are certain things an executive should know. One of the first is: PEOPLE WORKING UNDER YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE MISTAKES. AND IN A SEVERE CRISIS THAT DEMANDS FAST ACTION, THOSE MISTAKES ARE GOING TO BE MAGNIFIED.
This is especially true in a mega-corporation or massive government, because the executive sits on top of numerous departments and agencies and thousands of people.
A corollary to the first principle is: PEOPLE WORKING UNDER YOU ARE GOING TO FIGHT AND HAGGLE WITH EACH OTHER.
This is particularly true when the regulations that determine which agencies or departments are responsible for which situations are muddled.
We are seeing this in the Gulf. As in—who is in charge?
The goals are clear. Stop the spill. Clean up the sea. Bring financial relief to the affected. But who is actually running the show?
An experienced executive with real eyes moves fast. At the first sign of major trouble—which in the case of the oil spill was perhaps two days—the executive swings into action.
He lets everyone know that NOTHING is going to get in the way of effective action. No silly rules or petty jealousies or chain-of-command nonsense.
Within hours, he learns what regulations or outside special interests might derail the operation, and he cancels those regulations for the moment and he knocks special interests down.
For example, if the unions are complaining that foreign ships shouldn’t be coming into help clean up the sea, he squashes that like a hammer on a raw egg.
He demands, on day one, a briefing about which agencies are involved in the Gulf operation, and he sorts them out—he heads off and cuts any red tape and decides who is running the show and who is following in the rear. RIGHT NOW.
Because he ALREADY knows that endless haggling and delay is the culture of any huge group. He knows that. He doesn’t figure it out a month after the fact. He doesn’t act like a rank amateur.
The executive accepts help from any direction. Local barges that want to suck up oil from the water, and huge Dutch vessels outfitted to suck up much larger amounts of oil—bring them in. IMMEDIATELY.
Those Dutch vessels scoop up tons of seawater and oil, filter out most of the oil and store it, and spew the water back into the sea. Yes, some oil will go back into the sea. There is an EPA regulation that forbids putting ANY oil from a ship into the sea? Suspend that regulation now. [Thanks to Larry Walker, Jr. for this information.]
Every action I’ve mentioned so far in this piece takes place within two days of learning that the oil spill is gigantic.
Substantive meetings with the CEO of BP and governors of affected states? Right away. And no stupid photo ops and milk shakes.
This isn’t Obama’s style? CHANGE YOUR STYLE, PAL.
Of course, Obama isn’t the only executive in the world who acts like a diffident dolt. There are many. They feel much better at a distance from actual work. They like to appoint study groups and task forces. They spend their time thinking about how they should construct their little speeches.
Forget executives for the moment. I believe any normal human being, appointed or elected to a job where thousands and thousands of people in various departments are operating under him, would feel nervous right off the bat. On day one. What are all these people doing? What could they do to screw things up? What are they already doing to screw things up?
And when a crisis hits, how will they screw things up even worse? Because you know they will. That’s the nature of big organizations in a crisis. Left to their own devices, they’ll play “cover my ass” and play kiddie games with red tape.
But people like Obama don’t get that, or if they do, they avoid thinking about it. They stay in the shadows and let things go.
What about all the people whose jobs and lives have already been hurt in this oil-spill crisis? A real executive can have a system up and running in 48 hours to start reimbursing those people—with BP footing the bill. The system may not be perfect right away, but it can offer some relief.
Contrary to what some people want to believe, all this isn’t brain surgery. Actually, it’s just common sense.
When it comes to capping the flow of oil at the source, a real executive will assert every ounce of his power to find and bring in the best pros in the world NOW to offer solutions. And the real executive will be in the room for the discussions. He won’t be waiting for a report. He’ll be the DRIVING FORCE.
The president wants very good people to tell him what the long-range damage will look like. How much oil will be eaten by bacteria in the sea? How soon? Sure, he can’t get a complete handle on this right away, but he can come across and let the American people know what he knows.
He can get on television in the first 24 hours and shoot straight from the shoulder. He can tell the public everything he’s doing. He can provide ongoing updates and act strong because he is strong.
You’ll think I’m crazy for what I’m about to say. When I used to work in a college library, I was in charge of several teenagers and twentysomethings who were handling materials and student needs. Within a week of their hiring, I realized these kids were absolute aces. It took them three days to know more about the library than I did. They worked faster and better than I did. In terms of sheer ability and fearlessness and common sense and results, I would put up any one of those kids against what Obama has done. I KNOW they could be handling the BP spill better than Obama has.
Every US president seems to be shocked and dismayed and befuddled when a crisis happens that requires many agencies of the government to step in and perform.
WE know the result is going to be sick joke. But the president doesn’t.
In terms of sheer executive ability, I really believe we’ve been electing morons. Disabled, slow-motion morons.
In another operation—Afghanistan—it is becoming increasingly apparent that US troops are fighting with stones around their necks. Engagements with the enemy on the ground are subject to severe restrictions. Is there the slightest possibility of harming nearby civilians? If so, US soldiers must resort to light weapons.
The bigger issue here—and this also comes under the heading of executive leadership (Obama)—concerns the reasons we are there in the first place.
AN EXECUTIVE MUST REMAIN CLEAR ABOUT THE OVERALL GOAL.
Supposedly, after 9/11, the US invaded Afghanistan to wipe out terrorist enclaves. To what degree this meant the Taliban was always vague. In the process, we have taken on the role of nation building, and this role has become the centerpiece of Obama’s strategy.
After six months of meetings and conferences with his best advisors, the new circumspect president signed off on a plan to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people—in a nation that isn’t a nation but instead is a collection of separate tribes and clans and warlords, most of whom are remote from, and opposed to, the American-supported Afghan central government.
But no problem. We’re going to solve the age-old situation in 18 months.
And again, why? To root out and destroy terrorist enclaves? We’re going to re-structure an entire nation that isn’t a nation so we can search out and wipe out terrorists?
This is called a non-sequitur. And the consequence for US soldiers is an escalation of deaths and casualties.
I’m sorry. The executive in charge (Obama) is living in a different universe.
He took six months to come up with a plan that had no chance of success.
JON RAPPOPORT
Jon Rappoport has been working as an investigative reporter for 25 years. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize early in his career, he has published articles in LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, CBS Healthwatch, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. He has taught in several private schools in New York and Los Angeles, and has tutored extensively in remedial English at Santa Monica College. At Amherst College, where he graduated with a BA in philosophy, he studied formal logic under Joseph Epstein, a revered professor of philosophy. He can be reached at qjrconsulting@gmail.com for inquiries about his course, LOGIC AND ANALYSIS.