Commander Palin

October 18, 2008
Commander Palin

I know we were talking about Obama, but I ran into a post elsewhere that irritated me so I'm doing a quick "response" for those who might be confused enough by the blather to believe the idiot (I'm sorry ... but that poster is an idiot, not just uninformed like many).

The post denigrated both Palin and Alaska's National Guard (and her relationship and responsibilities regarding it). So let me get some facts out there for those who are legitimately uninformed (given the news media "misinformed" may be more common), but in either case please be aware of the following:

Alaska's National Guard is the elite Guard force in the country and the elite of the elites of all arctic fighting forces and is universally considered to be so among those who know about such things. The U.S. Marines (as well as the Army) send their troops up to be trained by and to learn from our National Guard.

America's first line of missile interceptor defense (protecting the entire U.S.) is the 49th Missile Defense Battalion of the Alaska National Guard and Sarah Palin, as Governor of Alaska, is the Commander in Chief of that Defense Battalion.

As such, she is (and was long before any veep candidacy was even considered) routinely briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counter terrorism by the federal "powers that be". It is an entirely different situation from any other state governor because in most states the national guard is a sort of minor afterthought. In Alaska, it is a big thing and a major part of America's defense system.

In fact, Sarah has a higher classified security rating than EITHER Obama or Biden! She is already entrusted with more national security information than either of them are allowed! (In fact, I have wondered a bit at some of her early apparent "airheadedness" in interviews regarding the international situation and national defense ... and I've come to believe that she was really unsure at first what, if anything, she was allowed to say.) I assume that got cleared up as she has since shown she can certainly hold her own in that arena (even with an acknowledged foreign affairs expert like Biden during her debate with him). She has been taught to keep a secret and she does so. If it is one she is sworn to uphold (such as regarding national security or foreign affairs) she, as a matter of character, would rather be viewed as an airhead than to reveal anything that she shouldn't.

As a result, I think she simply clammed up and accepted looking dumb until she was definitively briefed on where that line was. (If you recall, she was the last of the four candidates to be briefed because she was the last announced and had not gone through the formal security briefing that the candidates all receive at the time of those early interviews ... and she already knew stuff that they couldn't and therefore didn't tell Obama or Biden because of her clearance level. So, I think she simply had not had a chance to get a definitive determination on what she could and could not reveal at that point ... she was thrown into this thing in such a surprise whirlwind that there probably just hadn't been a chance for it before the press got their hands on her.) This paragraph is conjecture. The others are not.

This one is not conjecture either: she met with McCain in February (!) ... and no one ever knew about it (except the tiny handful of people involved). This is a lady that can keep a secret! (In fact ... only tangentially related, but remember how long she kept her recent pregnancy a secret!) She can be trusted with our national security secrets. And, indeed, she already is.

I found it interesting that in his interview regarding her, Major General Craig E. Campbell who was the Major General and head of the Alaska National Guard (and therefore reported to Palin), noted that Palin had ordered troops and helicopters to Louisiana to help with the hurricane damage just the week before the interview. She didn't check with any federal agency or ... anyone. She received a request for help from the Governor of Louisiana and she deployed our troops and 'copters to help out. Even from here we probably got there and did more good more quickly than the federal folks! [You really should see the interview ... he says much more, and says it much more eloquently than I ... as he knows a lot more about it than I.]

But the Major General reported to Palin, not to the President or anyone else. Until and unless the Guard is nationalized (which happens on occasion - eg: our troops in Iraq), she is the sole Commander in Chief. And she was (is) an active and involved one ... even visiting our (Alaska's) National Guard troops in Kuwait long before anyone had considered her for the veep seat.

Those people who claim that her assertion that being Commander of the Alaska National Guard aided her foreign policy knowledge and experience is fluffery and that she was a "Commander" in name only; that it didn't mean anything substantive ... are either uninformed, misinformed, or intentionally misinforming.

She still knows things about our national security that Obama (and Biden) do not, and are not allowed to know!

Thank you for letting me clear the air on that. I feel better now :-)