Michael Scheuer: Obama detests the moral obligation to protect the U.S.; Israel supporters should resign from Congress

Michael Scheuer, in a commentary dealing with the war in Afghanistan, has declared that President Obama "detests" his "moral obligation . . . to protect the United States and the American people". He writes in a forum entitled "Obama's Afghan Dilemma: Go Big Or Go Home?" in the current internet edition of the National Journal:

"Quite simply, there is no moral dimension to our Afghan War other than to protect the United States and the American people. That moral obligation was ignored by Bush and is detested by Obama, being Harvard educated and the good student of Rev. Wright, Saul Alinsky, and Bill Ayers."

Scheuer's commentary, which is premised on the idea that U.S. troops should not be fighting to establish democracy in Afghanistan, goes on to oppose the use of American military force and diplomacy for anything other than defense. He also advocates that members of Congress who support Israel should resign and join the Israeli military.

"No U.S. soldier or Marine should ever be called on to be maimed or killed to make sure Mrs. Muhammad can vote or little Ibrahim can go to a secular school; they should be called on to make such sacrifices only in an effort to decisively defeat America's enemies on the battlefield or to defend its borders. In other words, if Mrs. Clinton wants to install women's rights in Afghanistan; and if Senator McCain wants to become involved in the civil war in Darfur; and if most members of the Congress want to do everything possible to defend Israel, let them all resign their official positions and go and take up their "sacred" causes as private citizens following their personal beliefs. They would all be likely to get their butts shot off, and America would be no poorer for their loss. Indeed, all Americans would be better off because we would stop intervening in other peoples' wars and we would preserve the lives of our soldier-children for the few occasions where the application of overwhelming military power is necessary to defend America."

Scheuer concludes his commentary by attributing the rallying cry of World War II era isolationists, "America first", to the founding fathers.

"Our moral obligation in Afghanistan is framed solely by the requirement laid down by the Founders: America first."

Scheuer, who served as the head of the CIA office assigned to monitor Osama bin Laden in the decade preceding 9/11, has moved toward the far-right, advocating an increasingly isolationist position. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he served as an adviser to Ron Paul in his run for the Republican nomination.

Scheuer's commentary has been reposted by far-right forums, including the Ron Paul forum (read here) and the Concealed Carry Forum (read here). The Ron Paul Forum administrator who posted it indicates in her post that Scheuer submitted it to that forum via email (read here).