Secretary of War, Secretary of (snort) Defense, Secretary of Peace.

[No Elephants]

From the time of the Articles of Confederation, we had a Secretary of War.

Then, we began our looooong descent into irreparably bat shit crazy, not during the Administration of a Republican, either, although a Republican did sponsor the initial bill.

National Security Act of 1947


Long title An Act to promote the national security by providing for a Secretary of Defense; for a National Military Establishment; for a Department of the Army, a Department of the Navy, a Department of the Air Force; and for the coordination of the activities of the National Military Establishment with other departments and agencies of the Government concerned with the national security.
Enacted by the 80th United States Congress
Effective July 26, 1947
Citations
Public Law 80-253
Stat. 61 Stat. 495
Codification
Title(s) amended 50 U.S.C.: War and National Defense
U.S.C. sections created Chapter 15, § 401
Legislative history

Introduced in the Senate as S. 758 by John Gurney (R–SD) on March 3, 1947
Signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on July 26, 1947



The National Security Act of 1947 The majority of the provisions of the Act took effect on September 18, 1947, the day after the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense.<1> His power was extremely limited and it was difficult for him to exercise the authority to make his office effective. This was later changed in the amendment to the act in 1949, creating what was to be the Department of Defense.<2>

The Act merged the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment, headed by the Secretary of Defense. It was also responsible for the creation of a Department of the Air Force which made the Army Air Forces into its own service. Initially, each of the three service secretaries maintained quasi-cabinet status, but the act was amended on August 10, 1949, to assure their subordination to the Secretary of Defense. At the same time, the NME was renamed as the Department of Defense. The purpose was to unify the Army, Navy, and what was soon to become the Air Force into a federated structure.<3>

Aside from the military reorganization, the act established the National Security Council, a central place of coordination for national security policy in the executive branch, and the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S.'s first peacetime intelligence agency. The function of the council was to advise the president on domestic, foreign, and military policies so that they may cooperate more tightly and efficiently. Departments in the government were encouraged to voice their opinions to the council in order to make a more sound decision.<3>

The Joint Chiefs of Staff was officially established under Title II, Section 211 of the original National Security Act of 1947 before Sections 209–214 of Title II were repealed by the law enacting Title 10<4> and Title 32,<5> United States Code (Act of August 10, 1956, 70A Stat. 676) to replace them.

The act and its changes, along with the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, were major components of the Truman administration's Cold War strategy.

The bill signing took place aboard Truman's VC-54C presidential aircraft Sacred Cow, the first aircraft used for the role of Air Force One.<6>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Act_of_1947

Now, at long last, we have a Secretary of Peace, albeit only in a "shadow" cabinet, Secretary David Swanson. He has issued a statement on the impending {overt} attack by the U.S. on Syria. I honestly don't know what to think about Syria, but I thought someone might be interested in knowing what the Secretary of Peace has to say about it.


http://greenshadowcabinet.us/statements/10-problems-latest-excuse-war

[Enthusiast]

1. Thanks. That's some more history I was deficient in.

I often lack the details but get the big picture mostly right. :rofl:

[No Elephants]

2. Supposedly, Truman later regretted the CIA, but guess what? It's still here.

I think you did get the big picture right. Blew my mind. I have found nothing inconsistent with it since.

Every time they get scared of us, they throw us a couple of bones with just a bit of meat on them, then pull them away again as soon as the crisis is behind them.

I think Johnson's Great Society may have been an except to that. On the other hand, maybe it was about an attempt to get re-elected in 1968.

Because of Vietnam, Johnson had plenty of reasonto think that he might not get the nomination of his own party in 1968. (That was before the Kennedy Carter fight made it a "law" that you don't put an incumbent to a primary fight.) Maybe he thought something grand, like the Great Society, would compensate? In any event, it became plain to him that he might well not win the nomination and he decided to go out as President instead of risking going out as the defeated Democratic primary candidate of 1968.

[Enthusiast]

3. Throw us a bone-exactly. I keep it in my mind

that they are saving up the marijuana issue for when they do something unforgivable. Then they will announce, "Arresting people for marijuana is counterproductive and maybe even harmful to society." Actually Holder said something similar already. But they have already done many unforgivable things, we just don't know the details yet.

[No Elephants]

4. When asked during his 2012 campaign, Obama said dismissively,

"We have other priorities."

However, the D of J moved from simply cracking down on those who own and run medical marijuana dispensaries, as was the case before 2012, to destroying the dispensaries in the process. Some are calling it "smash and grab."

Sooooo, campaign deceptiveness was not confined to 2008.

And, the "just wait until his second term, when he'll really knock your socks off" prophets look more juvenile and/or disingenuous than ever.

I wish I could say that I look forward politically to 2016, but it may get worse.

Lately, I've been worrying about politics less and less.

I think they call it "resignation."

[No Elephants]

5. BTW, I've identified about four or five speaking persona

that Obama has. Dismissive of the left is one of them.