Winnie the Pooh As A Fundamental Text

Winnie the Pooh As A Fundamental Text

Well, for something, I'm sure. But national security? I couldn't make this one up--because it is so utterly silly that it shows either a lack of seriousness, or a lack of intelligence in how it will be perceived. From the June 17, 2008 Telegraph:

Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain, try something else.

Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.”

...

Mr Danzig spelt out the need to change by reading a paragraph from chapter one of the children’s classic, which says: “Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs. But sometimes he thinks there really is another way if only he could stop bumping a minute and think about it.”

I believe that there was a real important and serious point that Danzig was trying to make, but talk about failing to understand the importance of the subject with the choice of who to quote! As Michelle Malkin points out:

Michelle Obama proudly told the women on The View yesterday that “kids are drawn to Barack.” With a platform of cartoon diplomacy stuck in a world of make-believe, Obama’s got the preschool-level voting bloc all locked up. Woo-hoo. Fist bumps!

UPDATE: Here's the transcript of what Dr. Danzig actually said. It is a thoughtful and intelligent discussion of approaches to national security. I can't imagine what connection this guy could have to Obama and the Michael Moore wing of the Democratic Party.