Congress Needs an Exit Interview with General Flynn

Outgoing director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, gave an extraordinary exit interview last week with James Kitfield of the publication Breaking Defense.

The interview revealed assessments about the dangers facing the United States that are so unlike what we hear from President Obama or his national security team that relevant Congressional committees should conduct their own exit interview in public hearings with General Flynn when they return from the August recess.

For example, General Flynn says plainly the United States is not safer today than it was before 9/11:

[I]n 2004, there were 21 total Islamic terrorist groups spread out in 18 countries. Today, there are 41 Islamic terrorist groups spread out in 24 countries. A lot of these groups have the intention to attack Western interests, to include Western embassies and in some cases Western countries. Some have both the intention and some capability to attack the United States homeland…

We know they [Islamic terrorists in Syria] are trying to get their hands on chemical weapons and use what they already have to create a chemical weapons capability. Remember anthrax was used in 2001 [killing five people] and pretty much paralyzed Capitol Hill. If that anthrax had been dispersed more efficiently, it could have killed a quarter million people.

General Flynn describes an increasingly dangerous and chaotic world in which the American withdrawal of combat troops from Afghanistan does not end the danger to America:

[W]hat I see each day is the most uncertain, chaotic and confused international environment that I’ve witnessed in my entire [33 year] career. There were probably more dangerous times such as when the Nazis and [Japanese] Imperialists were trying to dominate the world, but we’re in another very dangerous era. We rightfully talk about the last decade being the longest war in American history, for instance, but when we pull combat troops out of Afghanistan at the end of this year, it’s not going to feel like that war is over. To me, it feels like we’ll be facing a familiar threat and heightened uncertainty for a long time yet.

General Flynn defines “core al-Qaeda” much differently than the Obama administration, emphasizing that core al-Qaeda is its ideological belief of perpetual jihad rather than its terrorists leaders:

[T]he core ideology and belief system [of al-Qaeda] is spreading, not shrinking. Look at the unbelievably violent videos [of beheadings, executions and the destruction of religious places] coming out of Iraq just in recent days. I’ve physically interrogated some of these guys, and I’ve had the opportunity to hear them talking about their organizations and beliefs. These are people who have a very deeply-rooted belief system that is just difficult for Americans to comprehend.

In contrast, President Obama and his team consistently repeat that core al-Qaeda is “on a path to defeat”.

In June 2011, President Obama proclaimed that the “tide of war is receding” and has based his foreign policy on that conclusion.

In that same month, President Obama’s adviser for Homeland Security (and current CIA Director) John Brennan described America’s counter terrorism strategy in these terms:

Our strategy is…shaped by a deeper understanding of al Qaeda’s goals, strategy, and tactics,” Brennan claimed. “I’m not talking about al Qaeda’s grandiose vision of global domination through a violent Islamic caliphate. That vision is absurd, and we are not going to organize our counterterrorism policies against a feckless delusion that is never going to happen. We are not going to elevate these thugs and their murderous aspirations into something larger than they are.

Three years later, the al-Qaeda vision of a violent caliphate that Brennan dismissed as a feckless delusion was declared, not by al-Qaeda, but by the barbaric Islamic State of Levant, which is claiming authority over an area the size of Great Britain.

When asked whether he ever felt like a “lone voice in the administration warning that the terrorist threat was growing, not receding,” General Flynn responded that “when asked if the terrorists were on the run, we couldn’t respond with any answer but ‘no.’ When asked if the terrorists were defeated, we had to say ‘no.’ Anyone who answers ‘yes’ to either of those questions either doesn’t know what they are talking about, they are misinformed, or they are flat out lying.”

General Flynn has served his country for 33 years. Prior to leading the DIA, he served as intelligence chief for Joint Special Operations Command in Iraq and Afghanistan. He probably knows the threats facing the United States better than almost anybody else in the Obama administration.

His description of the threats facing America is starkly different from what the American people are hearing from their elected leaders. That may explain why he was apparently forced out as DIA director and into retirement one year earlier than planned.

America needs a new strategy for global affairs. But as long as our leaders refuse to understand the emerging world as it is, not as how they want it to be, we will be stuck with a floundering foreign policy of wishful thinking. Congress can help meet this challenge by inviting General Flynn to expand on his candid thoughts in Congressional testimony about the threats we are facing and how we can keep America safe. After his 33 years of service, the American people would do well to hear his exit interview.