This is unacceptable:
Obama NSC staff openly lobbying for Flynn to be replaced by a former military official who grew up in Iran. https://t.co/rmZcnJVWZj
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 14, 2017
Why? Because here is Vice Admiral Harward’s biography:
Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Vice Adm. Robert Harward grew up in a Navy family and graduated from the Tehran American High School in Iran. After enlisting in the Navy, he was awarded a fleet appointment to the United States Naval Academy where he received his bachelorâs degree in 1979. Harward attended the College of Naval Command and Staff, the Naval Staff College and the Armed Forces Staff College. He holds a masterâs degree in international relations and strategic security affairs, served as a federal executive fellow at RAND and is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for International Studies, Foreign Policy Program Seminar XXI.
Harward qualified as a surface warfare officer aboard the destroyer USS Scott (DDG 995) and then transferred to the Naval Special Warfare community. He was the âHonor Manâ of Basic Underwater Demolition (BUD)/Sea, Air, Land (SEAL) class 128 and has served in both East and West coast SEAL teams.
Tours in the Naval Special Warfare community include: commander, SEAL Team 3; Assault Team leader and operations officer at Naval Special Warfare Development Group; SEAL plans officer for Commander, Amphibious Force U.S. 7th Fleet; executive officer, Naval Special Warfare Unit 1; aide-de-camp to Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command; Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force (CJSOTF) deputy commander in Bosnia; deputy commander Special Operations Command, Pacific; commander, Naval Special Warfare Group 1; and, deputy commanding general, Joint Special Operations Command.
Assignments outside of his community include a tour in the executive office of the president at the White House where he served on the National Security Council as the director of Strategy and Policy for the office of Combating Terrorism. His first flag assignment was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff representative to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), as a member of the Senior Interagency Strategy Team. Additionally, he served as deputy commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command and most recently he served as commander of Combined Joint Interagency Task Force (CJIATF) 435 from 2009 to 2011 in Afghanistan. Harward has commanded troops in Afghanistan and Iraq over six years since Sept. 11, 2001.
Harward served as deputy commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM), located in Tampa, Florida.
You’ll notice that VADM Harward’s time in Iran was before the Islamic Revolution – not that Davis cares about that or wants any of his followers to know that. Rather he’d rather present innuendo to smear his target. Insinuating that VADM Harward is tainted because he grew up in Iran so he’s somehow not American enough and suspect. And that because Obama NSC Staff, which could mean everyone from the Obama NSC political appointees to the assigned military or civilian personnel, recommended him VADM Harward is politically tainted and suspect.
Davis’s tweet is disgraceful and embarrassing. He should be mocked, shamed, and shunned at every opportunity. But he’s also an example of one of the signature problems in the US today: failure to recognize that what is needed, and what is desirable, is to have the best and the brightest fill elected and appointed positions at all levels of government and across all domains of public service and policy. Not whoever simply lines up ideologically no matter how poorly suited for public service they are. Political polarization and partisanship is a reality that is not serving anyone in the US well, but it is a reality we have to navigate around. Even worse though is the willingness to accept mediocrity provided the mediocre are willing to toe the partisan line and mouth the platitudes that warm the nethers of people like Davis.
Or if you’d prefer a full professor from the Naval War College’s take on it:
@seanmdav Because he was a kid in Shah's Iran while his dad was US Navy officer stationed in US embassy there? Really 2/
— David Burbach (@dburbach) February 15, 2017
@seanmdav Do you have any evidence AT ALL that Harward, a protege of Iran hawk Mattis, holds secret sympathies for Iran? 3/3
— David Burbach (@dburbach) February 15, 2017
* Full disclosure: while VADM Harward was assigned as the Deputy Commander at CENTCOM, I was providing cultural operations support to CENTCOM through the Command Sergeant Major/Senior Enlisted Advisor. I have never met VADM Harward.