Listening and Conversing with Bill Cohen, The Former Secretary of Defense

Friday 1/16/2009 - 4 Days Before Presidential Innaguration

I often attend events at the elite members-only Potomac Officer Club (POC) where local Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia notables, government and business elite give luncheon speeches at the elegant Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, Virginia. So when my good friend, Jim Garretson, CEO of the POC called to inform me about an upcoming event with Bill Cohen, I immediately blocked my calendar for today 1/15/2009 at Noon.

As we all know, it’s always a pleasure to attend an event with people of remarkable accomplishment record and hear them pontificate, much to the pleasure of the audience. However, Bill Cohen is no ordinary notable. Let’s sight the record and the accolades: Congressman, House Judiciary Committee leader on Nixon impeachment, fortifying US relations with Thailand in the wake of Vietnam withdrawal, a US Senator, Chairman of Armed Services Committee’s Seapower, Chairman of Force Projection Committee, Member of Senate Committee on Aging, leader on health and Medicare reforms, Leader in Committee on Intelligence, member of Iran-Contra Committee, member of Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, member of the American-Arab dialogue in Cairo, Participant in Munich Conference on Security Policy and President Clinton’s Secretary of Defense. Need I specify the accolades?

The POC event at the Ritz commanded over 150 notables and who-is-who from the local area. Secretary Cohen gave an eloquent speech tailored both to his audience and the current state of American political affairs. Bill Cohen first assured the large contingency of Federal IT executives in attendance that Federal IT expenditures will not only slow down but will likely expand. He sighted the needs of the Department of Defense (DOD) to become an ever more Network Centric Warfare (NCW) and Network Centric Operations (NCO) operations organization with visibility and control over all aspects of the theater operations be it from internal resources or increasingly from external contractor-based and “extended enterprise” resources- the ever unfolding outsourcing trend in all areas of Government operations support activities.

Secretary Cohen also sighted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its need for national databases, border control, alignment with foreign governments and tighter collaboration among the 22 previously separated agencies, now known as DHS. He further fortified his views on the longevity and growth of Federal IT services expenditures by sighting the designation of the former Senator Tom Daschle as new Sect. of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Tom’s goal, mandate and mission to improve and lower the cost of health-care delivery via electronic medical records (EMR) and regional health information collaborative (RHIOs) connected to a central/National backbone known as (NHIOs).

Secretary Cohen then went on to the issue of the United States’ Foreign Policy. He sighted the fact that President Barak Obama is a nationalist, an internationalist, and an intellectual diplomat. As such, on the new President’s mind is our national security, our standing internationally and our means to improve our security as well as that of the rest of the world. To support that thesis, Cohen sighted the fact the President Elect has asked for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to stay on, has selected Senator Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State (confirmed as of today) and the fact that the brainy and internationalist Senator John Kerry (my former Boss during the 104th Congress) is now the new Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman.

Secretary Cohen characterized the world circumstances and how it mapped on to the President Elect’s mind set and the selection of his top cabinet nominees as follows: United States standing in the world is at an all time low and the threats imposed on the United States are at an all time high. As such, it bodes well for us to engage our friends, foes and adversaries to understand, alleviate and mend this situation and the prevailing de-stabilizing dynamics. He sighted Barack Obama’s, Bill Gates’ and Hillary Clinton’s philosophy of a “hard” and “soft” approach to global security paradigm for the United States. Hard in the sense that the US military and coalition forces will be present to defend against terrorists and de-stabilizers in the global “hot-zones” within the global theaters of operations ranging from Iraq to Afghanistan to Africa. And, soft in the sense that while are resolute in our position to guard, defend and attack in any global theater of operation, the notion of diplomatic discussion with foes and adversaries will take center stage, hence the selection of the thoughtful, brainy and balanced Hillary Clinton as the new Secretary of State.

Simultaneous to these two dimensions (hard and soft) is the humanitarian dimension to assure food, supplies, training, healthcare, and the basics of life for the citizens of these “hot zone” countries and theaters of operations while we protect our troops, conduct diplomacy and attempt to built infrastructure and sustainable capabilities for these sovereign nations to indeed become independent, and hence fully independent sovereign States.

As I shook Bill Cohen’s hand and spent a few private minutes with him at the end of his speech, Secretary Cohen confided that he felt Iraq, Afghanistan and increasingly Africa will be the key theaters of attention, focus, operations and shuttle diplomacy in the years to come.

Kevin Curtis
571.439.6577
krcurtis1@yahoo.com
kcurtis@mondointernational.net