Catholic Code Words

Signaling he's one of the good guys.  Excerpts:

...Johnsen’s not as much of a fan of Brennan as other members of the media have been, reflected in a New York Times Magazine piece on the president’s kill list, Brennan’s domain, and a Washington Post profile of his role at the CIA. The Post fawned over Brennan’s “deep knowledge of the Middle East, Islam and the CIA, and the critical thinking forged during a classic Jesuit education,” and his “nearly priest-like presence . . . with a moral depth leavened by a dry Irish wit.”

Johnsen suggests that Brennan’s strategy for the CIA (ramping up the drone program and neglecting human intelligence) is precisely the opposite of what the agency needs right now, and he stridently opposes the possible nomination of him to replace David Petraeus as director. He is apparently not as impressed as the NYT Magazine was by what they called Brennan and Obama’s “attempt to apply the ‘just war’ theories of Christian philosophers to a brutal modern conflict.” Amazingly, not everyone thinks it was so wise for the president and Brennan to replace COIN with Cliffs’ Notes Aquinas.

I dislike the sideswipe at Aquinas, and am kind of amazed at National Review criticizing the drone program. Did they ever run such a piece during the Bush years? If they did, good for them. if they didn't, then all my rather uncharitable presuppositions are given fodder. Hm. It's funny how they think "classical Jesuit education" and "priest-like presence" translate to "peace-loving, social justice infused, skeptical yet compassionate critical thinker" and "somehow saintly, the sort of person we want in charge of something as dubiously ethical as a drones program which tends to kill the innocent."