By John Kass

Sunday, February 2, 2025

---

Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

From Masters of War, Bob Dylan

To understand what is going on with the bi-partisan Senate opposition to Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, think of an echo chamber. I know it’s difficult with all the unfocused political noise. But try concentrating on the silence of that echo chamber.

Because the Senators, both establishment Democrat and establishment Republican want that echo chamber placed around President Donald Trump, so all he’ll hear are the war hawks singing for war with Iran.

Gabbard won’t be their puppet and sing for war with Iran. That’s one reason why they hate her. They want Trump in their echo chamber, to control what he knows and how he knows it. After what I saw of the Senate hearing, if President Trump truly wants her, he’ll have to fight for her and make it clear that Republicans who vote against her will face political primary opponents.

If he does not fight for her, he’ll be captured. And America can’t afford that. That’s what the Masters of War are counting on.

Control of the echo chamber is what this is all about. The  histrionics from Senators questioning Gabbard’s patriotism are all about capturing the president’s ears. They are the Masters of War as in that Dylan song. They want war with Iran. And in Ukraine. And Syria. And on and on and on. They never risk their bodies. Or the lives of their sons and daughters. They make fortunes pushing other young lives into the wood chipper.

In Iraq, thousands of Americans died there and were wounded. President George W. Bush was captured by the neo-cons and Vice President Dick Cheney, the father of anti-Trumper Liz Cheney. Bush went to war in Iraq on lies pushed by the neo-cons. And so, Europe was swarmed by Muslim refugees and will never recover. And Cheney made his millions upon millions with defense contractor Halliburton.

You should also know at the outset that my brother Nicholas S. Kass signed the letter in support of Gabbard.  For more than three decades, Nick served the United States honorably at the Department of State, National Security Council, National Intelligence Council and as a Senior Central Intelligence Agency officer among other duties. I’m thinking about asking him to join us on the next Chicago Way podcast. He is among dozens of former American intelligence officers who signed that letter of support for Gabbard, asking that she be confirmed in that letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee:

“We, the undersigned former intelligence and national security officials, urge members of the United States Senate to confirm Tulsi Gabbard to serve as President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence. Her service as DNI will begin undoing the gross politicization that has come to characterize intelligence bureaucracies, which has been to the great detriment of the freedom and security of the United States and its citizens.

“Lt. Col. Gabbard’s experience more than qualifies her for this important position. A military officer with more than 20 years of honorable service, she undertook multiple combat deployments and risked her life in defense of the United States. In Congress, she served on numerous national security committees and was an outspoken champion for America’s warriors and for our cherished constitutional freedoms.

“In both these roles, she experienced first-hand how intelligence, when used as intended, provides critical support to America’s military and political leaders.
“When intelligence was abused, Lt. Col. Gabbard spoke up and insisted on safeguards. In contrast to the many former senior intelligence officials who politicized their profession and disgraced themselves by running misinformation operations to undermine the President of the United States—such as by signing the infamous Biden laptop “Russian disinformation” letter or appearing on partisan programs to knowingly mislead the public with false claims of inside knowledge and access to classified information—Lt. Col. Gabbard stood up for truth, integrity ,and following the facts. These are precisely the values necessary for the leader of the intelligence community.

“As former collectors, analysts, consumers, and enablers of intelligence, we support Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard to lead the IC.  She has the integrity, and moral courage, to restore objectivity and professionalism to the nation’s intelligence agencies.”

Please note that the letter points out the “Shameless 51”–the Intelligence Officials who disgraced themselves in signing a Joe Biden propaganda piece that the Hunter Biden laptop was an issue of Russian “disinformation” when it was no such thing.

The Senators opposed to Tulsi Gabbard all but called her a traitor. It was embarrassing to see. She’s worn the uniform of the United States military for 20 years, first as a U.S. Hawaii Army National Guard officer in 2003 in Iraq. She is currently a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army reserve. She is a former member of Congress and has gone through numerous background checks. To watch her being called a traitor with weasel words of the Senate was pathetic and grotesque.

The Senators reminded me of Rhesus monkeys in a cage in a science experiment, the primates given some simple task, some button to push, in order to get a food pellet. They pick it out of the box, then shove it past their teeth.

Some were buffoons, including Sen. Michael Bennett, the Democrat of Colorado who frothed at the mouth like a Deep State dog. But I’ve saved some appreciation for Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly, who is intelligent enough to understand his idiocy. But he plodded onward, stupidly, knife in hand, saying she was a creature of Iran and Russia. Kelly was polite, smiling a weasel’s smile, looking for a soft spot between her ribs.

That’s when she threw down the gauntlet. She deservedly hit him in the mouth. Gabbard dropped Obama’s support of al Qaeda on Kelly and the rest of them, Democrats and Republicans. Parts of Operation Timber Sycamore in Syria is now declassified, but her use of it shows she won’t cower or play the fool for them. That strength is exactly the quality needed in the Director of National Intelligence after so many endless wars. She shriveled them up as if they crossed an icy river up north without waders.

TULSI GABBARD: As someone who enlisted in the military specifically because of al-Qaeda’s terrorist attack on 9/11 and committed myself and my life to doing what I could to defeat these terrorists, it was shocking and a betrayal to me and every person who was killed on 9/11, their families, and my brothers and sisters in uniform.

When, as a member of Congress, I learned about President Obama’s dual programs that he had begun really to overthrow the regime of Syria and, being willing through the CIA’s “Timber Sycamore” program — now made public — was working with, arming, and equipping al-Qaeda in an effort to overthrow that regime, starting yet another regime change war in the Middle East.

The Department of Defense’s Train and Equip program, also under President Obama, has been widely known, looked at, and studied, and cresulted in over half a billion dollars being used to train what they called “moderate rebels” — but in reality, they were fighters working with and aligned with al-Qaeda’s affiliate on the ground in Syria.

All to move forward with their regime change, ignoring the obvious and now proven reality: much like in Iraq, the toppling of Qaddafi in Libya, and Mubarak in Egypt, a regime change war in Syria would likely result in the rise of Islamist extremists like al-Qaeda taking power.

I shed no tears for the fall of the Assad regime, but today we have an Islamist extremist in charge of Syria — someone who danced in the streets to celebrate the 9/11 attack, who ruled over Idlib with an Islamist extremist governance, and who has already begun to persecute, kill, and arrest religious minorities, including Christians in Syria.

Why that should be acceptable to anyone is beyond me.”

For Sen. Kelly and his friends in the bureaucracy, Gabbard invoking  Obama’s support of “Timber Sycamore” was a stinging rebuke. It wasn’t nice, like food pellets for the Rhesus monkey.  Or a slice of cheese for an obedient puppy. It was devastating, but rest assured they’ll fight back, by using the skills of the politician: omission. They won’t want her nomination to come out of committee.

Her opening was simply magnificent.

“Before I close, I want to warn the American people who are watching at home: You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country,” Gabbard said.

“Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience and the Constitution of the United States,” she continued. “Accusing me of being Trump’s puppet, Putin’s puppet, Assad’s puppet, a guru’s puppet, Modi’s puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters.”

“The same tactic was used against President Trump and failed,” she said of the accusations against her.

Their defensive responses were grotesque. Almost as grotesque as watching Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Hillary Clinton, slurring her words after mortal combat with the boxed wine in her kitchen calling Gabbard a Putin stooge.  They have no shame.

“The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and mandate for change,” Gabbard said. “The fact is what truly unsettles my political opponents is I refuse to be their puppet. I have no love for Assad or Gadhafi or any dictator. I just hate al-Qaeda. I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimizing them to so-called rebels.”

How quickly they’ve forgotten the needless invasion of Iraq, more than 31,000 wounded and thousands more killed. And that doesn’t count all the Iraqis killed. To my shame, I was all in favor of it then, comparing Saddam Hussein to a rat in your children’s bedroom. But I was wrong. Many of us supported that war and we were wrong. Think of the Americans who died in Iraq killed because we were pushed into war by faulty neo-con intelligence.

After the hearing, I called my brother Nicholas for his reaction.

“I think she was strong and composed in the face of questioning that, in my opinion, too often demonstrated the effects of the bureaucratic capture process on so many of our elected civilians, particularly on national security issues,” said Nick.

“That is to say, she is being confronted by a cadre of elected officials whose perception and understanding of events is thoroughly shaped by bureaucratic narratives aimed not at truth, but at preserving bureaucratic power over and autonomy from elected civilians.  That this persists despite the disastrous record of the bureaucratic establishment — the unaccountable Deep State — and the severe and repeated strategic disasters that have so severely damaged the US’ strategic interests for decades is strong evidence of why we need people like Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel.  We need them to ride herd on an apparatus that hides its politicization and self-interest behind a feigned aversion to grubby politics. “

We need to ride herd, yes. And they’re the Masters of War. Dylan knew all about them.

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you sit back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
While the young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

 

(Copyright 2025 John Kass)

–30-

About the author: John Kass spent decades as a political writer and news columnist in Chicago working at a major metropolitan newspaper. He is co-host of The Chicago Way podcast. And he just loves his “No Chumbolone” hat, because johnkassnews.com is a “No Chumbolone” Zone where you can always get a cup of common sense.

Merchandise Now Available: If you’re looking for a gift for that hard-to-buy for special someone who has everything, just click on the link to the johnkassnews.com store.

Where else would you find a No Chumbolone™ cap or a Chicago Way™ coffee cup?

Because I know this about you: You’re not a Chumbolone.