Via Attackerman, Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to name Navy Admiral James Stavridis to NATO’s top command post. Stavridis is the current head of U.S. Southern Command, and would be “the first naval officer to hold the prestigious post of Supreme Allied Commander Europe.”

Stavridis has no previous experience of Afghanistan but he is regarded as intellectual, ambitious and energetic.

He holds a doctorate in international relations and has cultivated a reputation as a creative thinker, writing a blog and organizing movie nights at his Miami headquarters featuring Latin American films to educate staff about regional issues.

This article notes that “putting a Navy officer in the job in the midst of a ground war” — Afghanistan — “may concern some, but Stavridis oversees elements from all the U.S. military services in his current role” at SOUTHCOM, which is responsible for Central and South America and the Caribbean. Further, Stavridis’ tenure at SOUTHCOM provided experience in dealing with two of the main drivers of the war in Afghanistan — narcotics and Islamic extremism — and the nexus between them.

Stavridis testified last year that Islamic extremist groups are a “less immediate force in the region, but [they have] the potential to become of greater concern.”

At the moment, I would say, at an unclassified level, [their efforts are] largely centered in proselytizing, recruiting, money laundering. It is hooked somewhat into the narcotics trade and, above all, it is a means of generation of revenue, largely for the Hezbollah Islamic radical organization. Monies are garnered here in Latin America and go back to Hezbollah.

Yesterday, Stavridis told the House Armed Services Committee that “we see a great deal of Hezbollah activity throughout South America, in particular.”

[Stavridis] noted the direct link between the illicit drug trade and the terrorist groups it bankrolls, noting the threat posed by Islamic radical terrorism.

“Indentifying, monitoring and dismantling the financial, logistical and communication linkages between illicit trafficking groups and terrorist sponsors are critical to not only ensuring early indications and warnings of potential terrorist attacks directed at the United States and our partners, but also in generating a global appreciation and acceptance of this tremendous threat to security,” he said.

According to the State Department, despite a 19-percent drop in cultivation last year, Afghanistan remains the world’s largest opium poppy producer, and the drug trade fuels the insurgency there.

I admit it, I was wrong. I didn’t think it was possible to find a conservative whose Iran analysis is dumber than Michael Ledeen’s. But the Washington Times has done it, offering its semi-valuable op-ed real estate this morning to one Roger Chapin, who argues that America’s “only rational course of action [is to] launch a massive series of preemptive strikes on Iran as soon as possible and send in special ops forces to ensure the mission was accomplished.”

I won’t go too much into Chapin’s reasoning here, except to say that he thinks Ahmadinejad runs Iran, he thinks Russia intends to foment nuclear apocalypse in the Middle East to drive up oil prices, and he fears a Iranian electro-magnetic pulse attack on America that Iran has shown no capacity to deliver. And:

For those that wonder why Iran would invite its own obliteration by attacking the United Sates, understand that the apocalyptic, messianically driven mentality of their leadership views martyrdom as a reward and not a deterrent.

This claim, a common trope of the conservative discourse on Iran, is the rhetorical equivalent of putting on a red clown nose and rainbow afro wig. There are no actual Iran scholars that I’m aware of who find the “suicidal Iran” thesis to be credible. The Iranian regime has had numerous opportunities to commit suicide over the past decades, but has repeatedly behaved according to a rational strategic calculation of its interests.

So Roger Chapin doesn’t know much about Iran. He does, however, apparently know a lot about founding veterans charities and then scamming those charities for lots of money. An investigation last year found that Chapin’s charities — which include the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes and Help Hospitalized Veterans — “raised more than $168 million from 2004 to 2006, but spent only a pittance — about 25 percent — to help veterans.”

The rest, nearly $125 million, went to fund-raising, administrative expenses, fat salaries and perks. Mr. Chapin gave himself and his wife $1.5 million in salary, bonuses and pension contributions over those three years, including more than $560,000 in 2006. The charities also reimbursed the Chapins more than $340,000 for meals, hotels, entertainment and other expenses, and paid for a $440,000 condominium and a $17,000 golf-club membership.

Chapin’s bio in the Washington Times op-ed states that he is the “founder and president of Make America Safe, a new San Diego-based policy and educational organization focused on the threat posed by radical Islamics [sic] to U.S. national security.” We’ll wait and see how many new condos, steak dinners and golf-club memberships making America safe requires.