Obama, Nobel Peace Prize winner, who vilified Bush for his war tactics shuffles cards to see who goes next. Not that anyone is complaining about drone attacks, it's the hypocrisy that matters. And the fact that, as Krauthammer puts it:
It yields no intelligence about terror networks or terror plans.
One capture could potentially make us safer than 10 killings. But because of the moral incoherence of Obama’s war on terror, there are practically no captures anymore. What would be the point? There’s nowhere for the CIA to interrogate. And what would they learn even if they did, Obama having decreed a new regime of kid-gloves, name-rank-and-serial-number interrogation?
Here's the first part of his commentary:
Barack Obama: Drone Warrior
By Charles Krauthammer, Published: May 31
A very strange story, that 6,000-word front-page New York Times piece on how, every Tuesday, Barack Obama shuffles “baseball cards” with the pictures and bios of suspected terrorists from around the world and chooses who shall die by drone strike. He even reserves for himself the decision of whether to proceed when the probability of killing family members or bystanders is significant.
The article could have been titled “Barack Obama: Drone Warrior.” Great detail on how Obama personally runs the assassination campaign. On-the-record quotes from the highest officials. This was no leak. This was a White House press release.
Why? To portray Obama as tough guy. And why now? Because in crisis after recent crisis, Obama has looked particularly weak: standing helplessly by as thousands are massacred in Syria; being played by Iran in nuclear negotiations, now reeling with the collapse of the latest round in Baghdad; being treated with contempt by Vladimir Putin, who blocks any action on Syria or Iran and adds personal insult by standing up Obama at the latter’s G-8 and NATO summits.
The Obama camp thought that any political problem with foreign policy would be cured by the Osama bin Laden operation. But the administration’s attempt to politically exploit the raid’s one-year anniversary backfired, earning ridicule and condemnation for its crude appropriation of the heroic acts of others.
A campaign ad had Bill Clinton praising Obama for the courage of ordering the raid because, had it failed and Americans been killed, “the downside would have been horrible for him. “ Outraged vets released a response ad, pointing out that it would have been considerably more horrible for the dead SEALs.
That ad also highlighted the many self-references Obama made in announcing the bin Laden raid: “I can report . . . I directed . . . I met repeatedly . . . I determined . . . at my direction . . . I, as commander in chief,” etc. ad nauseam. (Eisenhower’s announcement of the D-Day invasion made not a single mention of his role, whereas the alternate statement he’d prepared had the landing been repulsed was entirely about it being his failure.)
Obama only compounded the self-aggrandizement problem when he spoke a week later about the military “fighting on my behalf.”
The Osama-slayer card having been vastly overplayed, what to do? A new card: Obama, drone warrior, steely and solitary, delivering death with cool dispatch to the rest of the al-Qaeda depth chart.
So the peacemaker, Nobel laureate, nuclear disarmer, apologizer to the world for America having lost its moral way when it harshly interrogated the very people Obama now kills, has become — just in time for the 2012 campaign — Zeus the Avenger, smiting by lightning strike.
Read the rest here.
6 comments:
Don't be fooled. Don't let hyper partisan bloggers take even one weapon away from our Marines and other fighting forces. Rest assured that they are doing all that they can on the ground. Those drones are angels on their shoulders.
Remember when Krauthammer was all for going into Iraq and second-guessing professional military Eric Shinseki on how many troops it would take to go on such a fool's errand?
If Krauthammer wants to second guess our professional military again on when drones are called for, let him lead a crack platoon of crazed bloggers into Pakistan to do the next raid. I'm sure Al Quaeda will quail before his quips. Or perhaps they will be stupefied by his high octane idiocy.
Hi Alberto, Krauthammer's point wasn't to disparage the use of drones, as he states in his article, and with which I agree:
"This is not to argue against drone attacks. In principle, they are fully justified. No quarter need be given to terrorists who wear civilian clothes, hide among civilians and target civilians indiscriminately. But it is to question the moral amnesia of those whose delicate sensibilities were offended by the Bush methods that kept America safe for a decade — and who now embrace Obama’s campaign of assassination by remote control."
He is merely pointing out Obama's breathtaking hypocrisy.
"He is merely pointing out Obama's breathtaking hypocrisy."
Or maybe that Republicans and Krauthammer cannot accept a liberal President destroying the enemy with such success.
@Tara You mean destroying "America" with such success?
Yeah Incognito. That's what I meant. [SMH].
Okay Tara, just checking. ;)
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