President Obama; The Man Made Disaster
September 11th, 2001. Need I say more. It was the date of the last terrorist attack here in the United States. It is a day that will live in infamy. Nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives in the attack on the Twin Towers of New York City, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and aboard a plane that was brought down in Pennsylvania. Sweeping changes were launched in the days, months, and years following the attacks. The Patriot Act, two wars, the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, enhanced interrogation techniques, and the Department of Homeland Security are just a few of the realities that we live with every day as a direct result of that one day. These initiatives have been often criticized, but they have kept us safe for eight years. That is, until today.
ROMULUS, Mich. – A Nigerian man who said he was an agent for al-Qaida tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane Friday as it was preparing to land in Detroit, but travelers who smelled smoke and heard what sounded like firecrackers rushed to subdue him, the passengers and federal officials said.
Flight 253 with 278 passengers and 11 crew members aboard was about 20 minutes from the airport when passengers heard popping noises, witnesses said. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man. Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to the front of the plane with his pants cut off and his legs burned, a passenger said. Law enforcement officials said the burns indicated the explosive was strapped to his legs.
One U.S. intelligence official said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it.
"It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase," said Peter Smith, a traveler from the Netherlands. "First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke."
Smith said a passenger sitting opposite the man climbed over people, went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man. Syed Jafri, another passenger, said he saw a glow and smelled smoke. Then, he said, "a young man behind me jumped on him."
"Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic," said Jafri. Smith said the heroic passenger appeared to have been burned.
The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism and stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel. It did not specify what those were.
How do policies that worked for seven years under one President fall apart so quickly under his predecessor? The answer is actually quite simple. Here are some stunning quotes from President Obama, all sourced.
“The threat that we face now is nowhere near as dire as it was in the Cold War. We shouldn’t allow our politics to be driven by the fear of terrorism.” Source: The Contenders, by Laura Flanders, p. 82 Nov 11, 2007
OBAMA: Well, we may not always have national security issues at stake, but we have moral issues at stake.Source: 2008 second presidential debate against John McCain Oct 7, 2008
If you were a Muslim overseas listening to Rudy Giuliani say “they are coming here to try to kill you,” which is the tenor of many of the speeches that are delivered by Republicans, you would get an impression that they are not interested in talking and resolving issues peacefully. Now, what we need to do [to reach Muslims] is we need to close Guantanamo. We need to restore habeas corpus. We need to send a strong signal that we are going to talk directly to not just our friends but also to our enemies. Source: 2007 Democratic radio debate on NPR Dec 13, 2007
Why don’t we close Guantanamo and restore the right of habeas corpus, because that’s how we lead, not with the might of our military, but the power of our ideals and the power of our values. Source: Take Back America 2007 Conference Jun 19, 2007
We know that the battle against terrorism is at once an armed struggle and a contest of ideas, that our long-term security depends on a judicious projection of military power and increased cooperation with other nations, and that addressing the problems of global poverty and failed states is vital to our nation’s interests rather than just a matter of charity. But follow most of our foreign policy debates, and you might believe that we have only two choices--belligerence or isolationism. Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p. 23 Oct 1, 2006
Most likely none of these quotes surprise you. President Obama has shown weakness at every turn, all the while touting it as some type of a positive. His approach to terrorism has appeared to be one of weakness. His first move as President was to issue an executive order to shut down GITMO in one year. He also ordered a stop to the very enhanced interrogation techniques that had prevented terrorist attacks over the last seven years. He ordered a stop to all military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay, and brought terrorists here to the United States for trial, granting all of the rights of a United States citizen to admitted terrorists who were practically begging for an opportunity to plead guilty in a military tribunal. His White House even abandoned the term "terrorism" in favor of "man made disasters". That is, until today. Finally, after a year of backing down, apologizing for American strength, and instituting weakness, the Obama administration added the dreaded "T" word to its vocabulary.
There is part of me that would like to use a "T" word myself. I avoid it, not because I don't think I could make the case. I firmly believe that I could. I don't think it is a stretch at all to say that throwing out an enemy combatants admissions of guilt and pieces of evidence against them by taking them out of the military tribunal system and giving them Constitutional rights is lending aid and comfort to these enemies. Yet I do not believe that was the intention. I believe the explanation is much simpler, and much more obvious. I would instead make the case that these are the mistakes of an immature and misguided idealist who was in no way, shape, or form prepared for the job he now holds. When Hillary Clinton pointed out that the United States Presidency was not a good place for on-the-job training, she was absolutely right. The evidence for this point of view is overwhelming.
Remember when GITMO was a recruitment tool for terrorists, and shutting it down would make them respect us? Remember when waterboarding was torture, and we would use more honorable measures to gain info and stop terrorist attacks? Remember when invading Iraq caused us to take our eye off of Al Qaeda and allowed them to grow stronger, and scaling back that effort and focusing solely on Afghanistan would get them back under control? Remember when going around the world, hat in hand, owning up to our mistakes and apologizing for them would gain understanding and appreciation from our enemies? And what have all of these actions earned President Obama? A Nobel Prize worth $1.4 million. Adjusted for inflation back to the time of Christ, I believe that equates to roughly 30 pieces of Silver.
But wait a second. I was moving away from the treason angle, right? Of course. Yet the Biblical version of the story uses the word "betrayal". And President Obama has certainly betrayed us either way. No matter his intentions, he was warned at every step that his actions were making us weaker and returning us to a pre-9/11 mindset. He chose to ignore that advice. He chose to follow his plans, despite the fact that there is no historical example to these types of actions actually defeating an enemy and making a Nation stronger. This attack today was an indictment on his policies. They are failing. Fortunately, nobody had to die for us to learn this lesson. Historically, I think it is fair to say that you only get so many opportunities to learn a lesson the easy way. To change course now would show that President Obama took advantage of this lesson. To not do so will likely result in us using the "T" word a whole lot more often. Which "T" word, you ask? Both of them. Think about it.
