Obama no ideologue, but a selfcentered survivalist

bob_2 · 05-19-09 12:03 am

Obama Avoids the Crocodile <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31881" target=_top>http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31881</a> <blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!>quote:By reversing himself and refusing to release graphic photos of abused prisoners of war, Barack Obama has stunned liberals. They feel betrayed and abandoned by a president they put into office. On war and torture, at least, they thought Barack was one of them. He is not. Barack is not into ideology. He is into Barack. As he showed in 2008, when he threw his white grandmother under the bus and spared his beloved black pastor, the Rev. Wright, then threw Wright under the bus when his toxicity level rose too high, Barack has all the sentimentality of Michael Corleone when it comes to the family business. And what Obama is saying with his refusal to release the photos is what he has been signaling for weeks now: I am not going to fight the liberals' war -- on Dick Cheney's turf. The rewards are nonexistent, and the risks too great. Thus, when Gens. Petraeus, Odierno and McKiernan grumbled, Obama tossed a blanket over the photos. Barack Obama is not taking on CENTCOM or West Point for a bunch of congressional progressives. Thus, after he had opened the door to prosecution of the Bush lawyers who wrote the "torture memos," and resistance formed up, Obama backed down. He said he did not want a special prosecutor. He did not want a 9-11 commission to delve into the criminality of what was done. He wants to put all that behind us and move forward. Liberal moral outrage notwithstanding, Barack Obama is not going to fight the liberals' war on the liberals' turf. And history confirms the wisdom of his instincts. For it was by pursuing liberal theology that Democrats lost the nation they once owned. It was ideology that led FDR and New Deal liberals to trust in "Uncle Joe" Stalin, to claim Mao's men were "agrarian reformers," and to defend Alger Hiss and deny the government was shot through with security risks and Soviet spies that dealt all those cards to Tailgunner Joe and turned the nation over to Ike and Dick in 1952. It was the liberals who belatedly discovered that the war JFK and LBJ had marched us into in Southeast Asia was a "dirty and immoral" war and we were defending a "corrupt and dictatorial regime," which gave Richard Nixon his New Majority and 49-state landslide in 1972. It was the Church Committee and Pike Commission ripping up the FBI and CIA, and Jimmy Carter's braying, "We have gotten over our inordinate fear of communism," and kissing Leonid Brezhnev -- followed by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan -- that convinced Americans they had to roll the dice with the cowboy. And while Ronald Reagan was liberating Grenada and helping the Contras overthrow the communist Sandinistas, liberal Democrats were penning "Dear Commandante" mash notes to Daniel Ortega. In short, liberals are incorrigible and their disease incurable. Obama senses this, and is not about to let them conscript his presidency into an ideological crusade, all of which invariably end, like the Children's Crusade of Peter the Hermit, with everybody dead or in captivity. Which brings us to The Crocodile. Whatever one may think of Dick Cheney, about him it must be said: He is not ashamed of his record. He does not apologize for it. He is willing to go out and defend it in the arena. He believes, that, after 9-11, he, as a custodian of the national security, had a duty to go the limit to get information from terrorists to prevent another or worse atrocity. He admits to having approved the authorization of "enhanced interrogation techniques," including waterboarding. He believes they yielded indispensable information about our enemies that helped to prevent another attack for seven and a half years. He does not believe that they were illegal, or constituted torture. He is a true believer, full of conviction and certitude, whose unstated retort to those demanding he be prosecuted for war crimes is the one he gave the distinguished senator from Vermont, Mr. Leahy. And Cheney is winning. Why? Because other than the hard left, which demands commissions, prosecutions, indictments, convictions and imprisonments, on the other side it is all loud noise and moral mush. He is winning because he has the courage of his convictions, while his enemies come up short in both departments. There is another reason Obama does not want this fight. There is a high probability, if not a near certainty, that, one day, al-Qaida is going to conduct some spectacular attack on this country or its allies, and Americans will say, "This didn't happen when people like Cheney were running the show." Obama has been dealt a tough hand, and he knows it. Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan could all go horribly wrong. And, should that happen, the boy from Hyde Park and Harvard Law wants to be standing beside the CIA, not the ACLU. That, too, is why Obama wants no part of this fight with Cheney. <!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

neal · 05-19-09 9:23 am

Obama no ideologue, but a selfcentered survivalist By the heading of your new thread you might think Obama was some politician or something! <img src="http://www.atomorrow.net/discus/clipart/lol.gif" border=0> <blockquote>There is a high probability, if not a near certainty, that, one day, al-Qaida is going to conduct some spectacular attack on this country or its allies, and Americans will say, "This didn't happen when people like Cheney were running the show."</blockquote> The FACT is that the most damaging terrorist attack in my country's history DID happen while Cheney was running the show. ****************** Whatever one may think of Dick Cheney and Osama bin Laden, about them it must be said: They are not ashamed of their record. They do not apologize for it. They are willing to go out and defend it in the arena. ***************************** <img src="http://www.atomorrow.net/discus/clipart/kiss.gif" border=0>

neal · 05-19-09 9:51 am

Bob Does terrorism work? Is it illegal according to national (see McVeigh, Timothy) and international law? Does torture work? Is it illegal according to national and international law? <blockquote>26 June 2003 Bush Calls Torture "an Affront to Human Dignity Everywhere", June 26, 2003 (Statement on International Day in Support of Torture Victims) President Bush says torture anywhere is an affront to human dignity everywhere, and the United States is committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law. In a statement issued on United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture June 26, the president called on all governments to join in prohibiting, investigating and prosecuting all acts of torture and in undertaking to prevent other cruel and unusual punishment. Following is the text of Bush's statement: (begin text) THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary June 26, 2003 STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture Today, on the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the United States declares its strong solidarity with torture victims across the world. Torture anywhere is an affront to human dignity everywhere. We are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law. Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right. The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, ratified by the United States and more than 130 other countries since 1984, forbids governments from deliberately inflicting severe physical or mental pain or suffering on those within their custody or control. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit. Beating, burning, rape, and electric shock are some of the grisly tools such regimes use to terrorize their own citizens. These despicable crimes cannot be tolerated by a world committed to justice. Notorious human rights abusers, including, among others, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Zimbabwe, have long sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world by staging elaborate deceptions and denying access to international human rights monitors. Until recently, Saddam Hussein used similar means to hide the crimes of his regime. With Iraq's liberation, the world is only now learning the enormity of the dictator's three decades of victimization of the Iraqi people. Across the country, evidence of Baathist atrocities is mounting, including scores of mass graves containing the remains of thousands of men, women, and children and torture chambers hidden inside palaces and ministries. The most compelling evidence of all lies in the stories told by torture survivors, who are recounting a vast array of sadistic acts perpetrated against the innocent. Their testimony reminds us of their great courage in outlasting one of history's most brutal regimes, and it reminds us that similar cruelties are taking place behind the closed doors of other prison states. The United States is committed to the world-wide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example. I call on all governments to join with the United States and the community of law-abiding nations in prohibiting, investigating, and prosecuting all acts of torture and in undertaking to prevent other cruel and unusual punishment. I call on all nations to speak out against torture in all its forms and to make ending torture an essential part of their diplomacy. I further urge governments to join America and others in supporting torture victims' treatment centers, contributing to the UN Fund for the Victims of Torture, and supporting the efforts of non-governmental organizations to end torture and assist its victims. No people, no matter where they reside, should have to live in fear of their own government. Nowhere should the midnight knock foreshadow a nightmare of state-commissioned crime. The suffering of torture victims must end, and the United States calls on all governments to assume this great mission. (end text)</blockquote> <a href="http://www.usembassy.it/viewer/article.asp?article=/file2003_06/alia/A3062613.htm" target=_top>http://www.usembassy.it/viewer/article.asp?article =/file2003_06/alia/A3062613.htm</a>

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#1 05-19-09 12:03 am

Obama no ideologue, but a selfcentered survivalist

#2 05-19-09 9:23 am

Re: Obama no ideologue, but a selfcentered survivalist

#3 05-19-09 9:51 am

Re: Obama no ideologue, but a selfcentered survivalist

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