From the Twin Towers to Twin Blunders
On September 11th, 2001, radical Arab Muslim terrorists murdered 3000 Americans in New York.
Sometime between January 20th and January 25th of 2009, a new President made grave strategic mistakes.
The pain of the Twin Towers has been compounded by a pair of decisions that will hopefully never come to be known as the “Twin Blunders.”
President Barack Obama is no fool. He is an exceptionally intelligent man. His political skills are virtually unmatched. He seems to be a man of integrity.
Unlike his democratic predecessor, I did not vote against President Obama because I felt he was a liar. I voted against him because I believed he was, and is, sincere in his goals.
Two of his goals were dead wrong, and dead Americans may be the price.
I have vowed for the most part to sit back and let him govern. I have no interest in reflexively opposing him. He has to make decisions that I believe are so fundamentally wrong on an issue so deep inside my heart for me to intervene.
Winning the War on Terror is my issue. Keeping America safe is my passion. When I wake up in the morning,. I bleed red, white and blue. Before I go to sleep, I pray that God blesses this nation I love so much, that has given me everything I have in this world.
President Obama has made a pair of decisions that has made America less safe.
His first decision was to close Guantanamo Bay.
For 5 years, the left has wailed against the War in Iraq by saying that it is wrong to go in somewhere and make a radical decision without thinking about the aftermath.
Well President Obama made a decision without preparing for the fallout.
The rationale for closing down Gitmo is flawed to begin with, but little time will be spent on that aspect of the issue since the decision has been made.
The first fallacy is that the inhabitants at Guantanamo Bay are entitled to the full protections of the United States Constitution. They do not.
When Americans leave the United States, they leave the Bill of Rights behind. Guantanamo Bay is located in Cuba. The Bill of Rights does not exist there.
Cynics will say that the entire reason that Gitmo was set up off of American soil was specifically so we could deny the prisoners there rights.
So what? I won’t even disagree with that. This is an example of liberals being right about something that does not matter.
I will go one step further. They should be kept off of our shores. We are trying to prevent terrorists from blowing up our buildings. One way to make things easier for the bad guys is to just let them in our country!
Another “issue,” is that locking them up without trials violates the Geneva Convention. No, it does not.
The Geneva COnvention only applies to nations. Al Queda is not a nation. They are not entitled to any protection that Geneva covers.
However, there is another approach. It was actually suggested by Bob Beckel, the former campaign manager for Walter Mondale. He is an ardent liberal. He recommends that if we are going to flout the Geneva Convention (we don’t, but let’s for a moment forget that), we should just withdraw from the Geneva Convention altogether.
He was not advocating we do this. Nevertheless, I am fine with that approach. The notion that our enemies will then violate Geneva is ludicrous. They have never obeyed it to begin with. They are too busy beheading Americans to be concerned with legalisms.
The worst argument is that the rest of the world hates Gitmo.
Again, so the heck what? Do liberals honestly think that appeasing a bunch of people that look for any excuse to turn their jealous noses up at us will change? They will find something else to criticize.
We cannot make United States foreign policy subject to international approval. We cannot submit to John Kerry’s global test. Does anybody think that other nations spend their lives worrying what we think? Why the heck should we be held to an unreasonable standard that nobody else meets?
We need to remove our heads from inside Europe’s anus.
Fine, so we close down Gitmo to win the popularity contest. Where do we put the monsters from there?
I have recommended that they go in Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco. After all, the hypertolerant environment would be perfect. People that obey no laws being welcomed by a city with no standarda. It would be a match made in Jihad.
Some would say that Leavenworth in Kansas would be a feasible location. No place in America is feasible. Housing these thugs anywhere in America makes that place a terrorist target. We might as well just place them in the new Twin Towers in New York while we are at it.
Another option would be to turn them over to certain “allies,” that would have no problem torturing them. Personally I have no problem with that. Yet the left would howl, as they always do. Worse for them, they would have no conservatives to blame.
So Barack Obama has ordered the closing of Guantanamo Bay, a place that brought bad public relations for those desperate to be loved. It brought safety to America by housing people like Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who declared after he was captured that he would be in America with his lawyers. Now, tragically, he may be right. We have closed down Gitmo, with no regard to where these detainees will go.
We know where 61 of them have gone. They are back on the battlefield, helping Al Queda, still trying to kill Americans.
Yet if we capture them now, we cannot torture them. We cannot even use coercive interrogation methods.
This is President Obama’s second blunder.
As many on the left, he decried unilateral action when it came to waging war, but has now allowed America to engage in unilateral disarmament.
This is not about partisan politics. This is about saving lives.
We cannot fight politically correct wars. We cannot fight sensitive wars. If America wanted John Kerry they would have voted for him.
Coerced interrogation is not torture. Coercive interrogation does not breed more terrorists. It gets vital information that saves lives.
This idiocy that fighting terrorists makes them angry must stop. Fighting and killing terrorists makes them dead.
Yes, I know the story of John McCain. Yes, he is a hero. Yes, he is against torture.
Even heores can be wrong.
I am aware that John McCain gave fake information to his captors. He gave them the names of the 1967 Green Bay Packers.
John McCain is also a man of honor. Terrorists would not have his bravery. They are cowards. They talk of glory and martyrdom, but they crack at the first sign of stiff pressure. They also get emboldened by a perceived lack opf pressure.
Coerced interrogation methods should not be a first resort. They should be a very last resort. The buck stops with the President. The President should have the authority to do what is necessary to protect our nation.
By forcing our intelligence agencies to follow the Army Field Manual, we have handcuffed our own side. For every special agent that gets killed over this, the President will have to answer for it.
Some people will simply refuse to join our intelligence agencies.
Barack Obama is a good man. Good men can be horribly, badly wrong.
He is wrong. He cannot publicly tell the world what we do in battle. We must remain ambiuous if we are to be successful.
So what does an agent do if they catch Osama Bin Laden, and he has information on plots to blow up schoolchildren? Does the agent violate the law and his Commander in Chief?
I honestly do not know. I believe in Presidential Prerogative. When Barack Obama gives an order, that order must be followed unless it is illegal. This order is not illegal.
If the agent does get the information using coerced interrogation methods, he will then face a trial. The ACLU and others on the left will demonize him in a way they do not demonize AL Queda. Yet the American people would come to his rescue. Only one juror is needed, and he might get all 12.
Yet the government would not want such an embarassment. As for President Obama himself, he would have a deeper worry.
As silly as this sounds, the case of Bill Clinton vs Paula Jones applies. The 9-0 ruling (which I staunchly disagree with) allows a civil lawsuit of a President while he is in office. The specter of a Federal Agent suing the President is not what America needs.
What happens if the President backs down? Then he has lost his Presidency and tacitly allowed a set of procedures that he ordered illegal.
Barack Obama is the boss. Yet as many Presidents find out, legal authority can be effectively eliminated without moral authority.
One terrorist attack on American soil that could have been prevented with coercive interrogation methods will spell the end of the Obama Presidency.
No decent person wants this. However, Barack Obama has just opened the door wide open.
We can pat ourselves on the back at how moral we are, and how much the world will now love us.
They will also now be plotting those very ticking bomb scenarios that we will have a much tougher time defending.
Well Mr. President. You made your decisions.
What happens next?
I pray to God you know the answer sir.
If you don’t, we may all be dead.
eric
January 27th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
According to latest news media reports, no one wants those dozens of incarcerated terrorists in Gitmo. They say, place them anywhere but in my neighborhood. Does this sound familar?
Liberals who seek to CHANGE everything, and who believe that sex offenders can be successfully treated, are concerned about treatment after
they are released. Yet, (see this weeks article in Shawangunk Journal, weekly online edition), when they are placed in a local motel, the entire community seethes. Not in my community they shout..anywhere else but here.
So, with Gitmo, no one wants these thugs, who wouldn’t hesitate one moment to do to US, what their kin did to the rabbi and his wife in Mumbai. They first were sexually mutilated, then tortured (if one can believe that), then murdered. The same happened elsewhere the 10 terrorists made Jihad.
Oh btw, the Chabad House, was the focus of the terrorism, not the hotels, etc. This was the priority target, the other places an afterthought. You see, the Pakistani thugs wanted to send we Jews a message. They sure did.
I personally have spoken to member of local Chabadnicks asking them why houses in India, with it’s 10,000 Jews? Their answer was that wherever there are Jews, there is Chabad. Well, perhaps they should concentrate on Pelosi’s SF district..where Jewish intermarriage is over 70%. and we all know it has been called, “Baghad on the Bay” and for good reason. But then again, at one time a Holocaust costing over 100 million dollars was planned for the area. Another Holocaust museum dedicated to
the 6m of our people who walked like sheep into the gas chambers..who believed they were being “resettled” even though Jews were disappearing for years in Europe?
As far as Obama, he wants to “Talk”, “Engage” sit down with the leaders
of dictatorships..he wants diplomacy, AND the military action as the court of
last resort, if all else fails. Well Mr. Obama, Hillary and now Mitchell, we have been “Talking” and “Engaging” for decades. Iran is one year from the atomic bomb, Hamas and Hezbollah are being re-armed as I write, by Iran. North Korea boasts weaponizing plutonium and Russia is beefing up
Venezuela’s arsenals while threatening to construct bases in South America.
Fellow posters, this is what will happen: A few terrorists released from
Gitmo, will do, as two already have, join Al Qaeda upon their release.
They will then arrange to smuggle nukes into the USA. Soon afterward all hell will break out., thanks to Obama, Hillary, Biden, Mitchell and Company. G-d help US.
I voted for John McCain and I was RIGHT.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
You’re making a couple of assumptions here that simply aren’t true as far as I know - unless you know something I don’t…?
“The first fallacy is that the inhabitants at Guantanamo Bay are entitled to the full protections of the United States Constitution. They do not.”
I’ve never heard Obama, or anyone else, say the GITMO detainees are any such thing. I have heard, however, that they are entitled to at least the protections of the Geneva Conventions or the same laws we apply to foreign spies and such. You guys are the ones who convoluted all this in the first place. We, on the Center and Left, believe there are already laws to deal with these detainees. You seem to feel there are no laws and that means you have the right to do whatever you like with them -and that smacks of Third World despotism. And you can’t seem to make up your minds whether we’re at war or not. Are we at war? You say we are. But then you do not want to apply the rules of war for the captured. You want to have it both ways - we’re at war, but the rules of war do not apply - and that smacks of something far worse (something from, oh, say, 70 years ago in Germany and Japan).
What’s so wrong with our systems of justice that we can’t use that system to prosecute these guys? I don’t care if it’s military justice, criminal justice, international justice from treaties we have signed and ratified - what is so wrong with our way of doing things that we can’t use our own systems, our own acknowledged and approved values and laws, to deal with these people? What exactly is your problem with America?
“We know where 61 of them have gone. They are back on the battlefield, helping Al Queda, still trying to kill Americans.”
Oh c’mon. We do NOT “know.” You’re not repeating that lie, are you? Even the Pentagon admits they really don’t even know what happened to 43 of them, and the 18 “confirmed” number was an assumption in and of itself. the Pentagon doesn’t even keep track of these guys! Heck, they don’t even keep track of the ones they still have! And more than enough proof is out there showing the GITMO detainees as very far from being the “worst of the worst” the government said they were. I can’t believe you’d repeat this lie.
JMJ
January 27th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
JMJ;
” have heard, however, that they are entitled to at least the protections of the Geneva Conventions ”
Wrong.
The Geneva Conventions are supposed to level the playing field for other “uniformed armies” with laws keep us from torturing them.
Radical Islamic movement is not a “uniformed army.
JMJ;
“You seem to feel there are no laws and that means you have the right to do whatever you like with them ”
They are kept off of US soil for a reason, its part of the fight, ya know, not giving em anything we dont have to instead of playing patty cakes and having tea with them.
The inmates at Gitmo eat better than the staff.
JMJ;
“We, on the Center and Left, believe there are already laws to deal with these detainees”
YEA RIGHT!!!!, like the ones that blew up the first tower ?
They all got caught in acts of terrorism again or escaped from Yemen after we shipped em there.
No thanks buddy !
JMJ;
” And you can’t seem to make up your minds whether we’re at war or not. Are we at war? You say we are. But then you do not want to apply the rules of war for the captured. You want to have it both ways - we’re at war, but the rules of war do not apply”
Theres no confusion.
We are to applying the rules applicable to enemy combatents
“What’s so wrong with our systems of justice that we can’t use that system to prosecute these guys? I don’t care if it’s military justice, criminal justice, international justice from treaties we have signed and ratified - what is so wrong with our way of doing things that we can’t use our own systems, our own acknowledged and approved values and laws, to deal with these people? What exactly is your problem with America?”
Thats just stupid. I’ll tell you why.
All of the above means of trial except for criminal are on the table. Its more about where they go after prosecuted, and then during hostilities we dont have to let them go anyway.
So… as long as they keep coming after us, we can keep em.
JMJ;
“Oh c’mon. We do NOT “know.” You’re not repeating that lie, are you? Even the Pentagon admits they really don’t even know what happened to 43 of them, and the 18 “confirmed”
Once again, you’re the liar.
” The Pentagon said on Tuesday that 61 former detainees from its military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release from custody.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed as “returning to the fight” and 43 are suspected of having done in a report issued late in December by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
So you see jersey, no where does it say the 18 was “assumed” by Morrel, it says “CONFIRMED”
You dont “assume” a “confirmation”. Thats an oxymoron, get it ?
heres how it goes;
“The Pentagon said it considers a former detainee’s return to terrorism “confirmed” when evidence shows direct involvement in terrorist activities. U.S. officials see a “suspected” terrorism links when intelligence shows a plausible link with terrorist activities.”
JMJ;
“the Pentagon doesn’t even keep track of these guys! ”
And would you please tell me how you know this ?
JMJ;
“And more than enough proof is out there showing the GITMO detainees as very far from being the “worst of the worst” ”
Really Jersey ? if you had proof that would be a first.
“Washington has cleared 50 of the detainees for release but cannot return them to their home countries because of the risk they would be tortured or persecuted there.”
How bout that little chunk of info you dont see anywhere huh ?
Amazing.
We dont want to release 50 of them for fear of harm coming to them, you dont see that splashed across the tube everyday , do you ?
And dont tell me that all the raving leftist human rights activists wouldnt pitch a fit if we sent these guys home and anything bad happened to them.
January 27th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
By the way, 18 out of 61 is not something to be happy about.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Micky, the 18 aren’t proven either! That whole stort is a load.
Look, are we at war? You guys always say we’re at war (though I have no recollection of war ever being declared). So are we? If we are, then aren’t we obliged to conform to the rules of war that we have signed and ratified and are codified in our law? Why is it that you authoritarians are so easily willing to just selectively ignore the rule of law whenever it suits you? I swear, you are all such a bunch of sheep. If Bush told you to jump off a bridge, you’d be the first on over.
JMJ
January 27th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
JMJ;
“Micky, the 18 aren’t proven either! That whole stort is a load.
How do you know this ?
“Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed as “returning to the fight”
A confirmation means its been verified.
Thats more than you have to offer.
Yea, and the rules of this war are they dont get constitutional rights, and geneva does not apply to them.
Thats it, get over it.
Authority is required when fighting a war. not livking their butts
January 28th, 2009 at 4:00 am
George Bush Where Is He Now? For those who don’t know, this is the new segment mocking our former President on the David Letterman show.
Among other cute scenes, Mr. Bush is shown having been divorced and with a new (young) wife..and his two young daughters. He is a partner in a paving company. He likes NASCAR racing.
We all recall how for months, if not years, David made Bush look like a fool, in fact just plain retarded. Recall the famous speeches segment showing former Presidents, Kennedy, Truman, Roosevelt, then Bush. I ask, how much did that add to McCain’s defeat due to the terrible polls measuring Bush’s performance?
Some people much smarter than me believe the late night shows were instrumental in McCain’s defeat, his old age made a noose around his neck. I ask, is 72 old?
But to the Gitmo column, Dave mentioned that Obama had signed an order to close Gitmo within a year. The mostly liberal audience in NYCity
roared and clapped their approval, similar to a hard rock concert.
Dave said that once closed, the terrorists, thugs, etc., can always come to NYCity, and specifically to his audience.
And everyone had a good time, cheering Dave.
Says something about
late night TV and the audiences, Kind of sad, I think.
Oh, BTW, it has been confirmed that two former Gitmo residents have
rejoined Al Qaeda, as leaders. What next? Will Obama want to talk and engage and break bread with both Al Qaeda and the Taliban?
Stay tuned folks, the next 100 days will be a portent of things to come.
Oh G-d, please save US from us.
January 28th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Micky, if the Pentagon told you that you had a second gall bladder growing on your forehead, you’d believe that too.
Google it, Micky. The story’s a crock.
“Oh, BTW, it has been confirmed that two former Gitmo residents have
rejoined Al Qaeda, as leaders.”
This is because they turned up in an Al Qaeda video from Yemen.
The problem we have is that GITMO (and Abu Ghraib) created more terrorists. Thet’s why our good host is so wrong in asserting that closing GITMO makes us “less safe.” Even if some of the detainees are released and they return to or become Islamist militants (which should come as no surprise), GITMO in and of itself created more terrorists than we could ever capture, let alone release. So even if the released detainees become threats, closing GITMO will ensure that fewer people will become threats in the first place - far more in numbers than the numbers we release. And if releasing them is a problem for some of you, just remember tat the only reason these people would be released is that the Bush government did not have enough evidence to convict them in the first place and therefore should never have brought them to GITMO to start with. GITMO created terrorists itself and abroad, and you NEocons have no one but yourselves to blame.
JMJ
January 28th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
JMJ;
“Google it, Micky. The story’s a crock.
Actually, you made the claim its a crock, its incumbent upon you to prove its a crock.
But once again, I did you and everyone else the courtesy of actually googling it to come up with the link that provided the info making out what you say to be a crock.
It was a fair reference also in that it did not back the numbers exactly that Eric and others have been running off. But it did confirm the fact that these detainees are returning to terror activities.
What’s really sickening about all this is that you claim nobody knows what these guys are doing.
Well, if that’s the case it just reinforces the standpoint that we never should of let any of them go in the first place.
If they are all so hard to place and keep track of to the point that we don’t know what happened to them ( as you claim ) then we are actually that much more worse off.
If we don’t know where these guys are and the numbers being reported are all false…
GOD HELP US YOU IMBICILE !!!!!
So far I have the Pentagon spokesman telling everyone that it has been confirmed(verified) that at least 18 have returned to their usual activities.
YOU HAVE NOTHING.
Geoff Morrell knows absolutely nothing about my physical condition so your question is about as stupid as any could possibly be.
But, he his very well informed on the going on’s with our national security as he is the spokesman and ….
YOU ARE NOT !!!!
JMJ;
“(and Abu Ghraib) created more terrorists. ”
And you know this how ???
JMJ;
“GITMO in and of itself created more terrorists than we could ever capture,”
And you know this how ???
JMJ;
” closing GITMO will ensure that fewer people will become threats in the first place”
And you know this how ???
JMJ;
“GITMO created terrorists itself and abroad, and you NEocons have no one but yourselves to blame.”
And you…
O. K Jersey, I’ll take your word for it.
Joker.
Your argument is really embarrassing. Aren’t you the least bit humiliated by the fact that your just a gas bag full of nothing but blind conjecture derived out of hatred ?
All based on the hopes that your crap will actually be believed by anyone than a bunch of delusional trufers ?
Its a sad day in America when people like you would rather do anything they can to destroy the name of good man or worry about our image abroad than to ensure that another 3000 Americans or even one do not die.
You and Obama are a disgrace to the country and a knife in the heart of all the 911 victims.
I cant come up with enough words describing just how sick to my stomach you all make me.
February 3rd, 2009 at 6:12 am
The detainees will be flying back to the states in 6 months according to reliable Democratic sources. But no truth in the rumour that Obama has ordered the CIA to secrete 10,000 Canadian Geese into Gitmo to provide a flying escort back to The States.
Problem solved.
But I guess he hasn’t the forethought.
Second thoughts , why don’t we open up a Water Board Park in Vermont and have Hannerty overseeing operations.