Really? Seriously? I wonder what proof does he have?
President Obama on Wednesday acknowledged that enhanced interrogation tactics such as waterboarding may glean information from terrorists but said that those techniques constitute “torture” and that the country is made safer by not using them.
“I will do whatever is required to keep the American people safe, but I am absolutely convinced that the best way I can do that is to make sure we are not taking shortcuts that undermine who we are,” he said. “There have been no circumstances during the course of this first hundred days in which I have seen information that would make me second-guess the decision I have made.”
But, then, he wasn’t president in the aftermath of 9/11, he was sitting safely in the Illinois Senate, voting present on the tough issues. And I wonder if he can remind us how many terrorist attacks on U.S. soil there have been since. Perhaps he could tell us which ones have been stopped. Can he prove that the country is less safer by using said tactics, most of which were used on a few high value targets, then discontinued? Or, does he actually mean that it has made the U.S. less popular with lefties around the world, because whether or not we use enhanced tactics on al Qaeda terrorists, they are going to hate the U.S. just the same.
Pop quiz, hot shot: you have a high value Al Qaeda member in custody, and it is pretty sure that he knows about a coming nuclear attack on a U.S. city. Time is ticking, President Neophyte. What do you do? He isn’t giving the information up. What. Do. You. Do?
Of course, the “let’s treat Al Qaeda members with tickle feathers” crowd will say this is a hypothetical, so they won’t answer. They’ll hem and haw, mostly because they do not want to show themselves up as the terrorist supporters they are. But, in the time right after 9/11, that was the thought, especially regarding Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Osama bin Laden never listed those techniques among his grievances. On the contrary, his perception of the United States as weak and unwilling to retaliate was clearly one factor in his decision to attack us on 9/11. And now Obama is pushing us back to that same time period.
But, you know what is going to make us less safe? Releasing memo’s that detail interrogation techniques, so that AQ members will know how to beat them. Getting wishy washy and potentially leaving intelligence agents and others involved to hang in the wind, not knowing if they will be prosecuted for doing their jobs. Going on witch hunts so that people will be afraid to be aggressive in protecting the U.S.A. And, oh, how about releasing photos soon of U.S. soldiers being mean to Islamic extremists? Will this do anything other then whipping up Islamic sentiment against the United States, making, us, what’s that phrase……less safe?
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU
The best recruiting tool that Osama bin Laden has was the failed torture policies of the Bush Administration. This is the reason ALL heads of all the branches of our military were against them and said so. They were however overruled by their civilian bosses. AS far as the photos remember Teach everyone in Iraq knew what was happening in Abu Grinb BEFORE we Americans found out. The hard right wing wants to say NOW they are in favor of protecting our soldiers when their policies put them in danger in the first place. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR2009042403171.html?hpid=topnews
And for all the talk about protecting our soldiers 2 things must not be forgotten #1 when Abu Grib did come out the Bush administration and al loyal Bushies through our enlisted men who were following their orders under the bus and they got jail sentences of up to 10 years. #2 The United States MUST retake the moral high ground which it had always held. If their are casualties then let’s put the blame squarely on those who gave the orders to surrender that ground which countless thousands of our military HAVE FOUGHT AND DIED TO HOLD.
Nice try, John, but, you know what? Islamists do not care about any moral high ground. The Islamists will attack us no matter what.