billcoe Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 I use to see all kind of outrage over El Presidente Bush here as it related to everything, but especially interrogation of prisoners. Yet as this article explains, President Obama has gone right past that questionable behavior that pissed ya all off to summary execution with plenty of innocent blood splatter as well and all we see here is silence. It's interesting. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/barack-obama-drone-warrior/2012/05/31/gJQAr6zQ5U_story.html?hpid=z2 "Barack Obama: Drone Warrior By Charles Krauthammer, Published: May 31, 2012 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. A rather strange ethics. You go around the world preening about how America has turned a new moral page by electing a president profoundly offended by George W. Bush’s belligerence and prisoner maltreatment, and now you’re ostentatiously telling the world that you personally play judge, jury and executioner to unseen combatants of your choosing and whatever innocents happen to be in their company. 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. Moreover, there is an acute military problem. Dead terrorists can’t talk. Drone attacks are cheap — which is good. But the path of least resistance has a cost. 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? This administration came out opposing military tribunals, wanting to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in New York, reading the Christmas Day bomber his Miranda rights and trying mightily (and unsuccessfully, there being — surprise! — no plausible alternative) to close Guantanamo. Yet alongside this exquisite delicacy about the rights of terrorists is the campaign to kill them in their beds. You festoon your prisoners with rights — but you take no prisoners. The morality is perverse. Which is why the results are so mixed. We do kill terror operatives, an important part of the war on terror, but we gratuitously forfeit potentially life-saving intelligence. But that will cost us later. For now, we are to bask in the moral seriousness and cool purpose of our drone warrior president." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayB Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Only interesting if you believed that it was principle rather than expediency that motivated the opposition to the said practices when conducted under GWB. Anyhow - since you are looking for The Outrage, I suspect that you'll find plenty of it blasted directly at you in high decibels (and garnished with particles of saliva, locally produced artisanal goat cheese, and organic chiraz sourced from heirloom vines)from a red-faced counterparty every time you ponder this conundrum out loud at a gathering of progressive types. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Yay politics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Just this morning I saw an Obama drone take out a guy with a Romney sticker on his car. He's totally out of control!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Just this morning I saw an Obama drone take out a guy with a Romney sticker on his car. He's totally out of control!!! Kill 'em all - let God sort 'em out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The new Fox News mantra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 there are a large number of stupid lib whiners who bitch about Obama. personally i would feel better about it if Obama flew into the middle east with his cape and personally captured these terrorist so that we could torture them for years on end in an off shore prison. or maybe give them to Foxconn and force them to make iphones for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The new Fox News mantra. As if that is exclusive to one side of the equation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crux Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Hey man, like, I was just wondering, why was all teh leebruls outraged when GWB droned Osama Bin Laden? And now all dat shit is cool. Wud up wid dat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 i just don't get it when partisans don't complain about their own guy when he's in office. I JUST DON'T GET IT! If they don't vote for opposition this time around...all I can say is "total hypocrites". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 drones are awesome, kill the bad guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_b Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Only interesting if you believed that it was principle rather than expediency that motivated the opposition to the said practices when conducted under GWB. and not a word against all of it from you, then and now. Torture, rendition, etc, it's all good in the march toward "liberty" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The new Fox News mantra. As if that is exclusive to one side of the equation. I'm sorry I take it back. The new slogan is "Dumb shit written by people who don't know what the fuck they are talking about." A Psychiatrist writing about the merits of gaining intelligence from capturing dead terrorists. That's like Rachel Maddow giving lessons on how to give a ZJ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 j_bot voted for a steely-eyed killer wielding death from above like Zeus with his lightning bolts. How does that feel - are you proud? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_b Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 (edited) I was going to add something to the effect that a sighting of KKK carrying Jay_B's jockstrap was bound to occur anytime now, but he beat me to the punch. Edited June 6, 2012 by j_b Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Charles, you're out of your element! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 The new slogan is "Dumb shit written by people who don't know what the fuck they are talking about." There's nothing "new" about that slogan. The left has done it for years, and so have cc.com pseudo-intellectuals. None have any clue what the president knows, how he makes decisions or what is reality and messy about leading the world's most powerful nation. Period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 "cc.com pseudo-intellectuals" aren't you the president of this club? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 yay politics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 now we've cycled through the normal bullshit: can you lock the thread now, Porter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crux Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Wait, here's a look at the bright side: "A government that can murder its own citizens or throw them into dungeons without due process can abolish all the contracts it wants in the name of national security. And most certainly, unlike the war on terror, purging the financial system of the gambling derivatives would vastly improve national security." --source Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 I would have replied to this important thread earlier, buy I was locked up in a secret Obama prison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 bros, gotta theme track for the thread. rules are you have to play this on your speakers or you can't post in this thread. if it stops, start it over bros. i know its a bit of a frat anthem, but hey so is killing with missiles. you gotta be from harvard or yale to do that. thanks bros. [video:youtube]QNzIKoAy2pk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Bros, do you think that Zach de la Rocha is spitting cheese? Do you think he cares enough to keep track of all that hipster crap like Jaybee obsessively does so he can mock them here? Ah hell naw! HUMAN RIGHTS BITCHES. [video:youtube]zbz5cN6simc Listen to it all. So wise. So amazing. DO SOMETHING WITH UR LIVES. FREE UR MINDS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crux Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 I've got it on good authority that you don't need to be from Harvard or Yale before you can use missiles to kill guys. My local Seattle community college offers a certificate in drone attack technology. I'm just hoping the presently abundant career opportunities are not lost by a shut down of the federal missile assassin program right when I graduate. I wasn't so lucky after the school awarded me its official space shuttle pilot certification, so I know first hand what such disappointment is like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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