Green Energy
Flip-Flops and Governance
Our president isn't quite as advertised.
By KARL ROVE
Barack Obama inherited a set of national-security policies that he rejected during the campaign but now embraces as president. This is a stunning and welcome about-face.
For example, President Obama kept George W. Bush's military tribunals for terror detainees after calling them an "enormous failure" and a "legal black hole." His campaign claimed last summer that "court systems . . . are capable of convicting terrorists." Upon entering office, he found out they aren't.
He insisted in an interview with NBC in 2007 that Congress mandate "consequences" for "a failure to meet various benchmarks and milestones" on aid to Iraq. Earlier this month he fought off legislatively mandated benchmarks in the $97 billion funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. Obama agreed on April 23 to American Civil Liberties Union demands to release investigative photos of detainee abuse. Now's he reversed himself. Pentagon officials apparently convinced him that releasing the photos would increase the risk to U.S. troops and civilian personnel.
Throughout his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama excoriated Mr. Bush's counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, insisting it could not succeed. Earlier this year, facing increasing violence in Afghanistan, Mr. Obama rejected warnings of a "quagmire" and ordered more troops to that country. He isn't calling it a "surge" but that's what it is. He is applying in Afghanistan the counterinsurgency strategy Mr. Bush used in Iraq.
As a candidate, Mr. Obama promised to end the Iraq war by withdrawing all troops by March 2009. As president, he set a slower pace of drawdown. He has also said he will leave as many as 50,000 Americans troops there.
These reversals are both praiseworthy and evidence that, when it comes to national security, being briefed on terror threats as president is a lot different than placating MoveOn.org and Code Pink activists as a candidate. The realities of governing trump the realities of campaigning.
Read the rest here.
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CNSNews: 2010 Was By Far the Deadliest Year for U.S. Troops in Afghanistan—One American Killed Every 18 Hours Friday, December 31, 2010 By Edwin Mora (CNSNews.com) - With 496 casualties, 2010 was by far the deadliest year for U.S. troops fighting a...
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Human Events: Obama Violates Osama Oath by Rep. Steve King On December 18, 2007, then presidential candidate Barack Obama leveled the first of dozens of heavy criticisms against President George W. Bush. In a speech in Des Moines, Obama blasted President...
- Obama Reverses Position On Release Of Detainee Abuse Photos
Waffles has got nuthin' on this guy for changing his mind. . . Washington Post: Obama Reverses Position on Release of Detainee Abuse Photos By Michael D. Shear and Scott Wilson Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, May 13, 2009; 1:10 PM President...
- Forgetting 9/11
Pastorius states below we are fools if we ever forget 9/11. And he is very correct. None of us here have. Our Appeaser in Chief, however. . . from the Times Online via Gateway Pundit Obama puts brake on Afghan surge PRESIDENT Barack Obama has demanded...
- And It Begins, The Democrats Begin The Campaign For 2008 With 1975
Pelosi, Reid Urge Bush To Begin Iraq Pullout Despite the warnings that Iraq would sink into an internecine war, despite the FACT that we have no solution to the terrorists who would then make Iraq Afghanistan, we have a repeat of 22 Gia Long street on...
Green Energy
Karl Rove on Obama
Flip-Flops and Governance
Our president isn't quite as advertised.
By KARL ROVE
Barack Obama inherited a set of national-security policies that he rejected during the campaign but now embraces as president. This is a stunning and welcome about-face.
For example, President Obama kept George W. Bush's military tribunals for terror detainees after calling them an "enormous failure" and a "legal black hole." His campaign claimed last summer that "court systems . . . are capable of convicting terrorists." Upon entering office, he found out they aren't.
He insisted in an interview with NBC in 2007 that Congress mandate "consequences" for "a failure to meet various benchmarks and milestones" on aid to Iraq. Earlier this month he fought off legislatively mandated benchmarks in the $97 billion funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. Obama agreed on April 23 to American Civil Liberties Union demands to release investigative photos of detainee abuse. Now's he reversed himself. Pentagon officials apparently convinced him that releasing the photos would increase the risk to U.S. troops and civilian personnel.
Throughout his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama excoriated Mr. Bush's counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, insisting it could not succeed. Earlier this year, facing increasing violence in Afghanistan, Mr. Obama rejected warnings of a "quagmire" and ordered more troops to that country. He isn't calling it a "surge" but that's what it is. He is applying in Afghanistan the counterinsurgency strategy Mr. Bush used in Iraq.
As a candidate, Mr. Obama promised to end the Iraq war by withdrawing all troops by March 2009. As president, he set a slower pace of drawdown. He has also said he will leave as many as 50,000 Americans troops there.
These reversals are both praiseworthy and evidence that, when it comes to national security, being briefed on terror threats as president is a lot different than placating MoveOn.org and Code Pink activists as a candidate. The realities of governing trump the realities of campaigning.
Read the rest here.
-
CNSNews: 2010 Was By Far the Deadliest Year for U.S. Troops in Afghanistan—One American Killed Every 18 Hours Friday, December 31, 2010 By Edwin Mora (CNSNews.com) - With 496 casualties, 2010 was by far the deadliest year for U.S. troops fighting a...
-
Human Events: Obama Violates Osama Oath by Rep. Steve King On December 18, 2007, then presidential candidate Barack Obama leveled the first of dozens of heavy criticisms against President George W. Bush. In a speech in Des Moines, Obama blasted President...
- Obama Reverses Position On Release Of Detainee Abuse Photos
Waffles has got nuthin' on this guy for changing his mind. . . Washington Post: Obama Reverses Position on Release of Detainee Abuse Photos By Michael D. Shear and Scott Wilson Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, May 13, 2009; 1:10 PM President...
- Forgetting 9/11
Pastorius states below we are fools if we ever forget 9/11. And he is very correct. None of us here have. Our Appeaser in Chief, however. . . from the Times Online via Gateway Pundit Obama puts brake on Afghan surge PRESIDENT Barack Obama has demanded...
- And It Begins, The Democrats Begin The Campaign For 2008 With 1975
Pelosi, Reid Urge Bush To Begin Iraq Pullout Despite the warnings that Iraq would sink into an internecine war, despite the FACT that we have no solution to the terrorists who would then make Iraq Afghanistan, we have a repeat of 22 Gia Long street on...