The Times on Obama

[Valin]

National Review: John Yoo

May 30, 2012

 

Pointing out the hypocrisies of the Obama administration is becoming a sport, and the New York Times is only providing more targets. Candidate Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay, but President Obama had no plan for an alternative prison. Candidate Obama criticized the Bush-administration interrogation policies (on which I worked), but President Obama sought to create exceptions to Miranda warnings (which he demands) for terrorists so that FBI questioning can continue. Candidate Obama criticized the Bush administration’s war approach to terrorism, but President Obama has ramped up the use of drone attacks to kill terrorist leaders.

 

(Snip)

 

Lastly, if President Obama is picking targets, and has no military background or experience, one is left to ask what criteria the president does use. The laughable answer given in the Times piece is that Obama is a student of Aquinas and Augustine and Catholic just-war theory. I hate to say it, but I wonder whether this was proffered because of the Obama administration’s terrible relations with Catholics right now, because I saw no signs in the article that Obama is in the least bit familiar with Catholic just-war theory, and his background of teaching and practicing civil-rights and constitutional law in Chicago would never have exposed him to it. As someone who has spent some time reading, thinking, and even (right now) writing about Catholic just-war theory, it could actually lead to a much broader use of drones than Obama contemplates (which is the opposite of the article’s thrust) or it is just irrelevant to the modern just-war theory. But in either case, the idea that Obama is applying Catholic just-war theory to pick out drone targets is simply not believable or deeply mistaken.

[SrWoodchuck]

H/T:TheoSpark

[Pepper]

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/05/31/president-obama-secret-kill-list/

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?pagewanted=all

 

http://rt.com/usa/news/obama-kill-list-president-695/

[Valin]

 

 

Americans beg Obama: Please, don't kill us with drones

"Unlike the correspondence from 1860 that was signed off by a single person — an 11-year-old girl from upstate New York — over 1,000 Americans have already added their name to a petition posted on the Internet this week. Their plea may sound silly at first glance, but it’s authors appear to be anything other than serious about it: after a Tuesday morning article in the New York Times revealed US President Barack Obama’s authority to add and remove names from a roster of alleged enemies of the state to be executed without due process, 1,679 Americans have already asked that they be placed on a “do not kill” list."

 

While it is good to be watchful of what the President (ANY President) is doing, this strikes me as more than a little over the top, and well on its way to nutterville.

[Pepper]

@Valin

 

Wait until an armed drone has a systems failure and the local school gets bombed.

 

[Valin]

@Pepper

 

Can we say Sky Net?

 

 

Why I don't really worry is our military is a middle class and bourgeoisie. That is a good thing....no make that a very good thing.