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How Obama Has Mishandled the War on Terror: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged
IN this illuminating Broadside, former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey shows how Barrack Obama has taken the war on terror from the adult realities of George W. Bush, where hard choices were faced and made, and the nation kept safe, to an adolescent fantasy world where we can at once be nobler than the law requires and safer than we were before. Obama rejects as an unnecessary sacrifice of our ideals the stern measures adopted by his predecessor, and offers instead to limit our intelligence gathering and provide terrorists with better conditions than common criminals, in the name of lofty idealism. Instead of protecting Americans, he builds castles in the air and invites us to stay safe by living in them.
48 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
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July 30, 2024
A CRITIQUE OF OBAMA'S POLICIES ON TERRORISM BY A FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL
Michael Mukasey was U.S. Attorney General from November 2007 to January 2009, and was a U.S. district judge before that.
He observes, "President Bush assured us that Islam is a religion of peace and said that it had essentially been kidnapped by a band of extremists. To savor how far political correctness has carried us, and in what direction, imagine President Roosevelt telling Congress on December 8, 1941, that the peaceful Shinto religion had been kidnapped by a cabal of militarists." (Pg. 8)
About criticisms of Guantanamo Bay, he states, "It was not always thus. During World War II, the United States held hundreds of thousands of German and Italian prisoners of war---the vast majority of whom fought in strict obedience to the laws of war, and tens of thousands of whom were confined at camps in the United States mainland---without even one of them being permitted to challenge his confinement..." (Pg. 11-12)
He defends "waterboarding" of prisoners, arguing, "Subject anyone to enough waterboarding, and he might confess to having shot Abraham Lincoln. But the object is not confessions; it is intelligence. Facts disclosed by detainees under interrogation are not taken at face value. They are fit into the matrix of other facts known to intelligence officers in order to test their reliability." (Pg. 25)
He notes, "That is not to say that there isn't violence at Guantanamo. There is plenty of it, but it is directed by the prisoners toward the guards. I saw the plastic face shields that guards must wear when they approach or enter cells to protect them from the cocktails of urine, feces, and semen that are regularly hurled at them along with verbal and physical abuse. I saw the collection of weapons fashioned by detainees to attack guards, as well as the rigorous standards imposed on the guards in responding to these provocations." (Pg. 31)
This brief book is provocative and thought-provoking, and will interest anyone concerned with the current state of the war on terror.
Michael Mukasey was U.S. Attorney General from November 2007 to January 2009, and was a U.S. district judge before that.
He observes, "President Bush assured us that Islam is a religion of peace and said that it had essentially been kidnapped by a band of extremists. To savor how far political correctness has carried us, and in what direction, imagine President Roosevelt telling Congress on December 8, 1941, that the peaceful Shinto religion had been kidnapped by a cabal of militarists." (Pg. 8)
About criticisms of Guantanamo Bay, he states, "It was not always thus. During World War II, the United States held hundreds of thousands of German and Italian prisoners of war---the vast majority of whom fought in strict obedience to the laws of war, and tens of thousands of whom were confined at camps in the United States mainland---without even one of them being permitted to challenge his confinement..." (Pg. 11-12)
He defends "waterboarding" of prisoners, arguing, "Subject anyone to enough waterboarding, and he might confess to having shot Abraham Lincoln. But the object is not confessions; it is intelligence. Facts disclosed by detainees under interrogation are not taken at face value. They are fit into the matrix of other facts known to intelligence officers in order to test their reliability." (Pg. 25)
He notes, "That is not to say that there isn't violence at Guantanamo. There is plenty of it, but it is directed by the prisoners toward the guards. I saw the plastic face shields that guards must wear when they approach or enter cells to protect them from the cocktails of urine, feces, and semen that are regularly hurled at them along with verbal and physical abuse. I saw the collection of weapons fashioned by detainees to attack guards, as well as the rigorous standards imposed on the guards in responding to these provocations." (Pg. 31)
This brief book is provocative and thought-provoking, and will interest anyone concerned with the current state of the war on terror.
Displaying 1 of 1 review