Richard Cohen - Obama Not Making Us Safer

WaPo columnist Richard Cohen goes off-message, whining about the threat terrorists pose to his personal safety rather than exulting in Obama's extension of civil liberties to previously oppressed mass murderers and wanna-bes.

There is almost nothing the Obama administration does regarding terrorism that makes me feel safer. Whether it is guaranteeing captured terrorists that they will not be waterboarded, reciting terrorists their rights, or the legally meandering and confusing rule that some terrorists will be tried in military tribunals and some in civilian courts, what is missing is a firm recognition that what comes first is not the message sent to America's critics but the message sent to Americans themselves. When, oh when, will this administration wake up?

Bit by bit, circumstances are forcing President Obama and his aides to come to grips with reality.

Mr. Cohen notes that although the Underpants Bomber is still lawyered up Khalid Sheikh Mohammed won't be getting a civilian trial in Manhattan and Gitmo is still open:

It's true that the world does not like Guantanamo, but then it's also true that the world is not an al-Qaeda target.

What?!?  Cohen proves he Just Doesn't Get It in his Big Finish:

No doubt George Bush soiled America's image abroad with what looked liked vigilante justice and Dick Cheney's hearty endorsement of ugly interrogation measures. But more is at stake here than America's image abroad -- namely the security and peace of mind of Americans in America. Bush stands condemned by the facts for Sept. 11 -- his watch, his responsibility -- and in all likelihood he bent over backward to ensure that nothing like those attacks would happen again.

The Obama administration, on the other hand, seems to have bent over backward to prove to the world it is not the Bush administration and will, almost no matter what, ensure that everyone gets the benefit of American civil liberties. But the paramount civil liberty is a sense of security and this, sad to say, has eroded under Barack Obama. Repeatedly, the administration has shown poor judgment. Abdulmutallab's silence is a scream that something is wrong.

More is at stake than America's global image?  How can Cohen plan on sleeping if Barack Obama and Eric Holder can't hold up their heads at international forums and cocktail parties [and it appears that Obama won't!]?  What does Cohen want, a long life wracked by guilt over of Guantanamo and our use of tribunals for terrorists, or a shorter life ending with eulogies from admiring Euros?

The choice should be clear to any proper lib.

ASK A RHETORICAL QUESTION: Glenn Greenwald rounds up a number of libs leaping from the ship (I like Joe Klein, "Miranda Wrongs") and asks:

Seriously:  if you were a Bush follower, wouldn't you feel as though you were owed a major apology for all the accusations and the fuss that came from Democrats and media figures, accusing you of supporting radical and Constitution-shredding policies when, it turns out, they actually crave those policies in order to feel safe?  Doesn't all of this bolster the Republican claim that those attacks on the Bush administration for civil liberties abuses were not due to genuine conviction, but rather for partisan gain (in the case of Democratic officials) and cheap, preening, wet-finger-in-the-air moralizing (in the case of media stars)?  

I am not interested in an apology; I am interested in the next election.

Comments

[Danube of Thought]

It's inexplicable. Apparently the administration thinks so too, inasmuch as they haven't even attempted to explain it.

[bgates]

The Obama administration, on the other hand, seems to have bent over backward to prove to the world it is not the Bush administration

That's an outrageous lie. Obama bends over forwards.

[clarice]

Cohen really is a dope, isn't he? Can't hold a thought for even a few paragraphs before dipping his beak back into nonsensical lib thinking.

[Thomas Collins]

Clarice, squishes like Cohen think there is a third way between the Obama/Holder treating terrorism as a regular crime approach and the Bush/Cheney treating terrorism as terrorism approach. What they don't understand is that the Bush/Cheney approach is the third way between the Obama/Holder approach and the turn Central Asia into a parking lot approach.

[psota]

Now, now. Cohen is still convinced that Bush/Cheney sullied our image in the world AND blames Bush for 9/11 (he's "condemned by the facts"). As long as he does that, Cohen can stay on the reservation.

[bgates]

Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America … he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights?

That's a quote from someone Dick Cohen described as "a sitcom of a vice presidential choice and a disaster movie if she moves up to the presidency", who nonetheless caught on to this exact problem at least a year and a half before he did.

[narciso]

Exactly TC, can one imagine if just one of the many plots that were derailed by aggressive interrogations (Library Tower,
Brooklyn Bridge, Ohio mall) had gone onto
fruition. They wouldn't just be asking to
connect the dots, they would exact exact
swift vengeance on the officials who let it happen

[Neo]

Add to that ...

As a political barometer, the Davos World Economic Forum usually offers up some revealing indicators of the global mood, and this year is no exception. I heard of a phrase being bandied about here by non-Americans — about the United States — that I can honestly say I’ve never heard before: “political instability.”

“Political instability” was a phrase normally reserved for countries like Russia or Iran or Honduras. But now, an American businessman here remarked to me, “people ask me about ‘political instability’ in the U.S. We’ve become unpredictable to the world.”

Obama has even made our image any better.

[jimmyk]

As long as he does that, Cohen can stay on the reservation.

So true. Every liberal columnist daring to criticize Obama has to include the shibboleth "Of course Bush/Cheney was horrible."

[Ignatz]

--Bush stands condemned by the facts for Sept. 11 -- his watch, his responsibility --

Does Cohen believe Clinton stands condemned as well?
The plot was hatched on his watch. The brains of the operation, the pilots, entered the country on his watch and flight trained without notice or interruption.

As Barry might put it, let's not rehash the past, but Bush sure inherited a mess from his predeccessor

[narciso]

They are still 'stuck on stupid' over there, in the same publication that runs Cohen's column most of the time, in the LUN

[Robert]

Sleep is a luxury that none of us will enjoy until Obama and his sycophants are properly separated from public service. I know I will sleep with one eye open as long as this Marxist regime is running our country.

[Danube of Thought]

Does anyone recall George Bush ever saying that he had "inherited" Al Qaeda?

Ras back to -7 today.

[peter]

Me wonders if the Ras going up to -4 yesterday wasn't the work of Axelturf. Those who strongly disapproved stayed the same, but there was a big switch between approve and strongly approve.

[Neo]

What's so interesting about the Rasmussen numbers, is that the "Strongly Disapprove" really just stayed in the noise, not really moving.

[Danube of Thought]

This story is almost beyond belief: a week before the crotchbomber, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a brief explaining to the court in lucid detail the reasons for treating another terrorist as a war criminal and interrogating him at length, rather than simply routing him into the criminal justice system (where he now is).

The brief ought to be required reading for Eric Holder and our constitutional law prof of a president.

[glasater]

Zero said in his Q&A with the House GOP--he could do 'things' to make his poll numbers go up. So he has complete confidence of his abilities on that front.

[MoodyBlu]

TM:

I am not interested in an apology; I am interested in the next election.

Me likey, although I can't forgive or forget what the electorate did 15 months ago.

[Jack is Back!]

Since we are on the topic of security, safety and AQ, JOMers may be interested in this Leah Farrall post at allthingsct.wordpress.com

Scroll down for the Org/flow chart.

She has been having a one-on-one dialog with an ex (I think current) AQ operative as part of her PHd dissertation.

What all these pundits are missing is the psychosis and mindset of the terrorist not just their intentions.

[BB Key]

How can pressure be put on Senate Judiciary Chm. Senator Leahy to hold hearings.

I noticed one scheduled for tomorrow on Immigration, Customs, & Detention has been postponed.
Afraid questions about the decsions on the underbomber might come up?

[narciso]

You can tell some of that with the idea that Israel controls the Saudis, possibly only an Egyptian (al Masri) would believe that, but I could be wrong

[AJB]

Pants pisser Richard Cohen pisses pants: news at 11.

[Captain Hate]

although I can't forgive or forget what the electorate did 15 months ago.

Ehh, I kind of have to because otherwise I'd be stuck hating the other members of my nuclear family. One thing that has to be considered is how fully in the tank the MSM deliberately was while never missing a chance to tell us how essential to a functioning democracy they are. Old habits die hard and when you have an institution so quickly going against its stated purpose, I can understand how large numbers of voters with good intentions were misled.

[Tom Bowler]

Me wonders if the Ras going up to -4 yesterday wasn't the work of Axelturf.

Peter, I think his numbers went up because he accepted the invitation to join the House Republicans at their retreat. It was a good political move on his part, but I don't think he really gets it. He did promise, after all, to be the post-partisan president, but this was the first and probably the last time he does anything like it.

But it is exactly what a great many people elected him to do -- put aside partisanship. He hasn't and he can't. I expect his poll numbers will resume their decline as the memory of this brief bi-partisan moment fades.

[narciso]

Try, Capt it's like the tale of the scorpion and the frog 'it's in their nature'

[Porchlight]

I can understand how large numbers of voters with good intentions were misled.

A lot of people made a mistake. Thankfully a good number of them have realized it, and more will realize it in the future.

I find it hard to forgive sometimes, too, especially since O's faults seem so incredibly blinking obvious to me, but at least they haven't re-elected the idiot - yet.

[macphisto]

forgive, yes. forget? no.

[clarice]

Ras has him at -7 today.Maybe it was a football weekend burp.

[Captain Hate]

forgive, yes. forget? no.

Yes, that's what I meant; thanks for the correction.

[glasater]

On the terrorist recidivism front:

Brennan: All Transferred Detainees Who Returned to Terrorism Were Released by Bush, No Recidivism for Those Released by Obama

This seems to be the little twitter flap going on between Tapper and Hayes.

[Fritz]

The election message of O and his lib apologists was that the terrorists only hated us because Bush was such an evil man. If we got rid of Bush and Cheney the world would love us and terrorism would disappear.

They and the people who voted for him were wrong. The consequences of any successful terrorist attacks on American soil rest fully at the feet of his voters - even if they are your family members.

[Danube of Thought]

See ya, Blanche Lincoln:

Boozman (R) 54
Lincoln (D) 35

Baker (R) 52
Lincoln (D) 33

Hendren (R) 51
Lincoln (D) 35

Coleman (R) 50
Lincoln (D) 34

Cox (R) 50
Lincoln (D) 36

[Sue]

Have y'all already discussed Obama's budget assumes $150 bn in healthcare reform savings? So add $150 bn to his already inflated budget.

[narciso]

Some of the assertions in the Brennan push back are certainly wrong, no surprise, in the LUN

[JM Hanes]

Neo:

"What's so interesting about the Rasmussen numbers, is that the "Strongly Disapprove" really just stayed in the noise, not really moving."

Apparently, Independent approval basically didn't move. I suspect the bounce came from disaffected Dem's who liked seeing Obama stick it to the Republicans and the Supremes. He probably got some love from gays for the DADT bone he threw them, but I don't know how big that number would be in the scheme of things.

[Mike Huggins]

Here's some interesting "flying pigs" news from the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: LAX 'millennium bomber' to be resentenced; 22 years is too lenient, court rules.

And there is also this nugget:
"He initially cooperated with interrogators and provided what Coughenour termed vital insight into the workings of terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda.

But Ressam ceased helping federal agents and retracted his statements implicating other terror suspects after being subjected to solitary confinement and what he considered interrogation excesses."

Glad those civil trials of enemy combatants are working out just fine!

[Dorothy Jane]

Someday - they are all going to miss Bush - but - will they admit it?

[pagar]

Narciso, Good Link on Brennan @4:12 PM. IMO, nothing the Obama Administration, or Democrats, says or does, on National Security, can be trusted.
I just don't think they have any understanding of what the words mean. The only person who sends to understand, Sen Lieberman was kicked out of the Party for it.

[narciso]

Right, that's equivalent to I didn't rob the bank, I was just the getaway driver

[daddy]

I don't think of this as Richard Cohen leaving the farm.

I think of this instead as a golden opportunity for David Brooks to fellate Obama even more than normal in his next column.