Tuesday's topic in the presidential election was terror.
WASHINGTON -- A defiant Barack Obama said Tuesday he would take no lectures from Republicans on which candidate would keep the U.S. safer, a sharp rebuke to John McCain’s aides who said the Democrat had a naive, Sept. 10 mind-set toward terrorism.
“These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11,” the presumed nominee told reporters aboard his campaign plane. “This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq … and it’s exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse.”
...On his campaign plane, Obama told reporters that Osama bin Laden is still at large in part because Bush’s strategy toward fighting terror has not succeeded.
At issue were comments Obama made in an interview with ABC News Monday in which he spoke approvingly of the successful prosecution and imprisonment of those responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Obama was asked how he could be sure the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism policies are not crucial to protecting U.S. citizens.
Obama said the government can crack down on terrorists “within the constraints of our Constitution.” He mentioned the indefinite detention of Guantanamo Bay detainees, contrasting their treatment with the prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.
“And, you know, let’s take the example of Guantanamo,” Obama said. “What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks — for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center — we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.
“And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, ‘Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims. …
“We could have done the exact same thing, but done it in a way that was consistent with our laws,” Obama said.
Obama can be as defiant as he wants to be.
He can chant that favorite old mantra of the Dems, "We didn't get bin Laden."
True. Assuming he's alive, bin Laden is at large. We didn't get him, but that doesn't mean that the War on Terror has been a failure.
There have been NO attacks on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001.
That's success.
I was thinking about how people were buying gas masks and getting prescriptions for Cipro in the fall of 2001. Do those people still have their gas masks at the ready, or are they tucked away in a corner somewhere? Surely, the Cipro that people stockpiled would have expired long ago.
The public's intense fear of the next terrorist attack has been tucked away, too. It expired years ago.
So much time has passed without another attack. People began to relax.
Why hasn't there been another attack? Have we just been lucky?
No.
Al Qaeda operations were disrupted. They haven't been able to attack us again but it's not because they haven't tried.
And Obama wants to reverse what he calls a "failed foreign policy."
Note to Obama: That "failed foreign policy" has worked.
Obama claims that he'll be tough on terror. I don't think touting treating bin Laden like a U.S. citizen is being tough.
From July 20, 2007, Jim Geraghty reported:
Obama, who has expressed reservations about capital punishment but does not oppose it, said he would support the death penalty for Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The first thing I'd support is his capture, which is something this administration has proved incapable of achieving," Obama said. "I would then, as president, order a trial that observed international standards of due process. At that point, do I think that somebody who killed 3,000 Americans qualifies as someone who has perpetrated heinous crimes, and would qualify for the death penalty. Then yes."
Geraghty comments:
Yes, important to have that trial. Perhaps we might have caught the wrong Osama bin Laden.
I don't think Obama can keep America safe, let alone make America safer.
He and his followers don't get that we are at war.
Obama needs some lectures from Republicans or anyone else with an understanding of the threat of terrorism because he is incredibly naïve.
Obama wants to give Osama due process?
He's Jimmy Carter naïve.
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