Posted by
Patrick Henry on Thursday, January 08, 2009 6:05:06 PM
Faced with rumblings of rebellion from the left, President Elect Barack Obama has
opted for a political appointee, former Clinton chief of staff Leon Panetta, as his
nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency. In choosing a politician over an
experienced intelligence professional, he has opted to gamble on not only the
safety of a nation, but his own legacy and prospect for a second term.
The American left has complained that the harsh anti-terror methods of the Bush
administration have damaged our nation's image worldwide. They have crusaded
for an end to torture of terror suspects (which apparently includes anything beyond
harsh language), rendition (the practice of snatching suspects out of the couhtry in
which they were captured and holding them in clandestine captivity) and the electronic
surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act. Accordingly, under Panetta it is a reasonable
expectation that such practices will be discontinued. Unless Obama is sitting on some
kind of secret "mind weapon." such cessation guarantees that terror suspects will no
longer fear capture, knowing that they will be treated kindly and afforded all the rights
American citizens enjoy under due process, and that the endless possibility of
exoneration through technicality that plague the American justice system will now
likely work in their favor.
Common sense suggests that information extraction will be minimal, that such
information as there is will be slow in coming and that this exponentially increases
the liklihood of a successful attack on the American homeland or any kind of early
warning regarding attacks on American troops in the field, embassies and other
national interests abroad.. By choosing to politicize the CIA, Obama and the
Democrats invite a repeat of the 9/11 disaster or worse. But they won't have to
worry about anyone listening in on phone calls to their mistresses.
Counter terror experts think it likely that terrorists will attack the U.S. with
biological or nuclear agents that can render devastation and death far more
widespread than the murderous kamikaze style 9/11 sorties. So measures making
the country more vulnerable to attack are actually enhanced risk gambles with
American lives. I know that I consider what the French think of us worth such
a gamble, and I'm sure that you do too.
But Obama seems oblivious to the fact that he is doing more than gambling with
a few hundred thousand American lives. He is betting the future of his presidency
on the lunacy of the left. Love him or hate him, George W. Bush prevented a
follow-on to 9/11 for the last seven year -- French opinions be damned. If Obama,
and the CIA under Panetta, lapse into insipid mediocrity that is overshadowed by
the Justice Department and allow a major attack to occur, causing extensive death
and property damage, the Republican elephant will be able to send him packing
in the next presidential election, along with his Democratic cronies.
Obama wouldn't be the first ideologue to be proven a fool when his assumption
that he and his friends were right and everyone else is wrong. Unfortunately, innocent
Americans are likely to suffer because politics was allowed to prevail over pragmatism --
AGAIN.