Insecurity

Today I’d like to talk a little bit about our new President. Now let me premise this by stating that I am not a right wing version of all those fools who pranced around in their “Not my President” tee shirts while Bush was in office (there will be more about idiots and their tee shirts later). I have the utmost respect for the office of the Presidency and the man that currently occupies it. I do however have some serious concerns about his cabinet and his first set of executive orders as it pertains to national security.

President Obama is doing everything he can to dismantle all of President Bush’s anti-terror measures. This includes closing Gitmo with no real plan of how to deal with the dangerous detainees that inhabit it, ending the wiretapping program that the FISA court okayed and the congress knew about despite some recent amnesia, and forcing all military and intelligence personnel to operate under the confines of the Army Field Manual when conducting interrogations. Add to this that the new head of the CIA has zero experience in the intelligence field, and that the new Secretary of Homeland Security has vetoed numerous bills while Governor of Arizona that where designed to impede the immense tide of illegal immigration, and I start to get a little worried.

Now I’m a simple man, so let’s see if I can sum this up in simple terms:
- If the United States of America is not going to aggressively pursue information about impending terrorist plots are we more likely or less likely to learn about an attack early enough to stop it? Now I‘m no Harvard grad, but a blind toad that‘s been lobotomized should be able to figure this one out.
- If the US is going to close Gitmo, bring the terrorists here because no other country wants them, and end up trying terrorists in civilian courts (which really means letting them go and return to the battle because no prosecutor will ever be able to get the testimonies and evidence needed given the circumstances) are we more likely or less likely to shave down the number of active terrorists? Again, I’m no genius, but this is one those where everyone should have hit their buzzer early.
- If those in charge of our Homeland Security have no interest in securing our borders (that doesn’t mean no immigration, it means ending the chaos and knowing who’s here) while those in charge of intelligence gathering and detention are rendered completely impotent, are we more likely or less likely to have terrorists successfully operating here on our own soil? Certainly even those amongst us who dine on road kill could answer this last one with confidence.

It seems clear to me (and probably everyone else who isn’t a hardcore liberal) that these actions that have been taken by President Obama leave civilians more vulnerable here and abroad, and put our deployed military forces at greater risk. I hope and pray that I am wrong in my assessment, but that darling rascal called common sense just won’t stop nagging me on this one. Some folks say that the people who are happy about all these changes will only be woken up to the reality of the dangers we face if we’re attacked again. I really hope that’s not true. But if it is, I think that it would be a great travesty and a failure of Government to let some people drown in order to prove unequivocally that the boat needed sonar and life jackets.