Yonivore
05-21-2009, 08:59 PM
...if ChumpDumper wants to talk about Presidential dishonesty, we need look no further than this morning and President Obama's speech on national security.
First of all, why did he find it necessary to run to the National Archives and deliver a previously unscheduled speech in national security? Couldn't be that he was trying to deflate or, somehow, lessen the smackdown he was about to get from former vice president Cheney in his speech to the American Enterprise Institute....nah.
Anyway, to the speech...
He spends the first part of his speech spewing platitudes such as, "no interest in spending all of our time relitigating the policies of the last eight years," and decrying the "politicization" of national security issues, and the need to "focus on the future." He also criticized politicians that "spend our time pointing fingers at one another."
He then devoted much of the rest of his speech doing just that, relitigating (not literally dumbasses) the last eight years, politicizing national security issues, focusing on the past, and pointing fingers at the Bush administration. And, all in a manner that was unfair when not out right false.
Let's go to the transcript...
[O]ur government made a series of hasty decisions....all too often our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight.... All too often, our government trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions....Instead of strategically applying our power and power principles, too often, we set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford.... we went off course....the decisions that were made over the last eight years established an ad hoc legal approach for fighting terrorism that was neither effective nor sustainable; a framework that failed to rely on our legal traditions and time-tested institutions and that failed to use our values as a compass.... our government was defending positions that undermined the rule of law....over 525 detainees were released from Guantanamo under -- not my administration -- under the previous administration. Let me repeat that. Two-thirds of the detainees were released before I took office and ordered the closure of Guantanamo....[Guantanamo] is quite simply a mess, a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges that my administration is forced to deal with on a constantly, almost daily, basis and that consumes the time of government officials whose time should be spent on better protecting our country.... the court ordered the release of 17 Uighurs -- 17 Uighur detainees took place last fall when George Bush was president....the problem of what to do with Guantanamo detainees was not caused by my decision to close the facility. The problem exists because of the decision to open Guantanamo in the first place.... we are acutely aware that, under the last administration, detainees were released and, in some cases, returned to the battle field. That's why we are doing away with the poorly planned, haphazard approach that led those detainees go in the past.... Instead of using the flawed commissions of the last seven years, my administration is bringing our commissions in line with the rule of law.... whether it was the run-up to the Iraq war or the revelation of secret programs, Americans often felt like part of the story had been unnecessarily withheld from them.... Now, in all the areas that I've discussed today, the policies that I propose represent a new direction for the last eight years.... on the other end of the spectrum, there are those who embrace a view that can be summarized in two words -- anything goes. Their arguments suggest that the ends of fighting terrorism can be used to justify any means and that the president should have blanket authority to do whatever he wants provided it is a president with whom they agree....we will vigorously protect our people while forge a strong and durable framework that allows us to fight terrorism while abiding by the rule of law. Make no mistake. If we fail to turn the page on the approach that was taken over the past several years, then I will not be able to say that as president.
Then, after all that, he has the audacity to end his speech on this note:
We will not be safe if we see national security as a wedge that divides America. It can and must be a cause that unites us as one people and as one nation.
Right...
First of all, why did he find it necessary to run to the National Archives and deliver a previously unscheduled speech in national security? Couldn't be that he was trying to deflate or, somehow, lessen the smackdown he was about to get from former vice president Cheney in his speech to the American Enterprise Institute....nah.
Anyway, to the speech...
He spends the first part of his speech spewing platitudes such as, "no interest in spending all of our time relitigating the policies of the last eight years," and decrying the "politicization" of national security issues, and the need to "focus on the future." He also criticized politicians that "spend our time pointing fingers at one another."
He then devoted much of the rest of his speech doing just that, relitigating (not literally dumbasses) the last eight years, politicizing national security issues, focusing on the past, and pointing fingers at the Bush administration. And, all in a manner that was unfair when not out right false.
Let's go to the transcript...
[O]ur government made a series of hasty decisions....all too often our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight.... All too often, our government trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions....Instead of strategically applying our power and power principles, too often, we set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford.... we went off course....the decisions that were made over the last eight years established an ad hoc legal approach for fighting terrorism that was neither effective nor sustainable; a framework that failed to rely on our legal traditions and time-tested institutions and that failed to use our values as a compass.... our government was defending positions that undermined the rule of law....over 525 detainees were released from Guantanamo under -- not my administration -- under the previous administration. Let me repeat that. Two-thirds of the detainees were released before I took office and ordered the closure of Guantanamo....[Guantanamo] is quite simply a mess, a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges that my administration is forced to deal with on a constantly, almost daily, basis and that consumes the time of government officials whose time should be spent on better protecting our country.... the court ordered the release of 17 Uighurs -- 17 Uighur detainees took place last fall when George Bush was president....the problem of what to do with Guantanamo detainees was not caused by my decision to close the facility. The problem exists because of the decision to open Guantanamo in the first place.... we are acutely aware that, under the last administration, detainees were released and, in some cases, returned to the battle field. That's why we are doing away with the poorly planned, haphazard approach that led those detainees go in the past.... Instead of using the flawed commissions of the last seven years, my administration is bringing our commissions in line with the rule of law.... whether it was the run-up to the Iraq war or the revelation of secret programs, Americans often felt like part of the story had been unnecessarily withheld from them.... Now, in all the areas that I've discussed today, the policies that I propose represent a new direction for the last eight years.... on the other end of the spectrum, there are those who embrace a view that can be summarized in two words -- anything goes. Their arguments suggest that the ends of fighting terrorism can be used to justify any means and that the president should have blanket authority to do whatever he wants provided it is a president with whom they agree....we will vigorously protect our people while forge a strong and durable framework that allows us to fight terrorism while abiding by the rule of law. Make no mistake. If we fail to turn the page on the approach that was taken over the past several years, then I will not be able to say that as president.
Then, after all that, he has the audacity to end his speech on this note:
We will not be safe if we see national security as a wedge that divides America. It can and must be a cause that unites us as one people and as one nation.
Right...