Reply With Quote
I see he's fine-tuning his position.
Obama: Truth commission is a mistake.
At a White House meeting Thursday, President Obama told Congressional leaders that he thinks it would be a mistake to set up a commission to investigate excesses of the Bush administration’s war on terror.
“The president said that given all that’s on the agenda and the pressing issues facing the country, that a backward-looking investigation would not be productive,” a White House official who attended the session said. “The president was very clear…that he believes it’s important that there’s not a witch hunt.”
I agree with Obama on this one.
I see he's fine-tuning his position.
Obama's judgments that Congressionally led investigations are politically inexpedient and that the timing is bad are no doubt correct.
I doubt Obama can really do anything to shut Congress down if it is set on its course, but that is not really clear right now.
IMO this is best left to an independent prosecutor or the DOJ, but I have no great hopes for either.
It's amazing to me the same right wing who hounded Clinton for 8yrs and supported an independent investigator are silent now when it comes to Bush. Clinton may have had character flaws but he never misled us to war. So now right wingers have the stance that a president should be investigated over personal issues but not for starting a very controversial and quite possibly an unecessary war. Nice logic...
You're right that Clinton getting hummers and how we got in Iraq are vastly different, but it's not about that. It's all about "my side, your side" politics. Your side needs to be investigaged, my side doesn't. Kudos to Obama here for trying to stay above that fray.
I think Obama is worried that if he sets up a truth commission the GOP will try and roadblock all his legislative attempts to try and keep our economy from melting down Argentina style...
....oh wait.....
The bailout spending can all be back-doored through the TARP or emergency stabilization measures, but the next stimulus can't be,nor environmental regulation, nor health care reform, etc., etc..
Torture is still radioactive, and right now, bad as torture is, we have bigger fish to fry. Apparently, the truth will have to wait, and whenever it does come it will still be a food fight of dire proportions.
As long as the GOP continues to cater ideologically to the Rush-crowd they will continue to dwell in meltdown mode...what we need is unity behind a democratic congressional front and letting torture sit on the back burner is just philosophically wrong...I really, really think that Obama is looking at Afghanistan and Pakistan being increasingly taken over by the Taliban and does not want to fight this battle while there are still boots on the ground....
I think enough is going to come out in the house and senate hearings to get a pretty firm idea what happened. A commission would open a whole different can of partisan worms, and there would necessarily be less control of the process by the Democrats. Obama can help steer the current process whatever way he wants by unclassifying information.
Politically it's the right thing to do. Expedience is God.
Off topic: Then why did Obama just send 17,000 more troops there?
He learned his lesson in Iraq...sending more troops is a short-term fix that would only costs us a lot of money, more dead troops and not much else...Then why did Obama just send 17,000 more troops there?
Was that an answer?
Regardless, what makes you Obama *learned his lesson*?
..the fact that he didn't put in the 50k+ troops that would be necessary to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan and begin strategic operations in Western Pakistan...
50k+ according to whom?
...so you think 32K U.S. troops is enough?
I don't know. I am not a military planner.
I asked you where you got the 50k+ number.
I will ask you again.
Where did you get the 50k+ number?
..Im just estimating, but I think its a fairly realistic if they wanted to go into Pakistan....Where did you get the 50k+ number?
And upon what are you basing this estimate?
...the number of Taliban and sympathetic jihadists in Pakistan...
And what is that number?
...way more than 32K...
So you don't actually have a number?
Wouldn't it be way easier to say "I don't know. I pulled the number out of the air"?
....if Obama was committed to Afghanistan he would have sent in more brigades...the Taliban are now in control of parts of Pakistan just 50 miles from the capital Islamabad...
It sure wouldn't be as much fun.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
