Obama’s Cheney Dilemma

It was a great disappointment to see this scurrilous article in Newsweek. Is this your true nature showing, or were all the editors high on weed that day? Dick Cheney and George W. Bush themselves could not have done a better job than Taylor and Thomas of thoroughly trashing American democratic values and misrepresenting every evil and illegal act of this neocon administration. WE THE PEOPLE elected Barack Obama to be our president because we trust him to disavow every unconstitutional and criminal act enumerated in this article, and to lead the Congress to enact laws to prevent any future such affronts to America and the world.

I can???t recall Newsweek ever publishing a less thoughtful cover piece. Why should we take Cheney???s word for the effectiveness of waterboarding? He also stated Iraq had reconstituted nuclear weapons and insists on the Atta-in-Prague story against all evidence.

The article presses that we have to choose between civil liberties and the safety of the American people, but it is a false dichotomy. Doing evil in the name of good boosts the terrorists??? morale and ranks, and it drives away our allies. Abu Ghraib made us less safe. And presenting the Office of Legal Counsel???s opinions as ???close to binding??? is absurd. They provide legal advice and that???s it. If my lawyer tells me it???s okay to run into the street and kill people, am I suddenly no longer in legal jeopardy? The White House is liable regardless of what John Yoo says.

What to do with Ali Al-Marri? It???s simple. If you can???t prove the case against him, you let him go. That???s simple justice. You can suspect anyone of being a terrorist, but suspicion is not enough or we can all be locked up at our government???s whim. Feel free to keep tabs on Al-Marri all you want, but no proof, no incarceration. The article asks will Obama ???concede that any Qaeda terrorist who can get into the United States legally is free to roam the country unless (and until) he commits a crime??? as if this were a bad thing. Replace the propagandistically frightful ???Qaeda terrorist??? with the word ???person??? and we get the way things should be ??? innocent until proven guilty.

Even more important than the highly debatable effectiveness of torture is whether torture is right or wrong. If it???s wrong, which even the Bush Administration admits, then there???s nothing to distinguish us from our enemies when we commit it. The claim that we are allowed to do wrong because we???re somehow more special or careful, but you???re not because you???re not us is the ultimate rationalization of evil.

Regarding ???Obama???s Cheney Dilemma,??? I can???t recall Newsweek ever publishing a less thoughtful cover piece. Why should we take Cheney???s word for the effectiveness of waterboarding? He also stated Iraq had reconstituted nuclear weapons and insists on the Atta-in-Prague story against all evidence.

The article presses that we have to choose between civil liberties and the safety of the American people, but it is a false dichotomy. Doing evil in the name of good boosts the terrorists??? morale and ranks, and it drives away our allies. Abu Ghraib made us less safe. And presenting the Office of Legal Counsel???s opinions as ???close to binding??? is absurd. They provide legal advice and that???s it. If my lawyer tells me it???s okay to run into the street and kill people, am I suddenly no longer in legal jeopardy? The White House is liable regardless of what John Yoo says.

What to do with Ali Al-Marri? It???s simple. If you can???t prove the case against him, you let him go. That???s simple justice. You can suspect anyone of being a terrorist, but suspicion is not enough or we can all be locked up at our government???s whim. Feel free to keep tabs on Al-Marri all you want, but no proof, no incarceration. The article asks will Obama ???concede that any Qaeda terrorist who can get into the United States legally is free to roam the country unless (and until) he commits a crime??? as if this were a bad thing. Replace the propagandistically frightful ???Qaeda terrorist??? with the word ???person??? and we get the way things should be ??? innocent until proven guilty.

Even more important than the highly debatable effectiveness of torture is whether torture is right or wrong. If it???s wrong, which even the Bush Administration admits, then there???s nothing to distinguish us from our enemies when we commit it. The claim that we are allowed to do wrong because we???re somehow more special or careful, but you???re not because you???re not us is the ultimate rationalization of evil.

"The Flaw...may have been less in what it did than in the way it did it" How funny, the Liberial Press is making excuses for Obama before he even takes office. Typical. We have heard nothing but how bad Bush was for the last eight years. Now that we have not been attacked since 9/11 maybe Bush wasn't so wrong? How can Liberials blame Bush for the war, Congress gave him the right to go into Iraq? They say he has taken away our liberties. He has stopped torrorist in our country and around the world. People want to blame Bush for the economy. Barny Frank and the Libs in the senate made banks relax lending standards and when Bush and McCain spoke up about needing to "change" the Libs said "it's not like Fanny and Freddie are going bankrupt." Obama better come up with a better plan than to take from the rich and give to the poor or we are going to be in for a rude awaking when our economy really tanks and Obama will be hung if he strays from the Bush docterine and we are attacked again. I don't love Bush but the Liberals need to get off the Cool Aid.

Hey Newsweek , where was this article before the election, when you helpedmake conservatives look like fools and selfish imperialist jerks, whne in reality the conservatives on most issues are right. And they are an open book and not transparent like the Obama-esque club of democrats. I guess we will pray and make a difference as individuals to love the people around us, our neighbors as ourselves, but sometimes they do not even want that. Conservatives , most of them , know our world is fallen and redemption only comes through the ONe True God. People want change , they need saved! Jesus iand The Father , are ONe. USA helps others so often, we really try to help them, Newsweek would be wiser to continue to point out our accomplishments. I have to wonder whose side you on. I think you make money off the opposing views and enjoy the division in the USA for profits, all under the disguise of freedom.

Terrorists will do whatever it takes to achieve their goal. They will torture, maim and murder anyone and everyone who stands in the way. They do not understand mercy and democracy. To tie the hands of our law enforcement officials to "do whatever it takes" to bring them down and protect our nation and its people from harm is criminal in and of itself. But frankly, sleep deprivation and waterboarding seem meek compared to slitting innocents throats live on the web. Secrets need to be kept in order to protect those that protect us. Congress is a political organization and in many cases has had loose lips to further a political agenda. I don't blame the Busch/Cheney administration for keeping secrets. We have thwarted the terrorists so far, but if we loosen the controls, how long will that last? I am not advocating sadism, but I am an advocate for protecting those trying to protect us. I for one am glad that there are those willing to put their lives on the line to protect me and everyone else in this great country. How hypocritical that you would even suggest another country do what we ourselves are not willing to do. Terrorists are common thugs and should not fall under the protection of the Geneva convention and certainly not be treated as equals to an American citizen under American law. I wish people would worry more about solving world hunger, cancer or AIDS, than protecting the rights of a terrorist. The media needs to shoulder the blame for how our government is portrayed, instead of trying to belittle it all the time. Where is the patriotism and support irregardless of political affiliation? Will it take another terrorist attack to bring everyone together again? That thought saddens me to no end.

Please send all the "detanies to Texas, we will turn them loose in a crowd of good ole cowboys,, they will talk. These people are not American citizens, and have no rights. The IRS treats AMERICAN citizens with more terror. I personally have witnessed how differently forieigners react to TEXANS than being an American. Thanks to TV reruns, Texans are known as "laying all B.S.aside" and getting the job done. We will defend what is ours against all threats, including liberal cowards in Congress, who have obviously been educated beyound their intelligence. By this time next year, this country will be in want of a leader, not a DIALECTICIAN,. We do not need another "SLICK WILLIE"..

"The issue of torture is more complicated than it seems."

Only for scumbags.

Listen, don't worry about your kind of dilemma. Because you are dealing with a President who is known to many of his friends as a superb dialectician for the first time in the US history. For a dialectician, as for Obama, his presidency without dilemma, without contradiction or the paradox would be like eating a boilded egg without salt, or by virtue of dilemmas they say men are in love with life. For example, Obama has already passed the first phase of dialectical approace, in regard to his relationship with Rev. Wright, because the real point of the concern was how to keep his negation of Jaremiah out of the whole context, just as his philosophy that "No child[man] is left behind in isolation," the isolation any dialectics abhors. Nevertheless, the point is that once you get the contradiction of the subject matter, everything will be clear and distinct precisely with the pursuit of negativity in term of conflict...

David d.Yun

Let's be honest and do a real threat assessment. There are already thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, would be attackers. Except they have one big problem. They have no effective population base in this country, so the only American troops they can hurt are the ones that come to them. It's impossible to touch the ones in Kansas. 9/11 was a one trick pony. The cabin doors have been locked which is nearly the only effective security measure taken since 9/11 and should have been done long before then. The passengers will take down anybody who acts suspicious, the element of surprise and deception being long gone. So given these basically low functioning people have no access to this country and little means to cause problems added to the thousands of people of similar kind, where is the horrible, terrible threat from these people who we blithely abused and tortured for the last seven years? It is not like they have nuclear secrets or know where is the money scammed off us in the TARP as part of the greatest con job in history, even bigger than Uncle Ernie. The pathetic losers are nobodies going nowhere. It is pure fear mongering to make them out to be a major threat. Other things are, the entire country of Pakistan for instance, but not these losers. So stop with the "great dilemma" crap and admit it is your own immorality that frightens you. What if Americans had to answer for their war crimes? Oh no, not that! And there is the true fear and true shame. Like most bullies, what a bunch of shameful cowards.