Category Archives: War on Terror
Death by Drone
I’m a little ambivalent about drone assassinations. Not sure why. Our guys don’t get killed, you get the bad guys without carpet bombing thousands – what’s not to like? Gadhafi survived the drone missile but died in a crossfire, as Krauthammer put it, from temple to temple.
Spoils of War
In a news dump Friday a week ago, the president abandoned a big chunk of his health care plan. Last Friday he abandoned Iraq. Only this time it really was Bush’s fault. Bush negotiated the withdrawal late in his administration. Obama tried to extend the Status of Forces agreement to allow 3,000 troops to to remain, but couldn’t get an Iraqi agreement on immunity from criminal prosecution for killing people and breaking things. So, he claimed credit for fulfilling a campaign pledge, took his army, and went home.
Gadhafi Gone
Well, now he’s dead. So it seems.
During these days of concern about class inequality it’s comforting to witness real class mobility. Saddam and Gadhafi were both vicious killers who moved from being Uncle Sam’s ally to enemy, in one case, and enemy to ally in the other. They also moved from palace to hole.
Last Rights
Before backing down, Obama insisted on full legal rights, complete with a New York civilian trial, for 9/11 terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Not so much for US born terrorist Anwar al-Aulaqi. Now Cheney wants an apology for all the bad things Obama said about the way he treated terrorists.
9/11
New York Mayor Bloomberg says there’s no room for New York firemen or clergy at the tomorrow’s ground zero memorial. Mark Steyn finds that odd since there was plenty of room for them on 9/11/2001. He thinks we’ve lost focus on the actual events.
“What of the 23rd Psalm? It was recited by Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer and the telephone operator Lisa Jefferson in the final moments of his life before he cried “Let’s roll!” and rushed the hijackers.”
“9/11 was both Pearl Harbor and the Doolittle Raid rolled into one, and the fourth flight was the only good news of the day, when citizen volunteers formed themselves into an ad hoc militia and denied Osama bin Laden what might have been his most spectacular victory. A few brave individuals figured out what was going on and pushed back within half-an-hour.”
This was my 9/12/2001 cartoon.
The September 12 front page editorial, “We are all Americans”, in Le Monde exemplified the unity of Americans and our allies in those days, though it was short lived.
(Click the image for New York Magazine’s excellent “Let’s Roll” – 9/11Encyclopedia)
The WSJ thinks the war against Islamic Terror is successful, so far, and that we’re more united than we think. The paper credits President Obama for putting his stamp on most of the Bush war policies, in much the same way Eisenhower successfully embraced Truman’s cold war policies.
