A few days ago, our brilliant Leader declared that He intended to kill an American citizen, who also happened to be a moslem terrorist. I am a bit uneasy about the fact that our president has the power to order assassination of Americans - but I must confess that the liberal reaction to this development was absolutely amazing. If anything, liberals never disappoint me.
Firstly, the media has hardly noticed the news. It was reported matter of factly – nothing to see here, some minor tweak to the BushHitler policy. Secondly - well, there is much else there, everything was peachy, move along, nothing to see here.
According to Washington Post: “The move means that Aulaqi would be considered a legitimate target not only for a military strike carried out by U.S. and Yemeni forces, but also for lethal CIA operations.”
After all, Obama is a liberal, and if he orders CIA to kill an American citizen - it must be for a good cause. As NYT notices:
As a general principle, international law permits the use of lethal force against individuals and groups that pose an imminent threat to a country, and officials said that was the standard used in adding names to the list of targets. In addition, Congress approved the use of military force against Al Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. People on the target list are considered to be military enemies of the United States and therefore not subject to the ban on political assassination first approved by President Gerald R. Ford.
In other words, when George Bush puts the individuals and groups (non-US citizens) that pose an imminent threat to US into Guantanamo - this is a Constitutional crisis, but when Obama kills US citizens who, in his view are a threat - then it's all legal. Brought to you by NYT and WashPost.
Even Salon's ultra-liberal Glenn Greenwald was forced to acknowledge the hypocrisy of the liberal media and so-called “civil-right activists”:
George Bush's decision merely to eavesdrop on American citizens without oversight, or to detain without due process Americans such as Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi, provoked years of vehement, vocal and intense complaints from Democrats and progressives. All of that was disparaged as Bush claiming the powers of a King, a vicious attack on the Constitution, a violation of Our Values, the trampling on the Rule of Law. Yet here you have Barack Obama not merely eavesdropping on or detaining Americans without oversight, but ordering them killed with no oversight and no due process of any kind. And the reaction among leading Democrats and progressives is largely non-existent…
Some simple-minded liberals proclaimed that they were betrayed by Obama. These claims allowed Hyphenated American to pour some scorn on liberals (his comments were unceremoniously deleted by the site owner due to their heretical nature - three times in a row!).
Anwar al-Awlaki is embarrassing Obama - so the Dear Leader ordered Anwar to be killed. In no way this proves that Obama is betraying his principles or changing his mind on civil liberties or losing his idealism. Obama is not 12 years old, and he is unlikely to change his views willy-nilly. Obama is as Obama does. Don't tell me that you believed all that hope-n-change crap for a second. Obama is a boringly normal traditional fascist - think Mussolini, Nasser or Putin. If you are surprised at what Obama is doing I can only conclude you are/were not watching Fox News and/or listening talk radio. If you want to know what happens tomorrow - close the NYT, turn off MSNBC and start reading what the right-wingers have to say.
Don't mistake Obama's assassination of moslem terrorists (who happens to be US citizens) with betrayal of "progressivism". Just like Lenin and Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot and Castro did not betray progressivism - neither did Obama. It's naive to think that progressivism is somehow akin to non-violent Buddhism. The use of union thugs, government oppression and the like are normal middle of the road leftist policies. If you doubt me - just check out how ACORN (Obama's alma mater) was dealing with corporate executives - and yes, it included violence and threats of violence. And poor liberals thought that Obama would only use violence against the "enemies of the people"? Don't forget - if you piss off Obama, you will become the enemy of the people and you will be dealt with. The world did not start with the election of the One.
2 comments:
You've lain your observant finger upon a fact of American politics: It is not driven by principle, but personality. I hate your guy for doing it, but when my guy does it it's OK.
Another fantastic post. My favorite line: "Obama is a boringly normal traditional fascist." Exactly, and they can't take it. He gave them a "blank slate" to paint their own hopes, dreams, and ideology on, but what he really is, he kept well-hidden from the casual observer/voter. They'll all wake up at some point, but hopefully, we'll have stopped him before he takes it into his head that more Americans need to die for his "perfect" utopia.
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