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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Is Obama Rushing Another Attack?

It is all a gamble on this question: at what point will the nation stop entertaining the proposition that it is all George Bush's fault?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  April 27th, 2009 at 10:45 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

We know, because Joe Biden told us, that the Obama administration expects us to get attacked again domestically.

That’s the working M.O. of this administration: no matter what we do, we’re going to eventually get hit again. The Obama administration views the seven years after 9/11 as more a fluke than a successful strategy by George Bush to prevent domestic terror attacks.

So if the working theory is that we’re going to get hit again, what is the best response? After all, the public does credit George Bush with keeping us safe at 9/11.

The best strategy would look something like taking a band-aid off quickly. Get the pain over fast. And if an attack happens quickly enough into the new administration, they can blame Bush.

So the Obama administration is working hard to release all the memos on interrogations, change all the policies Bush implemented, and clear out the old as fast as possible. Never mind that if it were done slowly over time, our terrorist enemies might not be so incited to attack.

If your working premise is that they are going to attack anyway, get them incited quickly, get it over with, and blame Bush.

There is no other justification for so quickly making us less safe.

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  • peg_c

    unless you believe we have elected as president a man who truly does hate this country. I believe it. I also believe we’ll be hit again when we’re weak. We’re sure as heck weak now.

  • Achance

    The Administration seems intent on ending all projections of US power and can be induced to remove all US presence in the Middle East and ending our support for Israel, at least any meaningful support. The jihadi/wahabbist/radical Islam forces can achieve their goal and position themselves to exterminate Israel simply by making soft clucking sounds to the Administration and tamping down the violence against US interests around the World. The international equivalent of the sociopathic brat promising his mommy he’ll be nice. Then, as Americans always do under Democrat rule, we take our football and go home to make whoopie with the cheerleaders, congratulate ourselves for restoring peace in our time, and profligately spend several multiples of our “peace dividend.” It is a time tested formula; Germany after WWI, Eastern Europe after WWII, Vietnam after troop withdrawal and Nixon’s resignation, Iraq in ’91.

    On the other hand, an attack against America itself or high-profile American interests will have Toby Kieth singing about how putting a boot in their a@# is the American Way again and flags flying all over the Country; the very last thing either BHO or our enemies want. The “get it over with and blame Bush” strategy is a risky gambit that should it fail will compromise BHO’s agressive agenda to remake America in such a way as to thwart a Republican counterattack before ’10. It is not in either his interest or our enemies interest to attack us. Granted, our enemies do not always understand either their own or our interests and sometimes seem to act purely out of irrational hatred, but it is never a save strategy to rely either on an opponents rationality or his irrationality. That said, the rational course for our enemies is to allow the US to forsake its Middle Eastern interests without interference and avoid waking the sleeping giant.

  • pac_NY

    .. with Obama in the White House, why would anyone attack the US?

    Obama lost not time trashing America abroad then apologized to leaders hostile to this nation, and to the world in general for everything. He’s making nice with nearly everyone on the planet.

    Now, I can’t imagine why anyone, even Joe Biden, would think our nation could possibly get attacked again.

    Gosh .. I stopped worrying about any more terrorist attacks on US soil the day Obama was sworn in. Didn’t everyone?

  • http://www.RedState.com/ETCartman Kenny Solomon

    What do you think of the premise that this administration WANTS our nation to be hit just so they can have a real reason to completely and “temporarily” seize total control of everything ?

    Call me a cynic, doom-and-gloomer, tin-foil-hat-wearer….. But I think this scenario is just as valid as anything else.

    I put nothing past the capabilities and goals of the current anti-American administration, including using as a Totalitarian power grab, the deliberate allowance of a foreign attack on our nation.

  • bk

    We were attacked shortly after he took office, in no small part due to the efforts of people like Jamie Gorelick. But the left’s view is that 9/11 was Bush’s fault for failing to “connect the dots”, and it’s just dumb blind luck that we were not attacked again in the 7-1/2 years after that.

  • Achance

    With a little help from Hollywood and a willing MSM, a Democrat Administation could convince the vast majority of the population that we had just experienced a natural or man-made disaster of Biblical proportions even though nothing had actually happened. Whaddya want, an earthquake, a nuke, a bio attack from “domestic terrorists – that would be the best; a bio attack from right wing extremists. DHS could trot out their moonsuits, troops everywhere in MOPP gear, scarier ‘n Hell and you could get people to buy off on anything.

    The common acceptance of the Democrat mantra that the best economy in history was in the tank and that the people were suffering all during the Bush Administration is a graphic example. Even though people were driving new cars, putting in granite countertops, and taking unheard of vacations, they were sure that large portions of the population were out of work, homeless, and hungry.

    There was a book some years ago about a Soviet operation to use the free media of Western Europe to convince the Europeans that they were under nuclear attack and resistance would only bring further attacks. Even though none of that had happened and the US/NATO had actually thwarted the Soviet armor, the civilian authorities buckled and capitulated, focing the US to withdraw and hand Europe to the Soviets. It was believable 20 years ago and we’re a far more ignorant and suspicious society today.

  • furious

    …on his satellite radio. We may ore may not abandon Israel, but not even the Obama Admin. would be foolish enough to cede Pakistan (where their next move will be, I believe) and its nukes to the Islamists. India certainly wouldn’t, and nothing would stir the Obama Administration to project American power quicker than another Democracy mobilizing to defend its national interests. (e.g., Israel attacking Gaza or Colombia attacking Venezuela/Bolivia).

    So, drive us from proximity to Pakistan whence our forces would have been able to secure/destroy Pakistani nukes lke they wanted to drive us from Persian Gulf where our forces help secure the oil fields and sea lanes.

    And besides, if given the opening to turn an American city center into a glassy, glowing crater, regardless of the blowback, who honestly believes an nihilistic zombie Death Cult like AQ would pass up the chance once we pull back our forces and let down our guard? Think of the hundreds of thousands of infidel slaves who would serve them in their pornographic version of Heaven!

  • bartertown

    Really?

    How is this theory that much different than what the truthers have been spewing for eight years?

    You go too far.

  • Achance

    but why would they attack now or even soon if they can get what they want, the US pushed away, best by not doing so. Then, when we’re not in a position to realily respond, they turn an American city into a smoking hole – just because they can.

  • Streiff

    that you really don’t know want a “truther” is.

    I think Erick’s post is imminently plausible. We have an administration which seems to have adopted as its motto, Never Waste a Crisis. Then they deliberately undertake to dismantle the very programs the intelligence establishment, to include Obama’s DNI, say kept us safe for 8 years and to intimidate field operatives into inaction via fear of prison time.

    Add to this the utterly craven way everything is being blamed on President Bush, not by political operatives but by the White House, and you have a foundation being built to encourage an attack on the US while preparing to blame Bush.

    So I think it differs markedly from what truthers.

  • olsmithie
  • mbecker908

    It will be an act of “domestic” terrorism. And it won’t come from an embedded “cell” either. Why in the world do you think the DHS report got put together in the first place?

    This government has nothing to fear from “foreign enemies” and nothing to gain from an attack by them. OTOH, an attack that can be pinned on terrorists of the domestic variety IS the Reichstag Fire. And all the reason they need to convince people that the right wing extremists MUST be disarmed.

  • zsmvf6
  • mom2oneson
  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    They hate America, not out politicians. They hate our freedom, not our foreign policy.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    Like that lady on the back of a crocodile, Obama really believes that his personality and enlightenment can charm our enemies into leaving us alone, while they gobble up the rest of the world (and since American is such a harmful influence on the world, the world will be better off without us around to intervene).

    (Which is why the limerick has her setting off down “the Nile”…)

    Again, he believes that our enemies will leave us alone for him to transform American into his socialist utopia that his mentors have bathed him in over his lifetime and that he delusionally believes in. He really doesn’t think they’ll attack us when they see what repentence and restitution he has offered to them. And with the peace dividend, etc. he expects to soon buy a permanent Democratic constitutency.

    But if they do attack us anyway, Obama will just see this as an opportunity, with a complicit press and Congressional majority, to blame Bush and the other usual suspects (doesn’t matter if it’s 1 year of 6 years, in the leftist mind, it’s always someone else’s fault – Republicans, Jews, corporate executives, evil big business like oil, etc.) and to further consolidate power.

    It’s win-win: spend our treasures to buy permanent political power and consolidate that power when an attack occurs.

    However, he has truly misjudged the nature of the Islamists’ hatred towards the U.S. and the West. What he allows to be unleashed will be a secenario he hasn’t imagined.

    I don’t know the outcome, except that probably billions of people in the U.S. and the world could end up dying before the coming conflict is resolved and the world unimaginably changed, should Obama be allowed to continue his course.

  • furious

    …who believes in the 2nd or 10th Amendments, opposes abortion and higher taxes, advocates for cracking down on illegal immigration or served in the military as persons-of-interest vis-a-vis ‘right-wing extremism’ and equated them all to Timothy McVeigh.

    Memo to Ms. Blame Canada Napolitano — Timothy McVeigh was executed a decade ago. Surely you have fertilizer purchase records more recent than that.

    DHS have documented motive and a loosely-definded list of suspects, now all they need is a proximate cause. There’s at least mor basis here for a little worst-case-scenario fantasizing than there is for the missle-hit-the-Pentagon crowd.

    Oh, and the truthers are the ones dancing on the graves of actual terror victims and taunting their families ala’ Fred Phelps.

  • furious

    …who believes in the 2nd or 10th Amendments, opposes abortion and higher taxes, advocates for cracking down on illegal immigration or served in the military as persons-of-interest vis-a-vis ‘right-wing extremism’ and equated them all to Timothy McVeigh.

    Memo to Ms. Blame Canada Napolitano — Timothy McVeigh was executed a decade ago. Surely you have fertilizer purchase records more recent than that.

    DHS have documented motive and a loosely-definded list of suspects, now all they need is a proximate cause. There’s at least mor basis here for a little worst-case-scenario fantasizing than there is for the missle-hit-the-Pentagon crowd.

    Oh, and the truthers are the ones dancing on the graves of actual terror victims and taunting their families ala’ Fred Phelps.

  • bartertown

    Truthers suggest that the Bush administration willfully allowed and/or actively participated in the events of 9/11. This is generally considered a crazy conspiracy theory and rightfully so, because rational people don’t believe the Bush administration, whatever its political aspirations, intended to see America damaged. There is nonpartisan consensus on this point and I think the same should be granted to the Obama administration.

    Biden remarked that there would be an “international crisis within six months” to test the president, and although the phrase “generated crisis” from that same quote was curiously worded, on that basis alone I can’t accept Erick’s premise that the current administration is resigned to the inevitability of a domestic attack in lieu of acting to prevent it.

    It is perfectly legitimate to disagree with the policies enacted and political rhetoric offered by the Obama White House, and the end result could potentially be such an attack (likewise, it is also possible nothing of the sort will occur). My issue is with how the original post characterizes the president as intending to see this country harmed and spinning that for political gain. Regardless of the ultimate outcome, I do not believe that is his intent, just as I refused that argument when truthers made it about Bush.

  • bartertown

    Your wording seems more prudent. Naivete, perhaps; malicious intent to see the country harmed, no. Politicians will spin anything and everything, but I can’t agree with the premeditation implied in the OP.

  • Achance

    have their thinking caps on these days rather than just their tin foil caps. There is nothing these miscreants would like better than to have some White guy from a rural area blow something up or take a shot at somebody. Everyone on the Right should be saying how loyal we are every chance we get and if we continue the Tea Parties and such we have to make sure nobody does anything stupid or responds to agitators. If these go on, it is just a matter of time before they are heavily infiltrated by federal law enforcement officers and informers, many of whom will be seeking to foment violence. Their CANNOT be any violence from the right; we’ll have enough trouble with the violence they manufacture and astroturf.

    He says as he sits here wearing WalMart cammos and with enough guns and ammo to provision a small army within arms’ reach.

  • red4lyf

    Weren’t the memos released because of a FOIA that was enforced by a federal court?

    Didn’t the DHS report start during the Bush administration and was the product of work by career employees (as in professionals as opposed to political activists)?

    Are we arguing about work of the president who signed the International Convention Against Torture? I mean Reagan.

    The whole torture thing is kind of crazy, you got to admit, considering the timeline over which it occurred. All this stuff about a ticking time bomb. The plot in LA. Some facts, the plot was foiled in 2002. Those two suspects were captured in 2003. How are those related? The Bush adminstration has memos proving that they started asking for a legal rationale to torture way before they had these prisoners. It took months. Not exactly the ticking time bomb we MUST DO IT but a planned attempt to legitimize the torture of detainees.

    I mean we’re talking about TORTURE. We killed, KILLED, people because of the use of waterboarding. It was considered A WAR CRIME. Do we apologize for committing a war crime? Or do we apologize to those Japanese that we sentenced to death over waterboarding which the bush administration decided really wasn’t, well it was just a little torture, not even torture, just a little unpleasant.

    As for all this foaming at the mouth about Obama turning over the country to the jihadists, are you serious? There are real problems in America, and in the world. Made up scenarios where you envision a president being elected that secretly hates america and its because of some shadowing organization that got him elected (ACORN!!!!!!!) do nothing to further debate on important issues. I mean really, how about we talk about real scenarios, like how to deal with a flu pandemic.

    (aside about acorn: when sending out people to register people, they had to pay their workers. Those workers were getting paid by how much they produced. Some of the worker forged registrations. What is ACORN to do? BY LAW they must turn in all registrations EVEN if they know them to be false. So Acorn ended up paying for registrations, to find out they were made up, but HAD to submit them.)

  • Achance
  • furious

    …they’ll get just as many virgins in Paradise for incinerating an American city whether that America has single-payer healthcare for all or not.

  • Streiff

    truthers claim the government carried out the attack of 9/11. Even a loosely constructed analogy to this post, considering the absence of an attack unless I’ve been in a coma for the past weeks and just missed it, would require that the post claim the administration plans to carry out an attack a la the Reichstag Fire. That isn’t the case.

    The premise is that the administration believes an attack will occur and it needs to occur soon in order to blame Bush. If the attack doesn’t happen for another year or so, not even the New York Times will blame Bush.

    By essentially standing down our counter terrorism activities through a calculated release of our interrogation methods and threatening field agents with prison if they do anything, he has answered his campaign promises to MoveOn and Code Pink while simultaneously making an attack in the near future much more likely.

    There is no relationship here to 9/11 truthers.

  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    Becker’s rabbit might do, though the seal cub would seem more appropriate to the case, Or perhaps a TalkingPoints-omatic®

  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    And I assume he’s an old-fashioned Red, as in Bolshevik.

    I always realize I’m in the wrong thread one second after I hit the Post button.

  • janis

    only address two points and let others slap you around on other issues.

    Obama doesn’t “secretly” hate America, he does so openly. The America he hates and apologizes for is the one we all grew up in and loved. He doesn’t and he’s hell-bound to change it as fast as he can.

    Don’t defend ACORN here, they are indefensible. They are a radical organization that never saw an election law they couldn’t bend, break or ignore and they are to be used by Obama–who helped to train them back in the day–to steal every election they can and to taint the census in 2010. And I don’t give a damn if you don’t believe anything I’m saying.

  • Streiff

    1. Have you got a dated draft of the memo to substantiate that?

    2. No torture was involved.

    3. So we have to wait for something to happen in order to do something? Clear this up for me, but didn’t we invade Afghanistan in 2001, which is before 2002?

    4. BS. Never happened. We did not try a single Japanese for waterboarding. This is simply a falsehood peddled by a law professor and glommed onto by a hapless, feckless John McCain. Seriously. Find a single indictment for this in the Class A, B, or C war crimes indictments by any of the Allied Powers. This statement is just nonsense. What the Japanese were tried for was killing people via water torture which involves the forced ingestion of large quantities of water.

    5. ACORN is an ongoing criminal enterprise. It sends out people who are often banned from gathering signatures, like felons. Got news for you, guy, those voter registration sheets are signed on penalty of perjury. There is no law requiring anyone to submit them if there is reason to believe they are false.

  • furious

    “You don?t ever want a crisis to go to waste” — Rahm Emmanuel, POTUS’ Chief of Staff.

    Not wasting good crises, DHS profiling memos, Missouri law enforcement officials threatening Obama opponents with criminal libel prosecutions. Maybe just the stuff of Turner Diaries fantasies, but the Obama Admin. is providing the material to sustain them.

  • furious

    “You don?t ever want a crisis to go to waste” — Rahm Emmanuel, POTUS’ Chief of Staff.

    Not wasting good crises, DHS profiling memos, Missouri law enforcement officials threatening Obama opponents with criminal libel prosecutions. Maybe just the stuff of Turner Diaries fantasies, but the Obama Admin. is providing the material to sustain them.

  • RJD

    Obama will only pay lip service to foreign policy, but in the event of an attack (or, another type of disaster that would warrant action at the government level) he, his administration and the Democrat-lead Congress will call for marshal law, or at least “emergency powers” which never get returned to the people.

    Not that I’m paranoid or anything.

  • Aaron Gardner
  • bartertown

    “They made it happen” and “they allowed it to happen”. The analogy applies to the second set, of which you apparently are unaware.

    My point is the premise that “the administration believes an attack will occur and it needs to occur soon in order to blame Bush” is deeply flawed and unacceptable on several levels.

    On one level, it requires you to believe the president is actively dismantling intelligence/defenses precisely so that a domestic terror attack may proceed, all for political gain, hence the analogy to “they let it happen” 9/11 truthers. civil_truth made a more proper critique of Obama’s policies below.

    On another level, it’s just plain stupid. Even assuming the president is only capable of heartless political calculation, there is more political benefit to stopping an attack than letting it happen and blaming someone else. This should be obvious.

  • Streiff

    obviously you have better contacts in that community than do I so I’ll defer to your experience here.

    On one level, it requires you to believe the president is actively dismantling intelligence/defenses precisely so that a domestic terror attack may proceed, all for political gain, hence the analogy to ?they let it happen? 9/11 truthers. civil_truth made a more proper critique of Obama?s policies below.

    Why is this do hard to believe? Everytime the Democrats are in power they do this. The Church Commission. The CIA under Stansfield Turner. The Boland Amendment. The Torricelli Amendment.

    I think the burden of proof is actually on those who are claiming Obama is not following standard Democrat policy here.

  • red4lyf

    http://www.slate.com/id/2216601/

    http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060209-4.html

    As for the second one, you’re right. We didn’t kill people over it. We sentenced them to 15 years of hard labor. I apologize.

  • larryp

    some response. It will be centered on the Tea Parties to smear them.We need to be on guard and have oour own fill crews to doucument them for our protection. If we protect ourselves at these tea party functions, it is way better than getting RFed on the news. Remember the Press it completely against the ordinary American.

  • antisocial

    and start doing their job they don’t need to do anything. But their ultimate aim is destruction of everybody else.

  • red4lyf

    When you say hate america, do you mean upholding the rule of law? (If you could educate me in my woeful ignorance of some instances that Obama has openly stated his hatred of America that would be great. Link would help.)

    Or do you mean advocating the dissolution of the Union?

  • Aaron Gardner

    quit being a disingenuous troll.

  • red4lyf

    but all I find are weird made up stories about what could happen if an islamo-fascist-socialist-communist-stalinist-lenist-hitler rules our country. I mean, thats a pretty good grab bag of words. But it doesn’t really make any sense, considering they are kind of contradictory.

    I mean I’ll just grab a definition: 1often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

    If he hates america, how can he be fascist? Since fascism exalts nation?

  • larryp
  • mom2oneson
  • red4lyf

    From what I’ve read the methods that were used were reverse engineered from the SERE training used to train people to withstand or at least to prepared to be subjected to torture.

    So you take a program to resist torture, and use it to make a program that uses those techniques… isn’t that torture?

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR2009042403171_pf.html

    I am just trying to have a conversation, and using links to provide something besides baseless assertions. What is your problem?

  • Streiff

    one doesn’t expect the severely emotionally disturbed to apologize as it is a useless exercise on your part and demeaning to the person to which it is offered.

    Neither of your links seem to have much to do with anything.

    Second, we didn’t sentence anyone to anything for waterboarding because no one was accused of doing so. I mean there are actual books out there on the Class C war crimes trials in the Far East. They have the indictments and everything. And some of us have read them and written about them.

    This relationship just isn’t working out. It’s not you. It’s us. So have fun with the rest of your life.

  • Aaron Gardner

    By the way the definition of torture under the UN Convention on torture would rule waterboarding out as torture….so like I said…quit being disingenuous.

    Once you stop with your pre-canned responses we can have a conversation….but I doubt you plan to stop…so your choice.

    And maybe you should do a bit more research as to what waterboarding is vs. what the Japanese water torture was…cause I already have…and you are wrong.

  • janis

    Given that Obama has gone so far outside the bounds of what is Constitutional since his inauguration, it boggles the mind that you think he is in any way upholding anything other than his own agenda. He has consistently nominated people for Cabinet positions who are lawbreakers, including the SecTreas, Tim Geithner. He violated the rule of law in nominating Hillary Clinton for SecState. He has taken over the census into the White House instead of allowing Commerce to head it which is not only traditional, but in the stated realm of Commerce Dept. duties. Obama has repeatedly taken away one chunk of financial freedom after another, has opened the door to banana republic tactics of criminalizing the past administration, has cluelessly cozied up to our sworn enemies and pissed off our traditional allies and you want to say that he HAS FOLLOWED THE RULE OF LAW?!!!!!

    And if you want to know what Obama thinks of America, just go back over his speeches overseas where he apologizes in every single instance. And then go back to his wife’s speech during the primaries when she said that “for the first time in my adult life, I’m proud of my country.” Obama was raised by people who hated this country. What else could you expect but that he would hate it, too? If he loved it so much, why is he doing everything in his power to make it something that it has never been?

  • Dencal26

    Not that I want one but if we had another attack like 911 on Obama’s watch I don’t think you would see another Dem President for 50 years.

  • http://beaglescout.wordpress.com LJ “Beaglescout” Miller

    America is a Union of states, individually and collectively organized as Republics of free men and women. Americans are not nationalistic, because there is no ethnically homogeneous “nation” of Americans. What we are is a people united by our reverence for the ideas of America: The Divine Creator of All, Human Life, Ordered Liberty, and Property. Those because they are the most important human rights for the preservation of freedoms we hold dear.

    Obama has often said he wants to redistribute wealth, which is literally the theft of property from those who earned it through their own labor. Such theft is a betrayal of the American founding principles and it exposes a hatred of those principles, which are fundamentally the same thing as the idea of America that American patriots (not nationalists, because there is no such thing as the American nation) love. Wealth redistribution is the same thing as stealing labor from people. And that is the same thing as slavery imposed by the government.

    Obama stands opposed to the ideas that are the basis for America. That is why people say that he, and the other left-wing Democrats, socialists, communists, eco-cultists, and would-be plunderers of America’s wealth are haters of America. They literally hate the ideas that are the basis for America’s existence and exceptionalism. And to the extent that you hate those ideas, you also hate America and deserve the scorn of all patriots who love it.

    Make no mistake about it, the extreme position of wealth redistributors, who were known as “levellers” in the days of America’s founders, leads directly to slavery of the people under an omnipotent government. That is defacto kingship or dictatorship, no matter what prettied up Orwellian name you give it.

  • RedInABleuState

    I like that! Not only for the great representation, but for the theatrics that would accompany the MSM meltdown.

  • $peciallist

    What?….are ya all Chicken??…..LOL

  • Next93

    I would really, REALLY like to call everyone on this thread a bunch of paranoid nutbags. These sorts of things don’t happen in America. Right?

    Unfortunately, I’ve got a daughter who’s doing a semester in Italy, and since January I’ve been chatting with her via I/M, explaining what’s been going on politically in this country.

    You know, if you try to summarize and write out everyting what’s been going on, the weirdness of it all really starts to come to the surface. Between the nationalization of the banks and private charities, the president threatening financial industry executives with lynch mobs, POTUS firing of the president of GM, the DHS characterizing political enemies as “domestic terrorists”, the “Blame America” tour, the ballooning of the deficit, and threats to hold show trials for Bush administration operatives, it’s getting a little surreal. Toss in what’s on the horizon (the mandatory abortion (“Freedom of Choice”) act, the Freedom to Firebomb (“card check”) act, nationalization of the energy and health care industries), and I’m feeling more and more like I’m narrating a bad science-fiction movie. Like I said, this sort of thing just doesn’t happen in America.

    At this point, I’m not all that sure that I really can rule out a Reichstag Fire scenario.

  • Crowe

    Considering more than half the country thinks releasing the memos made us less safe (not that the torture made us less safe), if something happens now it’ll be harder to blame Bush.

  • 6eorge Jetson

    IMO, the probability assessments of Obama and the Left are grossly off. They think we can relax a little and still be safe.

    Do I think Obama is intentionally inviting aggression? No. Do I think Obama is inviting aggression. Yes.

  • bigtimepatriot

    This is just typical of Obama and the Democrat party to piggy back on a successful George Bush policy. When George Bush and Dick Cheney created the new American policies of enhanced interrogation and their wink and a nod policies to get tough on islamic prisoners, they were well aware of how this would provoke terrorists to attack. When they leaked the Abu Ghraib photos they were surely askng for an attack to answer back to with full force. Now Obama is just trying to piggy back by publicizing the provocative policies that George Bush had so bravely put in place to provoke in the first place.

    George Bush is a true American and a true Christian. He (and the rest of us true Americans) was well aware of the historical success that has been shown when treating fringe religious extremists (Jesus) with stress positions (Crucifixition) and other forms of Enhanced Interrogation (Crown of Thorns, etc.) and how well those policies can nip an extreme wing of a religion and totally prevent it from becoming a world wide force.

  • NotFooledByDistractions

    To believe any of the paranoia posted by ericson. What an idiot! How often do you come out of your bunker Eric? Apparently not often enough – you’re a paranoid nutcase. And so are all you other idiots that would take any of his words seriously!

  • Aaron Gardner

    that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be able to spell though.

    It’s Erick Erickson…with a “k” you nimrod…if you can’t even get the basic elements about a person’s name right, why on earth should we bother taking you seriously?

  • Aaron Gardner
  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    perhaps you should consider rehab for that obvious Drug problem

  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    …not a good idea. In fact, it’s as idiotic as what you accuse Erick of being. Except Erick is not an idiot – just trying to find a rational explanation for the Obama’s administration attacks on our intelligence services.

    Personally I would call it narcicism or insanity (doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result).

    So do you prefer your “O” be viewed as rational or as narcicistic or as insane?

  • mbecker908

    First, that the various movements on the right will be infiltrated by people with three letters behind their names. The second is that they will be infiltrated by the left.

    We are really open to both of these because “we” tend to be trusting souls and tend to not challenge people who say they’re “with” us. We’re also not used to being in position of being even remotely characterized as “anti-government radicals”. Most of us have not had anything to do with real radical groups and have no clue as to the exent they will go to win and by the time we figure it out, it’ll be way too late.

    I’m not a conspiracy theorist/black helicopter/blue helmet sort of guy, but I will tell you that starting today I’m looking over my shoulder frequently.

  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    …under that classic definition that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result”. I still think that is more the way Democratic politicians behave on foreign polticy than a calculated effort to provoke another attack on the U.S. mainland.

    That said, at a different level, bottome line, it doesn’t matter if it’s malign intent or insanity (or narcicism) – the policy is disastrous and extends an open invitiation to another terrorist attack.

    The motivation is secondary, except as it might help predict future behavior.

  • JustLeaveMeAlone

    When the next attack happens, come on back and give us your imitation of an Obama Apology Tour, ok?

    We’ll leave the light on for you.

  • mbecker908

    is because we really don’t give a damn about energy consumption, global warming, or, tangentally, you.

  • Achance

    Any of the militia/white supremacist/leftover Minutemen, Patriots in Action, that sort have long had FBI Agents/informers among their best liked and trusted members. If the Tea Party thing has legs, before long they’ll be getting new members. I don’t think a true believer Lefty has much chance; just as the mobies don’t last long here usually, but a dedicated law enforcement kind of guy can be convinced he’s doing the right thing because command told him to, just like the military.

  • mbecker908

    my big concern isn’t with “cammoland”. You’re right about them. It’s the political movements like TeaParties that I’m concerned about.

    You’re right about mobies, and you’re absolutely right about LE, but I don’t think it would be difficult to enlist some dedicated lefties, do a little “training” and infiltrate the political movements. It wouldn’t take but a few. And, generally, a few bad men are easy to find.

  • Martin Knight
  • bigtimepatriot

    If you think this is stupd, does that mean you follow a “non-biblical” view of how to handle religious sects that threaten an empire following a different religion?

  • Rod_Patrick
  • bigtimepatriot

    than misspelling “stupid”, I am ashamed.

  • http://www.braindeadrepublican.com Michael DeWeese

    Anyone notice a more active troll population? Have the members of the ‘List’ been mobilized as they realize the TEA party movement and similar activities are gaining ground and need to be discredited as best they can?

  • Husker

    The kos trolls are out in force today. Someone needs to get out of his parent’s basement and go find a job.

    Probably talking to a ghost already….

  • Martin Knight

    And by the way, it’s not exactly a secret here.

  • Martin Knight

    And by the way, it’s not exactly a secret here.

  • JustLeaveMeAlone

    They don’t just want us out of the Middle East or Asia or Africa or even Europe.

    They want us off the planet.

    The Koran gives us three choices, which they mean to enforce:

    1. Convert to Islam
    2. Pay them a huge “tax” and submit.
    3. Die.

  • olsmithie

    which Barbar will gladly bungle his way into losing to them.
    Longterm, yes we are still a major target, until we comply to those terms. Hmm, let’s see, I think H*ll is still above freezing….

    Don’t know if you ever red about the evolution of the part about the destruction of the infidels, but you should research where it came from.
    I might be accused of bashing someones religion, so won’t go there.
    But independent study is in order, always, on all topics.

    Regards

  • olsmithie
  • Aaron Gardner

    I mean it’s possible he thought this was quality snark or something…but equating Jesus to say KSM is pretty offensive…even to those who aren’t Christians I would think it would at least be intellectually offensive.

  • red_dawn

    h ttp://blahgblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/disgusting-rightwing-republicans-hope-for-mass-casualty-attack-and-think-dead-americans-republican-renaissance/

  • furious

    …but then so do al Quaeda and the Taliban. The Massacre of the Jewish Qurayzah tribe:

    Twice the Qurayzah made offers to surrender and depart from their stronghold, leaving behind their land and property. Initially they asked to take one camel load of possessions per person, but when Muhammad refused this request, the Qurayzah asked to be allowed to depart without any property, taking with them only their families. However, Muhammad insisted that the Qurayzah surrender unconditionally and subject themselves to his judgment. Compelled to surrender, the Qurayzah were led to Medina. The men, with their hands pinioned behind their backs, were put in a court, while the women and children were said to have been put into a separate court. A third (and final) appeal for leniency for the Qurayzah was made to Muhammad by their tribal allies the Aus. Muhammad again declined, and instead he appointed as arbiter Sa?d Mu?adh from the Aus, who soon rendered his concise verdict: The men were to be put to death, the women and children sold into slavery, the spoils to be divided among the Muslims.

    Surrendering doesn’t buy clemency with these people. Maybe they don’t think Obama will be re-elected. or that the Tea Parties are a groundswell, or that the economy has bottomed, and we’re about as weak and rudderless now as we’re going to be. One push is all it would take to get the infidels to run screaming. That may not apply a year from now. Or maybe the clock is running on AQ as surely as it is running on us…

    AQ likely sees that the longer we remain in Iraq the more stable and self-defensible Iraq becomes, and the longer we remain in Afghanistan the better we can help Pakistan stabilize itself. Those Paki nukes are going to remain tantalizingly in reach for only so long.

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    no doubt a recent moron kicked off the site for stretching the truth… as being done over there and distorting the truth as misrepresenting these conversations.

  • bs

    a) They need to take a reading comprehension course
    b) If you’re pissing off the bad guys, you’re doing the right thing
    c) It’s probably a ban-ee who still has a fetish for seeing their krap in print. Based on the stunning number of comments that that blog gets (ie. most entries have a grand total of zero), I really doubt that anyone cares what they say.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    I’ve taken the liberty of disabling the link, by the way: if somebody really feels like reading it they can always cut-n-paste.

  • Jack_Savage

    With a subheading of “who’s losing his grip slowly but surely”.

  • JustLeaveMeAlone

    I failed to mention it will be a big ole’ INCANDESCENT light! :)

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    I say “no:” he’s clearly a cowardly little sneak who’s now mortified to realize that he wasn’t smart enough to pass muster. But Martin wants to play some more, and I am always happy to accommodate a fellow-Contributor.

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    I wandered over and politely let him/her know his/her droll… er… troll…. little tactics are not fooling anyone and that anyone can find a poorly worded (or out-right moronic statement when not in context) comment is easy to find anywhere. Anyone who visits that moronic post should now hopefully, as long as we remain reasonable and polite there, come by and see for themselves and demonstrate who the “reasonable” folk are!

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    I’d guess it’s the same fool that after finding something they could exploit by distorting ran off to create that blahblog thing (below) and won’t bother to be back or lives in the same hole as some other troll that recently was blammed for being a classic example of the JackAss Party supporter and just did a drive-by for support of his/her fellow low-life.

  • antisocial

    thinks we are dumb. Every war is different. Any action has to be seen in context with the situation at that time. There is no such thing as a good war.

    It takes a long time to build military/intelligence infrastructure and morale. Its takes very little to destroy it.

    This “goodwill’ that President “hopes” to earn is fictitious. Its worth NOTHING.

  • http://www.RedState.com/ETCartman Kenny Solomon

    I left my tin-foil hat at the bakery. Don’t need it anymore. This is all too real now.

    Where did it come from ? This moved way too quick.

    It’s quite possibly man-made…….. by the CDC.

    From 2004…………

    CDC to mix avian, human flu viruses in pandemic study.

    http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/panflu/news/jan1404hybrids.html

    Maybe we could have one of the alphabet soup of agencies who still give a damn about our nation look into every single person who was ever working on or near that little project (even for 5 seconds) and maybe, just maybe, check out where these people are and what they?re doing now.

    I need a vacation…… a long one.

  • Section9

    If you’re Osama, you must admit that Barack is getting decent press in the Arab world. No results, but nice press.

    You’d want the man shown up as a weakling, humiliated by another mass-casualty attack.

    Trust me on this if you trust me on nothing else: Al Qaeda has a reasonably good understanding of American politics. They will wait until only Obama can be blamed. ONly then will they attack.

  • Husker

    What the heck, feed him to Martin and we’ll sweep the pieces up after he’s done.

  • http://www.braindeadrepublican.com Michael DeWeese

    Now you are going to have me go off the deep end and conjecture about the coincidence of the breakout occuring just before Dear Leader ZerO shows up in Mexico City, and how the guy he shakes hands with dies the next day from the flu, and the rainbow colored UAVs not spoted flying around Mexico.
    I wonder just how far conspiracy sites are going. Might be fun fiction to read.

  • bobbymcgill

    As to whether Obama can blame Bush for everything, here is a humorous though no so outlandish answer.

    http://www.idlewordship.com/2009/04/obama-blames-swine-flu-on-george-bush.html

  • palomino70

    To criticize his spelling? Or, as a few posts down, to call him a druggie? The reason you should take him seriously is that your party is imploding. Specter is just the latest example.

    Can EricK EricKson really think of no other reason for Obama’s decisions on torture memos, etc? Is it out of the realm of possibility that Obama has an honest philosophical difference with you? I see no reason why your opposition must be couched in apocalyptic, Obama-hates-America terms. Then again, if you’re consumed with disgust for the new president, I guess this all makes sense. It also makes for a lot of self-marginalizing anger.