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Rev. Jeremiah Wright said that the
"chickens came home to roost" on 9-11. He was wrong. But they have now,
indeed, come home to roost as we witness the results of the unilateral
disarmament President Obama has practiced in the war on terror. Beset once more
by terrorism on our soil and in our airspace, we find ourselves suddenly
overmatched by those who the Bush Administration kept away from our shores for
seven years.
This new onset of terrorism is not the
product of any change in the international environment or some new "systemic"
flaw in our intelligence operations. It is due to the policy of President Obama
in letting down our guard and inhibiting those charged with our protection.
The result is predictable: Timidity and caution have become the order of the
day in our intelligence community. In a world where hunch, guesswork, and a
willingness to leap to conclusions by imagining the worst are vital to success,
a cover your butt mentality has taken over. If you come to the wrong
conclusion, if you profile without adequate justification, if you accuse
incorrectly, you are finished. Your career and your pension will be gone.
Guess right and you are accorded anonymity. Guess wrong and you're through.
The failure of the intelligence operatives
to pass along the information about the Ft. Hood shooter or the airline bomber
did not flow from a blind spot or a lack of co-ordination, they stemmed from
terrorism of a different sort -- the terror of making a mistake and falling on
the harsh mercies of Eric Holder.
Now Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutall sits, lawyered up, in a federal
prison. His interrogation will proceed, if at all, under the watchful eye of
his counsel. He will not finger other operatives nor warn us of other impending
attacks. He will receive the full panoply of constitutional rights, none of
which he is entitled to.
Barack Obama does not seem to understand that these terrorists come here to use
our laws and our system, not to protect us, not even to shelter themselves, but
to destroy us.
Abdulmutall should be interrogated by the military, without benefit of counsel.
The evidence we obtain should not be admissible in a court of law nor used as
the basis for his sentencing. But it must be used to ward off future threats
and attacks.
But Obama is a true believer. His persistence in downgrading the war on terror
to a criminal investigation will continue. And we will experience more and more
attacks. Because pessimism is the bodyguard of liberalism, he will explain to
us that the world has become more threatening and that he is doing all he can to
keep us safe. But the truth will be that it will have been his policies and
priorities that are leaving us exposed.
And the attacks will continue.