It’s About Time

Monday 20 August 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

It’s about time that we see real criticism of Obama from the left in mainstream publication. Ta-Nehisi Coates at The New York Times:

That way lies the abyss. I am not simply thinking of Senator Reid’s shadow war, but of the president’s. Obama’s tough guy bona fides were largely built on the expansive bombing campaign he launched against Al Qaeda, a campaign that regards due process and the avoidance of civilian casualties as indulgences.

Let us grant that the execution of Anwar al-Awlaki, said to be the mastermind behind the foiled underwear bomb plot, should not much trouble us. But surely the killing of his 16-year-old American-born son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, and the secrecy around both acts, should.

I like to think that the junior Awlaki’s (reportedly accidental) death weighs heavy on the president’s conscience. In fact that weight does nothing to change the net result – from this point forward the presidency means the right to unilaterally declare American citizens to be American enemies, and then kill them.

During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama earned the G.O.P.’s mockery. Now he has earned their fear. It is an ambiguous feat, accomplished by going to the dark side, by walking the G.O.P.’s talk, by becoming the man Dick Cheney fashioned himself to be.

I agree, except that we should not grant that the execution of Anwar al-Awlaki, also an American citizen, “should not much trouble us.” Even if there is unmitigated evidence which shows him to be the mastermind behind the underwear bomb plot (which, due to its epic failure, shouldn’t lead one to think that the one behind it be regarded as a mastermind), the Constitution prescribes the exact procedure with which we can attribute guilt. And unilateral decision to execute a man based on secret evidence does not meet that Constitutional burden. What Obama has done is criminal.

2012-08-20  »  madlibertarianguy