Monday, January 26, 2009

Obama Ends War on Terror?

Convoluted. A Yahoo.com fluff piece asserts that Barack Obama has ended America's war on terror. Yahoo cites a feed from AFP which in turn has a non-value added rehash of a Washington Post editorial. Yahoo lazily identifies the Washinton Post as 'the media'.

Since the WP's editorials are behind a firewall its hard to know which one the recyclers are referring to. A search of the phrase 'declares an end to war on terror' reveals a number of editorials and light-hearted obituaries on the war.

It seems that the proposed closing of Guantanamo Bay, the closure of illegal CIA torture dungeons in foreign countries, and the widespread rescinding of President Bush's legal orders and opinions on torture, somehow equates to the ending of the war on terror.

Having listened to many of President Obama's speeches in the Presidential Election, not to mention his inauguration speech, it seems to me he didn't get the talking points memo about ending the war on terror. He always struck me as rather belligerent and hawkish. If you're a terrorist somewhere wanting to test this new leaders resolve you can either believe the Washington Post or the incoming missiles.

Changing some tactics and strategies yes, ending no. President Obama may well end up being too hawkish for many liberals, but there is no amount of gratuitous violence that would satisfy conservatives. See Gaza. I've seen this movie before. No fairy tale ending.

I think i get why the Washington Post is pushing this distortion.

During the election the strategy of McCain-Palin intellectual juggernaut was to try and say Barack Obama would be soft on terror. In its most extreme forms people who should have known better claimed Obama was a secret magic Muslim who was the head of a secret magic advance front of Jihadists. At times it was screamingly hilarious were it not for the fact that it was landing on such fertile ground. You can scar someone for life by threating to take away their Bible and their pork.

The Washington Post is just tapping out some morse code to the half-wits. Danger danger, be afraid. Please recommend this post

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