Pakistan's Prime Minister Gilani is almost utterly correct when he attempts to deflect the glaring fact of his country's complicity when he characterized the intelligence failure as being that of the whole world. No one knew until recently that top Pakistani active and retired military were keeping Bin Laden safe under their wing. As for his own 'plausible deniability' position that may sell in Islamabad or to the ears that wish to hear that kind of tripe. But that dog won't hunt. As for Pakistan's transparent duplicity, on this and how much more we aren't hearing about ... yet, they now stand naked before the world.
It is precisely for that reason that the United States had to take unilateral action. Informing the Pakistani authorities would have resulted in Bin Laden's hasty departure.
As for whether or not he was in fact armed at the moment he was shot it is a moot issue. Once he was told to freeze if he made any motion suggesting non-compliance it was a reasonable assumption that someone who has used suicide bombers, and airplanes would not hesitate to seek to kill the force that sought his capture. Unlike his mislead zealot adherents, Americans do not seek to die for the cause, but are culturally imbued and militarily trained to arrange for the enemies to die for theirs.
Obama's sound decisions - the burial at sea and to withhold the photographs - have presented me the unique experience of finding myself supporting his actions. The many victims worldwide of Bin Laden's bombs and airplanes were denied any kind of proper burial. Explosions, plane crashes and building collapses tend to destroy the possibility any such consideration. He was in fact given much more. He received a proper Muslim funeral with all it's considerations and ceremonies.
His burial at sea was just. As with the withholding of the photographs, it denies his supporters and disciples the shrine they undoubtedly crave just as the families of those he murdered were denied that rest to their souls.
Karma is indeed ... a bitch.
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Exactly Whose Pants Are On Fire?
I know this wasn't directed at Joe Wilson alone. The speech was in the can well before his "spontaneous" outburst. We could all benefit from heeding the thoughts expressed by President Obama last night, no matter who wrote them.
"You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, and the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no ...matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter - that at that point we don't merely lose our capacity to ...solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves."
One of two things appear to be true. Mr. Wilson may well be a temperate, mature fairly accomplished former aide to Strom Thurmond. It is an unfortunate smear on South Carolinians, the United States Army and it's officer corps that he left the first two qualities on the cloakroom floor - again - last night and chose to instead to behave like an ill bred, uneducated, unprincipled, ill manner lout - for the second time in his seven year congressional career.
In 2002 Wilson called Congressman Bob Filner (D-California) "viscerally anti-American" and charged that he had a "hatred of America". He later offered his mea culpa saying he, "didn't intend to insult his colleague".
On the other hand it far more likely that Mr. Wilson, as an experienced litigator, was merely practicing a rudimentary artifice of that craft. Mr. Wilson was Staff Judge Advocate in the South Carolina Army National Guard assigned to the 218th Mechanized Infantry Brigade until retiring from military service as a Colonel in 2003. As such, he is well aware of the value when seeing the opposition gaining ground to break the flow of the moment by making a statement that though stricken from the record, will not 'unring the bell' in a jury’s mind. It is more than fair to say that the American people were in the jury box in the court of public opinion last night. It beyond belief that a military officer, even a reservist, lacks the discipline to refrain from emotional outbursts.
Be that as it may, it may well be instructive as to the source of all the out poured vitriol when we look over the landscape of the health care debate over the past month or so and see the same feverishly pitched, overly emotionally biased over the top rhetoric. Death panels, red menace, socialistic Nazism, government takeover of citizens rights, government bureaucrats getting between you and your doctor (never mind the insurance company bureaucrat that’s already there) are the red herrings we have all heard ad nauseam all sung to rousing Sousaesque background music replete with waving flags cynically used as cheap props.
It is clear that health care in this country is in dire need of serious reform. That reform will not come from Wall Street which calls the insurer’s tune. It will not come from the Trial Lawyers who benefit from spurious claims over the smallest perceived harm that sucks life's blood leaving behind the necrotic flesh that is the two headed serpent of defensive medicine and the basis for the insurers to jack up malpractice coverage costs. Both drive up costs dramatically. Real reform must come from the laws of the land. Real reform must serve We The People, not those with the deepest pockets who can buy our lives, our liberties and our pursuit of happiness at their whim and at the gain of those who prostitute the sacred trust to attend to, "the people's business" into a quest for personal glory and gain.
What that law should become must be discussed. Name calling should stay in the school yard where the monitors can properly instruct, and correct, the unruly children who make a practice of it. The laws must see to it that at the end of the day, We The People come first and foremost. That is why We The People created the government in the first place.
It is the flag of We The People that our forefathers went to war and died for. It is the flag of We The People that we pledge allegiance to. It is the flag of We The People that I hope to see flying from every window, porch, column, lamp post and antenna tomorrow, Patriot's Day September 11, 2009.
"You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, and the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no ...matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter - that at that point we don't merely lose our capacity to ...solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves."
One of two things appear to be true. Mr. Wilson may well be a temperate, mature fairly accomplished former aide to Strom Thurmond. It is an unfortunate smear on South Carolinians, the United States Army and it's officer corps that he left the first two qualities on the cloakroom floor - again - last night and chose to instead to behave like an ill bred, uneducated, unprincipled, ill manner lout - for the second time in his seven year congressional career.
In 2002 Wilson called Congressman Bob Filner (D-California) "viscerally anti-American" and charged that he had a "hatred of America". He later offered his mea culpa saying he, "didn't intend to insult his colleague".
On the other hand it far more likely that Mr. Wilson, as an experienced litigator, was merely practicing a rudimentary artifice of that craft. Mr. Wilson was Staff Judge Advocate in the South Carolina Army National Guard assigned to the 218th Mechanized Infantry Brigade until retiring from military service as a Colonel in 2003. As such, he is well aware of the value when seeing the opposition gaining ground to break the flow of the moment by making a statement that though stricken from the record, will not 'unring the bell' in a jury’s mind. It is more than fair to say that the American people were in the jury box in the court of public opinion last night. It beyond belief that a military officer, even a reservist, lacks the discipline to refrain from emotional outbursts.
Be that as it may, it may well be instructive as to the source of all the out poured vitriol when we look over the landscape of the health care debate over the past month or so and see the same feverishly pitched, overly emotionally biased over the top rhetoric. Death panels, red menace, socialistic Nazism, government takeover of citizens rights, government bureaucrats getting between you and your doctor (never mind the insurance company bureaucrat that’s already there) are the red herrings we have all heard ad nauseam all sung to rousing Sousaesque background music replete with waving flags cynically used as cheap props.
It is clear that health care in this country is in dire need of serious reform. That reform will not come from Wall Street which calls the insurer’s tune. It will not come from the Trial Lawyers who benefit from spurious claims over the smallest perceived harm that sucks life's blood leaving behind the necrotic flesh that is the two headed serpent of defensive medicine and the basis for the insurers to jack up malpractice coverage costs. Both drive up costs dramatically. Real reform must come from the laws of the land. Real reform must serve We The People, not those with the deepest pockets who can buy our lives, our liberties and our pursuit of happiness at their whim and at the gain of those who prostitute the sacred trust to attend to, "the people's business" into a quest for personal glory and gain.
What that law should become must be discussed. Name calling should stay in the school yard where the monitors can properly instruct, and correct, the unruly children who make a practice of it. The laws must see to it that at the end of the day, We The People come first and foremost. That is why We The People created the government in the first place.
It is the flag of We The People that our forefathers went to war and died for. It is the flag of We The People that we pledge allegiance to. It is the flag of We The People that I hope to see flying from every window, porch, column, lamp post and antenna tomorrow, Patriot's Day September 11, 2009.
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