Still Fighting Bush’s GWOT

[marmar]

Last edited Sat Jun 23, 2012, 11:05 AM - Edit history (1)

from Consortium News:



Still Fighting Bush’s GWOT
June 23, 2012

President Obama rebranded the “global war on terror” the “war on Al Qaeda,” but his counterterrorism strategy hews closely to President George W. Bush’s, as the U.S. joins conflicts in Yemen and elsewhere that have little connection to the 9/11 attacks, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar writes.

By Paul R. Pillar


In a semi-annual report to Congress “consistent with” the War Powers Resolution (a formulation presidents use to abide by the resolution without conceding its constitutionality), President Obama last week acknowledged publicly for the first time that U.S. military forces have been engaged in “direct action” in Somalia and Yemen.

The report does not disclose anything that had not already been revealed in unofficial accounts, and the press was inclined to treat the matter as a secrecy issue, noting how grudgingly the administration has been saying anything about the operations involved.

But the most important and disturbing aspect of this situation is not so much the secrecy but rather the fact that U.S. military forces are in effect engaging in undeclared hostilities with no effective limits — geographic, temporal or legal. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/06/23/still-fighting-bushs-gwot/

[Kolesar]

1. Fucked premise

President Obama isn't invading Iran or Syria and there is nothing like the Fox News war on Islam.

consortium "news" service

[marmar]

2. Consortium News, headed by Robert Parry, is typically supportive of Obama.....

...... just to head off any baseless accusation.

[pasto76]

3. correct, sir. The premise here is that are, in fact, zero bad guys in the world

in fact, there are many. Finding them in Yemen and Somalia - AQ having largely moved there because of the INCREASE in drone attacks targeting them in Pakistan under the Obama administration - is exactly what Bush never did.

Bush and the NeoCons named it GWOT to keep striking that nerve of September 11th. They invaded afghanistan, then started pulling punches. We invaded iraq. And stopped. So much for chasing down the bad guys where ever they may go. Ive been pointing out to repubs and on DU since 2005 that we stopped chasing bad guys once we invaded iraq.

So allow me to say, that had Bush been hammering AQ in pakistan with drone strikes like Obama has done, and if he had started hammering them in Yemen when they started to pop up there in 2008-ish, I would be more supportive of his record. But he didnt. There are bad people out there. Inaction is what gave them September 11th. Which is a pretty clear indicator of the fuckstain Bush and CO were, and how seriously Obama takes their threats.

Considering the hand Obama was dealt when he entered office, I am mostly pleased with how he has handled the wars.