Obama, from recent
ABC interview.
And, you know, let's take the example of Guantanamo. What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks -- for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.
And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, "Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims."
Just about every time I have a discussion with a liberal about the war, they point-out that Bush has created more terrorists, or made us less safe, etc. So Obama is located right there in the meaty heart of current liberal thought.
How though might we look at the reasonableness of this thesis? My experience has been that when I ask for evidence, I am looked upon incredulously--as if I wanted evidence that the Earth is not flat. One begins to think that they all just believe it because every body else believes it too. So, let me meditate on the issue and see what we can find...
When it comes to fighting terror, we are mostly talking about it in terms of Arab Muslims. With a few notable exceptions, there are no Arab Muslim democracies. The exceptions are Lebanon, which is not completely Arab nor completely Muslim and not completely democratic, Israel has Arab citizens and they can vote, Iraq is Arab and Muslim and becoming a democracy. Why exactly Arab Muslims would resent the United States for imperfect rule of law when their own nations are all dictatorships seems counter intuitive to say the least.
The terrorists tend to be religious fanatics who dislike democracy and the rule of law (as we understand that term in the western world), they prefer sharia--The Koran is the law. That being the case, it makes much more sense to infer what their motives might be: What promotes terrorists is that we are setting-up a democracy in Iraq! Given that it will never be in our interest to help promote a theocracy in Iraq, the United States and advocates of Sharia are going to just have to agree to disagree.
Let me put it another way: I highly doubt that a resident of a dictatorship would be so attached to liberal conceptions of law that he would travel to a foreign land and blow up a bunch of civilians in a market-place. I guess only people as smart and sophisticated as Senator Obama and his minions can believe such nonsense.
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