Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Is America Ensnared in an Endless War?
Townhall.com ^ | February 8, 2013 | Pat Buchanan

Posted on 02/08/2013 8:39:59 AM PST by Kaslin

"When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal."

So said Richard Nixon in his interviews with David Frost. Nixon was talking about wiretaps and surreptitious entries to protect lives and safeguard national security in a violent and anarchic war decade.

The Nixon haters pronounced themselves morally sickened.

Fast forward to our new century. For, since 9/11, we have heard rather more extravagant claims by American presidents.

Under George W. Bush, it was presidential authority to waterboard, torture, rendition and hold enemy aliens in indefinite detention at Guantanamo.

Under Barack Obama, we don't have a Nixon "enemies list" of folks who are not to be invited to White House dinners. Rather, we have a "kill list" -- a menu from which our constitutional law professor president selects individuals to be executed abroad.

Not only in Afghanistan, but Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and who knows where else. And not just foreigners, but Americans, too.

When may Obama order an American killed?

According to a Justice Department "white paper," any "informed high-level official" can decide a target is a ranking operative of al-Qaida who "poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States," and if we cannot apprehend him, order him eradicated with a Hellfire missile.

As law professor Mary Ellen O'Connell argues: "For a threat to be deemed 'imminent,' it is not necessary for a specific attack to be underway. The paper denies Congress and the federal courts a role in authorizing the killings or even reviewing them afterwards."

And they called Nixon the imperial president.

As killing a U.S. citizen is a graver deed than waterboarding a terrorist plotter to get information to save lives, Obama, who bewailed Bush's detention, rendition and interrogation policies, appears guilty of manifest hypocrisy.

But with 3,000 to 4,500 now killed by drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen over 10 years, and an estimated 200 children and other civilians among the "collateral damage," it is past time for a debate on where we are going in this "war on terror."

A question raised by Donald Rumsfeld years ago -- Are we creating more terrorists than we are killing? -- needs re-raising. For if these drone strikes that kill innocent and guilty alike are creating new millions of sympathizers for al-Qaida, and recruiting new thousands of volunteers willing to dedicate their lives to taking revenge against us, we have entered upon a war that may never end.

Al-Qaida in Afghanistan is said to be ravaged and on the run. Yet we read of al-Qaida affiliates cropping up not only in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, but Iraq, Syria, Libya and Mali. How many of these new cells were inspired by past drone strikes to destroy old al-Qaida cells?

The New York Times and The Washington Post have admitted they acceded to White House requests not to publish their discovery that we had established a drone base in Saudi Arabia for attacks in Yemen.

But planting a U.S. drone base on Saudi soil is no small matter. Osama bin Laden gave as a primary cause for his declaration of war on America that we had defiled the sacred soil of Arabia that is home to Mecca and Medina by planting our infidel bases there.

After 9/11, at the Saudis' request, we removed our bases. What will this revelation mean for that royal family? What will it mean for America's image in the Muslim world? Is any benefit we derive from a drone base just north of Yemen worth enraging much of an Islamic world of 1.5 billion?

In his 1951 address to Congress, Gen. Douglas MacArthur declared: "Once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision."

Congress, the administration and the American people need to ask: Why have we been unable to bring this war on terror to a "swift end"? Why this "prolonged indecision"? Why has the battlefield in the war on terror not narrowed, but expanded from South Asia to the Middle East to North Africa?

Is the war on terror to be like the war on crime, eternal, with U.S. soldiers policing the world forever, even as cops police our cities?

What is Obama's plan, the Republicans' plan for ending or winning this war, whose scope widens with each year?

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare," wrote the author of our Constitution.

As we see the great buildings of our capital enveloped in concrete barriers, as U.S. citizens are forced to submit to intrusive searches before boarding airliners, one wonders: How long before the Republic becomes a garrison state?

If we do not end this war, this war will one day bring an end to the freedom for which the Fathers fought.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; alqaeda; america; barackobama; drones; killlist

1 posted on 02/08/2013 8:40:12 AM PST by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The answer is obviously “yes,” on the freedom of its own people.


2 posted on 02/08/2013 8:48:12 AM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

"Who's being naive, Kay?"

3 posted on 02/08/2013 8:49:46 AM PST by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Is water wet?

“How long before the Republic becomes a garrison state?”

Wrong question. Ask rather: how long ago did we become a garrison state? Answer: circa 1941.


4 posted on 02/08/2013 8:49:56 AM PST by Tublecane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I am surprised that he didn’t blame Israel and jews for once. He usually does.


5 posted on 02/08/2013 8:50:43 AM PST by Jean2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

D’uh


6 posted on 02/08/2013 8:51:36 AM PST by GSWarrior (To activate this tagline contact the Admin Moderator.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

“A question raised by Donald Rumsfeld years ago — Are we creating more terrorists than we are killing? — needs re-raising. For if these drone strikes that kill innocent and guilty alike are creating new millions of sympathizers for al-Qaida, and recruiting new thousands of volunteers willing to dedicate their lives to taking revenge against us, we have entered upon a war that may never end.”

The war with islam -is- “endless”, until islam “ends”...


7 posted on 02/08/2013 8:58:42 AM PST by Road Glide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

this war will one day bring an end to the freedom for which the Fathers fought.

Too late it already has, because it’s not being
fought as a war.


8 posted on 02/08/2013 8:59:33 AM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
(Art.) Not only in Afghanistan, but Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and who knows where else. And not just foreigners, but Americans, too.

If Obama executes a drone strike on Sarah Palin, does her life-insurance company get to skate on paying her family by invoking the "war clause"?

9 posted on 02/08/2013 9:31:27 AM PST by lentulusgracchus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tet68
In a way, man's urge to be free pits him in an endless war against those who would take away that freedom (Obama comes to mind).

This matter reminds one of that old quote spuriously attributed to Jefferson...

"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading."

10 posted on 02/08/2013 9:38:48 AM PST by RoosterRedux (Get armed, practice in the use of your weapons, get physically fit, stay alert!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

all that matters is what tribe to cheer for:
red tribe or blue tribe.

the tribal leaders will take care of the rest via memos and smoke signals to the tribe.


11 posted on 02/08/2013 9:38:48 AM PST by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Gee, Pat, you don't suppose the Islamist radicals have anything to do with it?

Nah, that's right. It's all America's Fault. And Israel's as well.

12 posted on 02/08/2013 9:54:22 AM PST by dirtboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
[Buchanan] "No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare," wrote the author of our Constitution.

Then we've got a real problem with the Fuzzy-Wuzzies -- the Salafists declared war on us and they think they've got 1.2 billion soldiers at their beck and call.

We've got to find a way to power down their fanaticism, like the British did in the 1890's with the original Fuzzies who killed "Chinese" Gordon at Khartoum.

13 posted on 02/08/2013 10:03:35 AM PST by lentulusgracchus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The ‘war on terrorism’ is like the ‘war on drugs’ and the ‘war on poverty’, it is not supposed to end. We have been duped to think ‘war’ as a solution when what is does is to increase what what it was supposed to destroy. Which of the 3 has been reduced because of our ‘war on .....’?

Rumsfeld was right. The ‘war on terrorism’ creates more terrorists. Then again, maybe that is the real reason for the ‘war’ ..... keep it going. FUBAR


14 posted on 02/08/2013 10:40:39 AM PST by ex-snook (God is Love)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ex-snook

“War is the health of the State”.

that’s why “war on ...” is the ‘phrase that pays’.


15 posted on 02/08/2013 1:03:50 PM PST by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: ex-snook

“War is Peace”, remember?


16 posted on 02/08/2013 2:06:06 PM PST by thulldud (Is it "alter or abolish" time yet?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson