Obama Takes First Swing at the War on Terror

In his second day in office, President Obama removed two tools in the war on terror that President Bush used to keep this country safe.

First, Obama issued an executive order closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center. While the long-term effect of this decision is unknown, it seems obvious. Obama wants to bring the suspected terrorists onto American soil and subject them to the American justice system. This means, suspected terrorists will get Constitutional rights! That sounds like a good plan, doesn't it? And instead of being subjected to war tribunals, they will get to have their day in a court of law and maybe be sent to jail. Where are we going to jail these people? What kind of security will we have at such a facility? What will happen if they escape? What types of activities will other terrorists engage in to have these prisoners freed? The possibilities are frightening.

But Obama wasn't done. He then decided to create a task force to determine what to do with terror suspects. The head of the task force is his attorney general. I wonder what the attorney general is going to come up with.

Finally, Obama removed another tool in the anti-terror toolbox. He eliminated the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects. You know, the kind of techniques that led to Americans thwarting several terror plots after 9/11. Unfortunately, Obama is more concerned with "personal dignity" of terror suspects then learning what they might know. Yet somehow, Obama has the audacity to claim that removing these techniques will "improve the effectiveness of human intelligence gathering." Does he really believe that, or is he just trying to make it look like he isn't disarming the intelligence community?

And, as Marc Thiessen says in the Washington Post, if there is another terrorist attack on American soil during Obama's term in office, Americans will have no one to blame but Obama himself.