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| Brief · May 9, 2011 The Foundation"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." --Thomas Jefferson Re: The Left"The White House converted a picture-perfect military operation into a public-relations disaster that will be cited as what not to do and how not to do it in flackery textbooks for a hundred years. Days after the raid on Osama bin Laden's 'mansion' they still can't get the 'fact pattern,' in the language of the White House, even close to straight. Even that ubiquitous photograph of the president, the secretary of state and assorted minions bravely watching the operation in 'real time' looks now to have been a 'photo-op' taken after the fact. ... [T]he real offense of the Washington wimpery is pushing a weakling's canard against the military, asserting that the photograph [of Osama's dead body] can't be shown because it would make Muslim terrorists cross at us. But surely the Army and the Navy can take care of themselves; soldiers, sailors and Marines aren't Campfire Girls. Can anyone imagine FDR and his generals canceling D-Day because an invasion might infuriate the Germans? Or that a Muslim terrorist will now salute an American soldier in Afghanistan and put down his rifle and grenade launcher, telling him 'we really appreciate your president's keeping that ugly photograph to himself.' Americans come from Mars, so the witticism goes, and Europeans are from Venus. But that doesn't include this president and his bungling minions. They're weepy refugees from Pluto." --Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden Opinion in Brief"When it began to leak that America had finally found and killed Osama bin Laden, there was joy from sea to shining sea. ... But for most, it wasn't jubilation. It was the silent fist pump and a silent prayer of thanksgiving for the safety of our extraordinary military. ... Unfortunately, while the president spoke for the whole country in remembering the pain of 9/11, his remarks left a gaping hole. He made no generous bow to all the efforts of his predecessor George W. Bush, as well as his team. My one regret is that Bush 43 didn't get this scalp. He deserved it more than anyone. Instead, Obama played subtle and wholly undignified games. He underlined that Osama had 'avoided capture' under Bush and 'continued to operate' during his tenure. But 'I directed' CIA director Leon Panetta to make getting Osama the 'top priority' (as opposed to?), and 'I' gave the go-ahead to the final mission. ... Even in a Monday night 'bipartisan' event at the White House, Obama honored the 'military and counterterrorism professionals' and 'the members of Congress from both parties' who offered support to the mission ... but no credit for Bush. If the roles had been reversed, you know Bush would have been more generous. It's what Bushes do." --columnist L. Brent Bozell Culture"The Bush antiterrorism protocols -- tribunals, renditions, preventative detentions, Predator assassination missions, Guantanamo Bay -- were decried as illegal and immoral. Such furor vanished, however, when President Obama embraced or expanded them all. The effort to preemptively remove the mass-murdering Saddam Hussein to foster democracy in his absence was seen by many in the media, universities and legal community as morally wrong -- and yet preemptively bombing Gadhafi to foster democracy in his absence is now considered morally justified. ... Had we gone into Pakistani territory and landed in the wrong compound, legal and ethical issues would have been raised. If we keep killing members of the Gadhafi family without hitting Gadhafi himself, at some point the denial of targeted assassination will seem empty. Targeted assassinations apparently have to work on the first or second attempt to be deemed moral and legal. In recent years the United States has been in a number of undeclared wars against terrorists, insurgents and authoritarian dictators -- Mohamed Farrah Aidid, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Slobodan Milosevic, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Manuel Noriega, Mullah Omar, Muammar Gadhafi, the Taliban, al-Qaeda and others -- whom we sought to kill, capture or put on trial. It is about time that we clarified the rules that determine their fates." --historian Victor Davis Hanson Government"Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that runs Gaza, is mourning the death of Osama bin Laden. He is a 'martyr' to these jihadists. And Hamas has just concluded a pact with the so-called Palestinian Authority (PA), or Fatah, the group that the U.S. recognizes and to whom we give lavish foreign aid. We are currently giving $600 million to the so-called Palestinian Authority. ... For a decade, Hamas and Fatah have been fighting each other. Hamas is openly committed to the eradication of Israel. ... The somber news of the Fatah-Hamas deal came out of -- Cairo. Apparently, the post-Mubarak government is being strongly influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is merely the Palestinian branch of the MB. So this is the 'Arab Spring' we've heard so much about? ... What we see with the Hamas-Fatah rapprochement is merely the open and brazen acknowledgment of what has always been the case: Both Hamas and Fatah are terrorist organizations. ... Secretary Clinton urged us to send Fatah another $160 million on top of the $600 million. ... It's time to follow up the brave actions of our U.S. Navy SEALs with brave action in the diplomatic arena." --columnist Ken Blackwell
Reader Comments"Thank you, Mark Alexander, for your essay, Bullet Points! Finally, an intelligent comment on this mission. For some inexplicable reason even usually-reliable conservative pundits are fawning all over Obama for his 'brave,' 'gutsy' decision. Yeah, he deserves credit for, for once, getting the hell out of the way and allowing our magnificent special ops troops to do their job. But no one who loves this country should allow Obama to act as if he had anything more to do with this mission. Thank you George W Bush, thank you Dick Cheney, thank you Don Rumsfeld, and most important, thank you anonymous CIA agents who forced the Jihadi scum to give up the name of Osama's courier so we could track him to his boss." --Stephen "I must say that this article made my afternoon. It surely reflects my thoughts and opinions, but you convey them so cleverly. Kudos to you for helping to keep the light of America shining brightly. And thanks to President Bush for laying the groundwork for getting this mission done." --Dave "In response to one item in Friday's Digest, if the 'Govmint' tries a per mile tax on the American people I believe it will be received with as much enthusiasm as the stamp Act of King George the III. We the People are not a government controlled gold mine to withdrawal resources as they see fit." --Anton Liberty"This idea [of a tax on vehicle miles traveled] was floated last year but the reaction to it was so negative it disappeared. But with the deficit and debt climbing, Washington is desperate for extra cash to spend, so it is apparently being revived. In essence, the government wants to slap a a special tracking device in your car that would record the mileage you use, and then tax it. You'd pay the tax when you fill up at gas stations who also, we would assume, have special equipment to read the mileage on the device in your car. And if gas stations can read it, so can the government. And then there's the question of what other gizmos they might put in that device. GPS? Why not? Who's going to stop them? The Obama administration denies that they are in favor of this, but several lawmakers have suggested it, as has the CBO. ... The marriage of technology and injudicious taxes is a marriage made in hell." --columnist Rick Moran For the Record"White House and congressional attacks on oil speculation do not alter the oil market's fundamental demand-and-supply reality. What would lower the long-term price of oil is for Congress to permit exploration for the estimated billions upon billions of barrels of oil off our Atlantic and Pacific Ocean shores, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, not to mention the estimated billions, possibly trillions, of barrels of shale oil in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and North Dakota. Some politicians pooh-pooh calls for drilling, saying it would take five or 10 years to recover the oil and won't solve today's problems. Nonsense! I guarantee you that if permits were granted to all of our oil sources, we would see a reduction in today's prices. Why? Put yourself in the place of an OPEC member knowing there's going to be a greater supply of U.S. oil in five or 10 years, which might drive oil prices to a permanent $20 or $30 per barrel. What will you want to do now while oil is $120 per barrel? You would want to sell. OPEC's collective efforts to sell more would put downward pressures on current oil prices. The White House, U.S. Congress and environmental wackos, by keeping our oil in the ground, are OPEC's staunchest ally. I wouldn't be surprised at all if we discovered OPEC reciprocity in the forms of political contributions to congressmen and charitable donations to environmental groups." --economist Walter E. Williams The Gipper"We will encourage all Americans -- men and women, young and old, individuals of every race, creed, and color -- to succeed and be healthy, happy, and whole. This is our goal. We see America not falling behind, but moving ahead; our citizens not fearful and divided, but confident and united by shared values of faith, family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom. An opportunity society begins with growth, and that means incentives. ... [M]y sympathies are with the taxpayers, not the tax-spenders. I consider stopping them from taking more of your earnings an economic responsibility and a moral obligation. I will not permit an antigrowth coalition to jeopardize this recovery. If they get their way, they'll charge everything on your 'Taxpayers Express Card.' And believe me, they never leave home without it." --Ronald Reagan Insight"A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort, or enslaves him, or attempts to limit the freedom of his mind, or compels him to act against his own rational judgment ... is not, strictly speaking, a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang-rule." --author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Political Futures"According to a series of national news stories, President Barack Obama is looking to play the 'underdog card' in the 2012 campaign. But why would the most powerful man in the world cast himself as an underdog? Because playing the underdog card works. ... In practical terms, underdog campaigns find it easier to motivate their supporters due to a built-in sense of urgency and insurgency. ... The reason why the underdog narrative, or 'Underdogma' as I call it, is so prevalent in politics is because Underdogma and politics are both about power. Millions of people make decisions about right and wrong, good and evil -- and even which candidate to vote for -- based on whichever side is perceived to have less or more power. It is part of our national DNA. America was built on an underdog insurgency against a more powerful adversary. Which is why millions of people automatically take the side of the underdog, often times without thinking. This is a problem for front-running politicians. And potentially devastating for the most powerful man in the world, Barack Obama, as he seeks re-election in 2012. President Obama understands the risk of being portrayed as an 'overdog.'" --columnist Michael Prell
The Last Word"My objections to Obama have nothing to do with his race or his country of origin, everything to do with his character, his policies and his inner circle of friends and associates. Just for the record, though, until now I didn't believe he was born in Hawaii. Otherwise, why wouldn't he have shown his birth certificate early on, long before his comrades had come up with 'birther,' a term of contempt that, miraculously, would have been synonymous with 'patriot' if the president in question had been a Republican. Even now, Obama continues to keep his college application and college transcripts under wraps, although liberals never weary of telling us how astonishingly brilliant the guy is. Maybe it's just the skeptic in me, but he hardly strikes me as the sort who would conceal his marvelous academic accomplishments under a bushel if they were even half as breathtaking as we've been led to believe. Now that his place of birth has been established, don't be surprised if a few of Obama's acolytes come forward to swear that when he left the islands to enter college in California, they actually witnessed young Obama walk from Hawaii to the mainland. You'll be able to read all about it in the Newest Testament." --columnist Burt Prelutsky Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis! Patriot News Review
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