Full text above (Washington Post)
The more I listen to excerpts of President Obama's speech at West Point, the more disgusted I am. It's like the musings of a man thinking out loud. He rambles about all the world's problems going on which he is unable to deal with as if he is grasping for a solution. In most instances, he is telling his audience that they (the graduates and the military) will not be able to solve them.
Then there was this:
"I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being. But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it is our willingness to affirm them through our actions.
(Applause.)
And that’s why I will continue to push to close Gitmo, because American values and legal traditions do not permit the indefinite detention of people beyond our borders. (Applause.) That’s why we’re putting in place new restrictions on how America collects and uses intelligence -- because we will have fewer partners and be less effective if a perception takes hold that we’re conducting surveillance against ordinary citizens. (Applause.) America does not simply stand for stability or the absence of conflict, no matter what the cost; we stand for the more lasting peace that can only come through opportunity and freedom for people everywhere -- which brings me to the fourth and final element of American leadership: our willingness to act on behalf of human dignity."
First of all, didn't he say he would close GITMO when he was running for president in 2008? He has had 6 years to close GITMO. The problem is what do you do with the prisoners who are there? Most who have been released have returned to the battlefield. Are you going to bring them to the US for trial in federal courts? The first issue a defense attorney will raise is that of a speedy trial. What about the countries that refuse to accept their own citizens back? Do we just release them onto the streets of the USA as some leftist groups advocate?
Secondly, who do you think is guarding GITMO? Our military, which the cadets are getting ready to join. The President has strongly implied that our military men and women who are guarding GITMO are doing so in contravention of "international norms and the rule of law". Thanks a lot, Mr President.
Can you imagine what many of those cadets must have been thinking after going through 4 tough years at West Point just to hear the Commander in Chief say all that? I'll bet many were asking themselves why they didn't go to UC Berkeley instead.
7 comments:
First of all, didn't he say he would close GITMO when he was running for president in 2008? He has had 6 years to close GITMO.
Have you ever heard of congress voting to forbid doing so? What do you expect the president to do, issue executive orders that directly contradict the laws passed by congress? You'd have a field day with THAT, wouldn't you?
Doesn't He already do that??
Excellent point, Elwood. What Obama can't get passed in Congress he does by executive fiat having his agencies do it on their own.
That's what I thought. Does Siarlys not know that, or does he have some alternate explanation??
Of course I have an alternate explanation, the truth, but even if I didn't... it would be hypocritical for you to BLAME Obama for an occasion when he did NOT take action in direction defiance of laws passed by congress.
What President Obama has done is, within the framework of existing law, to set priorities for deployment of limited resources. For example, since there aren't enough personnel to literally take into custody each and every person in this country without legal authorization, he is focusing federal resources on those who are committing crimes, and who entered the country recently as adults, while providing an orderly process to keep tabs on those who arrived innocently as children.
Incidentally, his approach has registered a vast number of such people who grew up in the U.S., which means whatever policy changes are made in the future, the feds know who they are, where they are, and have given them a significant stake in cooperating with evolving federal immigration policy if they want to keep their place in line.
Siarlys,
That is absurd. If there are not enough BP at the border than get more down there. We seem to have enough to take them to the Greyhound Bus station and send them off yo who knows where. The great numbers of deportees they have boasted about are principally made up of those they catch and throw back across the border.
And we are focusing on those that commit crimes? really? I just heard about 30+000 illegal alien criminals-including murderers and rapists- who had committed crimes and have been released back onto the streets. And what is Obama doing about those sanctuary cities like LA-SF, and Phoenix. In the past three years we had a murder in LA and a murder in SF committed by illegal alien gang members who had been released from jail-not reported to ICE and who killed within hours or days.
What in the world are you talking about?
I thought this was about a speech at West Point.
Are you suggesting that BP needs to get after some of those cadets?
Or that the president won't let them?
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