President Obama’s Terrorist-Fighting FAIL
I’m having a difficult time figuring out how, exactly, the Obama administration figures that exporting Islamic terrorists to the island of Palau is a successful way to fight terrorism.
It seems to me that detaining highly-radicalized trained terrorists, fattening them up on halal victuals and giving them top-shelf health care, then turning them loose on the helpless and angry citizenry of an island paradise would make for one hell of an al-Qaeda recruiting pitch.
The Obama decision strikes me as a triumph of politics over national security and common sense. By bashing Guantanamo Bay as hard as he did during the campaign, the President painted himself into a corner. He can’t keep Gitmo open right now (though reneging on his word later still remains a viable option, since the vociferous left has a very short and selective memory) and he’s been forced to maintain his hard line in public speeches. On the other hand, he’s learned that Gitmo is, by far, the best option for keeping potentially dangerous killers from killing again and that it’s far from the Chamber of Horrors the anti-war crowd made it out to be.
What’s a career politician to do? Well, in the President’s case, he figured that farming the detainees out to a bunch of other countries would solve his problems. He didn’t exactly expect the ringing laughter from about 100 countries when he sent his diplomats forth to pitch the idea. It gives me hope to know that most of the world thinks that importing a ready-made terror cell is not the smartest idea in the world.
So, having been turned down by nearly the entire world, the President found Palau. Now, thirteen Islamists doesn’t sound like a lot, but Palau isn’t just any country. It has a smaller population that you find in most major league ballparks. Last night’s Stanley Cup Game Seven drew almost as many people as live on Palau. Adding 13 Uighur terrorists to a nation with a population of about 21,000 would be the equivalent of the United States accepting 188,227 Islamists. That’s more than the population of Salt Lake City (UT), Knoxville (TN), Little Rock (AR), or Fort Lauderdale (FL) and a little less than Mobile (AL) or Augusta (GA).
I’m thinking that al-Qaeda could quit sending out terrorists altogether. The President seems to be willing to take that job over himself.
(Cross-posted at The Greenroom)
Other Posts of Interest:
- Thanks to Our President, Rendition is the New Black
- Surprise, Surprise. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Wants to Be A Martyr.
- Obama’s National Security Policy Reduced to a Shrug
Category: Fighting the Islamists, President Barack Obama, The World At Large
Wasn't Palau the site of one of the seasons of Survivor? Meaning, sufficiently uninhabited for a reality show to pretend that there's no one there?
I don't get it. Send those guys to Florence, CO. They'd be happy to have them. They exist on federal money for prisons. Having more federal money sent to them would be great in their minds. We have prisoners that need to go somewhere, and they have somewhere for prisoners to go. What's the issue? Aside from the possibility that they might be innocent, of course.
Well, they're not prisoners, per se. They are terrorists who should go back to their home country. They do not belong in our criminal justice system anywhere.
We're not sending them back home because the Chinese will do very bad things to them (mostly) because they are terrorists. I, personally, don't care a whole lot what the Chinese do to them. I'm of the mine that a little bit of ruthlessness toward Islamists would go a long way.
That aside, nothing about the Iranian election? Iran has normally had somewhat reasonable elections, but this one is way out of line. Ain't no way Ahmadinejad wins by thirty points. That's like the Red Wings losing by seven. Doesn't happen. Maybe he did win, but certainly not by that margin. This will cause major instability in Iran.
"This will cause major instability in Iran."
And by the way, the last thing we need right now is a bunch of angry Iranians. But we'll get that whether we like it or not. Strap your seatbelt on, it's gonna be a crazy ride!
Actually, Iranians angry at the Mullahs and demanding real democratic reforms is something we very much want. From what I have been reading (and I've not posted because I've not read enough quite yet), that's what we're seeing right now.
We knew that when McCain won the Republican nomination
I don't really understand McCain's point of view on terrorists. On one hand he wants to fight them tooth and nail. On the other hand, when they surrender to us, no matter what they were doing before and no matter where they were, he wants to treat them like honored guests. We can do one or the other, but not both.
In what way would the high security prison in Colorado be better than GTMO?