The AL Qaeda Campaign

"The Bush Administration derided the "police work" approach to rolling up Al Qaeda."
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And who derided the Bush Administration for deriding the "police work" approach? Who could the American people count on to inform them that the Bush Administration was full of it on this issue and completely wrong?
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One good thing to come out of the last 8 years for the Obama Administration is they can count the media's now standard modis of NOT pushing back against wild and out landish claims made by government officials.

I have to admit that for someone who can easily be described as a pacifist, I'm remarkably untroubled by the use of Predator drones. The degree to which we can hold individuals responsible for their actions as opposed to targeting people based on their group affiliations (religion - nationality - race - geographical proximity) is the degree to which we're acting more justly.
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It's a such simple principle, I'm surprised it's so rarely expressed.

But I do not like the use of language meant to sterilize what's being done. "Kinetic tactics" is a pretty Orwellian way of saying "assassination."

Is "Gangland-style execution" too sterile as well? It seems to describe waht's being done...

Gunny: One good thing to come out of the last 8 years for the Obama Administration is they can count the media's now standard modis of NOT pushing back against wild and out landish claims made by government officials.
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Really? Are you sure about that? Or was there an implied /snark attached?
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Because my operating assumption is that the press, as CNN trumpeted in an ad, "will hold the Obama administration accountable" for any bad thing anyone remotely connected to them may or may not have done. I doubt IOKIYAD applies.

"Really? Are you sure about that? Or was there an implied /snark attached?"
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Yes. That was pure snark.

gunny, thank goodness. My world was turned on its head (in a good way) on Tuesday and I'm still a bit disoriented. Rule of law, no more torture, transparency in government, W gone gone gone, hearing complete sentences and actual thoughts from our chief executive, and all that.
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btw, atrios tells me: CNN just informed me that Obama hasn't yet taken any action on most of his campaign promises.

I'm not sure what pleases me most about this story – the successful "police work" approach, the cooperation with Pakistan leading to an arrest near Peshawar or the fact that the story's initial sources were two Pakistani security officials rather than the WH.
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It's about time the focus was on action rather than self-promotion – how many "crippling blows" and "Al Qaeda's 3rd-ranking officers" can there be, anyway?

Re: CNN
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Excuse me if I find it hard to take seriously a "news" organization that relies so heavily on magic screens and other gimmicks to communicate information. (and uses them so badly!)
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OT: I'm b-a-a-c-k inside the Beltway. I rode the Amtrak Cardinal from Indianapolis to DC and had a nice conversation with the dining car staff about Joe Biden, who used to ride the southbound Cardinal from Wilmington. By all accounts, the real deal: a sincere, hard-working public servant. Gets me all weepy to think of it.

Just wait for Obama to unload the feminized, military-hating base of the Democrat party (i.e., the feminists, the Washington press corps, the pagans, the atheists, the tree huggers, the earth worshippers, the Marxists, the socialists, the race baiters and the fundamentalist homosexualists) on the United States military. Then al Qaeda will be really, really scared ....

[...] Daily life, Democrats, Government, Obama administration tagged terrorism at 7:36 am by LeisureGuy Very good point: This is how it should be done. The Bush Administration derided the "police work" [...]

Oh, textee - pointing and laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

"fundamentalist homosexualists"?!?!?
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Consider, after the disappearance of trolleys, what a challenge textee meets in going off his/hers.

textee - "fundamentalist homosexuals"
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'fess up -- aren't you really a writer for the Colbert Report?

"Fundamentalist homosexuals" was pretty good. Does the prayer at bedtime start off with "Now I lay me down to eat"?

I think fundamentalist homosexualists interpret the Genesis reference as Adam and Yves, not Adam and Eve.

Back on topic, the whole "war on terror" rhetoric never made sense to me. (Not unlike the "wars" on drugs and poverty.) A "war" against Al Qaeda is like a "war" against Wal*Mart, or AARP, or Harpo Productions.

If Obama decrees that all stalls in the Pentagon's Men's Rooms be outfitted with glory holes, I'll start worrying. Until then, I think the military will be able to perform their functions without distraction.

Uhmmmm Joe Klein, how does it feel to know that you and your coworkers were probably spied on by the Bush Administration and some where your calls and emails are probably sitting in a database? Inquiring minds want to know.

Just in case you aren't familiar with what I am referring to Mr Klein
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http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/22/nsa-whistleblower-tice/

sgw, don't you know that Bush said that would never happen. Have you no respect?
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And, yes, no is an acceptable answer.

Five bucks says Klein never talks about the wiretapping of journalists.
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Ten bucks says he claims to be happy it occurred because he's got nothing to hide.

sacredh and joyomama:

Those were funny.