The GOP is as always a bundle of politically cynical contradictions.
Even before Kentucky Senator Rand Paul's half day long Senate floor filibuster
against President Obama's drone war, various GOP politicos took shots at him
for overreaching on national security. He's been lambasted for failing to close
Gitmo and his presumed willingness to continue to have the CIA and counterintelligence
forces wage overt and covert war in Afghanistan after the final troop
withdrawal. This is the same GOP that from the moment Obama announced his
presidential candidacy in 2007 did everything possible to tar him as a president
that would be a marshmallow on national defense, and more damaging, stand down on
Bush's war on terrorism. The attack was the standard page from GOP's playbook
to sully Democrats on national security. GOP presidents Reagan, Bush Sr., and
especially George W. Bush in 2004 in his reelection fight with Democratic
presidential foe Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, used this ploy masterfully
against their Democratic opponents.
The GOP strategists believed that to peg Obama with the soft-on-terrorism,
rank amateur on foreign policy smear would work in 2008. He was a liberal
Democrat, untested in foreign policy matters, had made conciliatory remarks
about Islam, was a staunch opponent of the Iraq War, and unstated, he was
African-American. The GOP plan then was simple. Hammer him relentlessly as soft
on the war on terrorism and the military, and tar him as a hopelessly
greenhorn, novice on foreign policy matters. A novice who the first time a
crisis arose would jeopardize America's security and put Americans in harm's
way
Polls consistently showed that in just about the only policy area
that GOP presidential contender John McCain beat out Obama was in his handling
of national security and the terrorism war. The issue had just enough traction
to keep McCain competitive for a time. But following Obama's election, in quick
succession, Obama went after the Somalian pirates, kept and even expanded the troubling parts of Bush's Patriot Act that
authorized wiretaps and surveillance and even preventative detention. He ratcheted
up the Afghan troop numbers, took out Bin Laden, and issued tough and secret
orders to the CIA to continue to do everything to destroy and disrupt al Qaeda.
He recently strengthened West Coast
anti-missile batteries in a tough signal to North Korea . In the 2012 election
Obama did such a good job in snatching the GOP's soft-on-terrorism ploy to
discredit Democrats from them that he outscored GOP presidential rival Mitt
Romney in public ratings on being tougher and more effective in handling the
war on terrorism and national security matters.
The GOP with its one sure fire weapon political hit weapon gone,
has looked even more feeble on foreign policy issues. It then flips the script
and latches on to Obama's drone war to paint him as a reckless president who
would trample on the rights of Americans and that includes killing them at any
hint that they are a terrorist threat, no matter how shaky the proof.
The drones appear to be just the prescribed soft spot for the
GOP's attack. There have been three
to six times more drone strikes under Obama than under Bush and t he strikes do kill,
and they have killed thousands. There is much debate and controversy over just
how surgically precise the kills are since many of those killed have been
civilians. The reports are conflicting on just how many of those that have died
have been innocent victims. Some reports put the numbers in the hundreds. The
case can and has been made by some Democrats who are rightly troubled by the
danger of over reach with a secretive drone war, that targeting of Americans mocks
due process and constitutional precepts. Obama's failure to fully disclose how and where the drones are used makes
him an even bigger target for attack.
The biggest
criticism is that the drone war is no substitute for a comprehensive strategy
of diplomacy, goodwill, and firm initiatives to strengthen U.S. partnerships
and alliances with allies in the region. The criticisms notwithstanding, a GOP
president would have done the same as Obama and launched preemptive strikes,
and the likelihood that Paul and the GOP would have characterized him as a
civil liberties abuser and a villain is nil.
Obama like any
president will reach for any weapon that will strengthen national security without
the risk of American lives. The constant ramp up of new weapons technology and
their capacity to kill especially by robotic control insures that they will be
used more frequently. Whether their use is right or morally defensible is a
moot point for administrations since ethics and morality will never trump
safeguarding the nation's security.
The Obama drone war controversy won't go away. And the GOP's
hypocrisy on this in slamming Obama on it won't either.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is
an associate editor of New America Media. He also hosts the Hutchinson Report
Newsmaker Hour on KTYM Radio Los Angeles streamed on ktym.com podcast on
blogtalkradio.com and internet TV broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com.
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Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson