It's a Tough Job. But Who is Being Protected

Obama consulted widely on memos

I remember well the election of 2004 and how during each of the debates when pressed, President Bush would say that being president was a tough job. But that was only during the debates. I never heard him mention it personally or any in his administration, either before or after that election. And I feel that the reason he made the points of discussing it with the people then, was due to the fact that his opponent John Kerry, had become almost flippant in his approach to weighing and criticizing the decisions of the man he hoped to defeat.

Fast forward four years and we now have Barack Obama in the White House. He is the one making those tough decisions now. Except the decisions now are seemingly more weighty and the public must be reminded almost on a daily basis of that fact by the president or his team.

While I will agree that the weight of many decisions involving the presidency are weighty, I disagree with the necessity of continually reminding the public of that fact. To do so, comes across to me as being more concerned about personal image than with the weight or effect of the decision in the first place. The decisions are tough. That is why he was elected. We know that, we get it. Now get on with making those decisions and if the necessity arises? WE will ask you what were the facts and basis for your decision.

Yet weighted decisions are being made and reported daily by this president and I for one am of the impression that he is grossly misjudging the importance and effect of many of these decisions that he is trumpeting as examples of his leadership.

As example, his recent decision to release the memos of the Bush administration, covering and dealing with terrorism and the use of both overt and covert interrogation techniques used to obtain valuable information from those who can potentially harm millions in this country.

A decision such as this certainly has all the earmarks of weighty importance, but was it a decision that had to be made? What was the requisite necessity that required this information to be released to the "public?" Regardless of the belief of necessity of transparency, there becomes a point in time when your supposed transparency becomes dangerous to the people of this nation.

One opinion of the president's decision to release the information follows:

“I don't believe Obama would intentionally endanger the nation, so it must be that he thinks either 1. the previous administration, including the CIA professionals who have defended this program, is lying about its importance and effectiveness, or 2. he believes we are no longer really at war and no longer face the kind of grave threat to our national security this program has protected against.”

So it's either a case of the president felt that those involved in the national intelligence of this country were and are simply lying? Either that, or he believes that we are no longer at war with Islamic extremist and therefore, the necessity of secrecy involving security classification of intelligence practices no longer exists?

What form of lunacy could formulate such a bizarre extrapolation of reasoning? Neither of these reasoning's are palatable to me as justifications, no more than they are for the man who was called upon to produce them as speculative analysis of the president's decision. But what else are we left to believe, when we see and American president acting in such an irresponsible and politically motivated manner.

The unnamed former member of the Bush administration went on to conclude:

“It's damaging because these are techniques that work, and by Obama's action today, we are telling the terrorists what they are,” the official said. “We have laid it all out for our enemies. This is totally unnecessary. … Publicizing the techniques does grave damage to our national security by ensuring they can never be used again — even in a ticking-time- bomb scenario where thousands or even millions of American lives are at stake."

The defense to the release of this information, is that the president was acting under a deadline. An imposed time line by a judge and a court. Based upon the entertaining of a lawsuit brought by none other than the ACLU. Only this time? They are seeking to protect the civil liberties of non Americans against Americans. (once again. imagine that)