Amongst certain of the literati, it even became a badge of honor to have been named on the Nixon Enemies List, sort of like getting your Leftist props, don't-cha-know. OS remembers Gore Vidal getting a lot of mileage on the literary circuit thereby.
And, the Times, hypocritical and corrupt as it was and is, was correct to raise unshirted perdition on the matter, because it cut at the heart of civilized life, and was a portent of a totalitarian state.
Now, we have Barack Hussein Obama, WinnerOfTheNobelPeacePrize, President of the United States, in the White House, calling in drone strikes on his own personal list of terrorists.
It has been clear for years that the Obama administration believes the shadow war on terrorism gives it the power to choose targets for assassination, including Americans, without any oversight. On Tuesday, The New York Times revealed who was actually making the final decision on the biggest killings and drone strikes: President Obama himself. And that is very troubling.
Well, yes, it is troubling, gentlemen. You're just now catching on?
It is too easy to say that this is a natural power of a commander in
chief. The United States cannot be in a perpetual war on terror that
allows lethal force against anyone, anywhere, for any perceived threat.
That power is too great, and too easily abused, as those who lived
through the George W. Bush administration will remember.
Mr. Obama, who campaigned against some of those abuses in 2008, should
remember. But the Times article, written by Jo Becker and Scott Shane,
depicts him as personally choosing every target, approving every major
drone strike in Yemen and Somalia and the riskiest ones in Pakistan,
assisted only by his own aides and a group of national security
operatives. Mr. Obama relies primarily on his counterterrorism adviser,
John Brennan.
To his credit, Mr. Obama believes he should take moral responsibility
for these decisions, and he has read the just-war theories of Augustine
and Thomas Aquinas.
Damn. That last bit of information should make us all feel better, right? This is what Lyndon Johnson was doing in the Oval Office during the Vietnam war, personally calling in and choosing airstrike targets--this little bridge here, that village there. This one lives, this one dies, this pilot gets to get shot down, this one goes home--all on the whim of Lyndon's mercurical moods.
Of course, right around the corner from this sort of thing (just down that slippery slope over yonder) lie the Salvadoran death squads, the Disappeared of Argentina, the Chinese and Vietnamese 're-education' camps.
We are closer to that corner and slope than ever.
OS is happy discover that the editors of the YewNorkTimez have finally located their bollocks, if ever so tentatively. What he truly awaits is the editorial that indicates they have located their consciences as well, the one that states:
It is incumbent upon the editorial staff of a large urban paper, when lending its support to a Presidential candidate and regime, to actually investigate what manner of man they intend to endorse. In the case of Barack Obama, we failed in our duty, so carried away were we with his charisma, his skin color, and our unshakeable faith in the politics of The Left. This man is unfit for office, and whatever ideological reservations we may have concerning Mr. Romney, we have had enough experience with him over the years to know that he is a sober adult possessed of a conscience. The same cannot be said of the current occupant of the Oval Office, and we urge his removal via the electoral process this November.
OS will not be holding his breath waiting for such an editorial.
