Victor Davis Hanson…
What I call “Securitygate” ”” the release of the most intricate details about the cyber war against Iran, the revelations about a Yemeni double-agent, disclosures about covert operations in and against Pakistan, intimate details about the Osama bin Laden raid and the trove of information taken from his compound, and the Predator drone assassination list and the president’s methodology in selecting targets ”” is far more serious than either prior scandal [Watergate or Iran-Contra]. David Sanger and others claim that all this was sort of in the public domain anyway; well, “sort of” covers a lot of ground. We sort of knew about the cyber war against Iran, but not to the detail that Sanger provides and not through the direct agency of the Obama administration itself.
Here is the crux of the scandal: Obama is formulating a new policy of avoiding overt unpopular engagements, while waging an unprecedented covert war across the world. He’s afraid that the American people do not fully appreciate these once-secret efforts and might in 2012 look only at his mishaps in Afghanistan or his public confusion over Islamic terror. Ergo, feed information to a Sanger or Ignatius so that they can skillfully inform us, albeit with a bit of dramatic “shock” and “surprise,” just how tough, brutal, and deadly Barack Obama really is.
Yet these disclosures will endanger our national security, especially in the case of a soon-to-be-nuclear Iran. They will probably get people killed or tortured, and they will weaken America’s ability for years to work covertly with allies. Our state-to-state relations will be altered, and perhaps even the techniques and technology of our cyber and special operations wars dispersed into the wrong hands. There is nothing in the recent “exclusive” writings of David Sanger or David Ignatius that was necessary for the American people to know at this stage, unless one thinks that we had a right to the full story of the Doolittle Raid in 1942, or that Americans by July 1944 needed an insider account of the date and planning of D-Day, or that we should have been apprised about what was really going on in New Mexico in 1944…
[In Securitygate, the] press were lapdogs, not bull terriers. The leakers were not misguided whistle-blowers, but careerist insiders. We don’t quite have an investigative press these days, but rather a Ministry of Truth put in charge of Barack Obama’s public relations…
Read the whole thing.
interpretations are always in a context.
if the context is that this is honest and incompetent and so on.. then Hanson is quite right
but, Hanson keeps that context or else he would be marginalized… so does the author of liberal fascism… Goldberg.
but lets take another strategic look
ie… if Obama is supporting external powers, knowing that his term is 4 years, maybe 8, but the pay backs can go beyond him and to his children’s lives.
Obama is formulating a new policy of avoiding overt unpopular engagements, while waging an unprecedented covert war across the world.
that sentence makes no sense…
whats going on is not covert…
so he is not avoiding overt unpopular engagements… he is just not engaging classically, as if the new means will not be unpopular…
ie. you don’t like me using a gun, let me try a hammer…
however, the big problem is NOT a new strategy… its that when one operates covertly, one cant take credit for things that happen.
can you imagine a narcissist following Jesus advice over the actions of the hypocrites?
i am sorry to bring up the bible, but it has the most easy to understand lesson as to the hypocrites.
since Obama dont believe in God, or jesus being renagado… he has a problem following the doctrine of matthew 6
now, if you don’t believe there is a father in heaven, or its collective… how do you let the people know the positive things your doing in the dark to collect for it?
in fact, if you have read the bible or torah, you would have already been advised as to this.
1) when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others
2) And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.
3) When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting.
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
which does he despise?
which is he devoted to?
he told you bout reverend wright, and attended church for the show of it. all one has to do is look at his attendance and such, and you can see that he is using the church to put a front up.
and that is what hanson is seeing as the context is to give him the benefit of the doubt to keep publishing.
but what it is… is stalin..
and sociopathic narcissism..
obama wants to be a star, not a star on a wall with no name.
“I got very well acquainted with Joe Stalin, and I like old Joe! He is a decent fellow. But Joe is a prisoner of the Politburo. ” Truman
Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party. Stalin
Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed. Stalin
“Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.” Stalin
(so give them bad ideas)
Obama is giving away secrets that if anyone else did it, they would go to jail. he is revealing things to his friends, and ingratiating himself among the ‘friends’ he uses. he is ALSO fomenting outcomes that favor his seizing things.
in case you havent noticed, the muslim brotherhood is in control of eqypt. a murder band has already come over the border killing and israel has moved tanks into place, while putin is supplying weapons, and moving his navy in palce before we can move ours (remember the 6 day war?)
he is basically throwing the game to the other side… said so since day one… but the other side does not treat him nicely… because he is a traitor… no one, not even those using a traitor, trusts him.
which is something these wormy people NEVER learn through their history studies. they believe that they are heroes for the other side who will celebrate them and their work, but the other side sees them as traitors… tools… and not to be trusted beyond their usefulness…
IDF tanks move closer to Egypt border
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4243969,00.html
Black Sea Fleet ships ready to go to Syrian coast — General Staff
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/448445.html
🙁
VDH is right . He usually is.
As CiC, Obama gets to decide what info to release–he can do so without breaking the law. That was a good reason to not make him CiC.
This is the most indignant wound of all. That Obama should be judged more capable and competent than Romney on foreign affairs, terrorism and national security.
How grievous it will be to the whole world that Obama failed to support the Iran revolution but support the Egyptian one. How grievous that Obama ensures Putin of “flexibility.” How grievous of Obama to isolate Israel, withdraw from Iraq, and, of course, endanger all our covert activities with his knowing and planned leaks to facilitate his election.
Let judgment be made, his picture hung upside down in all the federal halls, and let him be despised and exiled.
VDH is consistently the best on this whole affair which he’s been addressing at NRO for some time.
Barry does not really care. The great unwashed masses in flyover country are too stupid to figure out that he is so great. He has to “leak” the reasons for his greatness. He has the dinosaur media to cover his back and point out how he is saving the planet. The most important thing is that the One is reelected, and continues to lower the level of the oceans.
Back in FDR’s time, such leaks would have gotten the leaker into serious trouble, up to and including execution. Today, it is far more likely to give the recipient of the leak a Pulitzer prize.
But it does seem that the leaking has not helped craft the image of Obama, the great warrior, that the leaks were intended to do. All it shows is that he will do anything to get re-elected.
Ideological true believers place their ideology’s agenda above all other considerations. When morality is solely defined by the advancement of that ideology, anything which accomplishes that advancement is by definition, the highest good. Obama’s reelection is therefore their highest priority.
Obama and his administration are simply following their moral compass. National Security isn’t even a consideration. Better that this country and even the world be destroyed than acceptance of a reality in which their ideology fails to triumph.
Thus Obama, his administration and his most devout supporters have more in common with Iran’s religious fanatics than many Americans realize.
“The great unwashed masses in flyover country are too stupid to figure out that he is so great.”
After his first campaign against Rush and subsequent defeat; BHO hasn’t faced a real test. This time, all of Romney’s limitations aside, he is in a real fight. He may be so vain as to believe he will prevail simply because the MSM has his back and starlets adore him, but I believe enough of the unwashed masses have seen through his rhetoric and snarky bombast to bring him down in November.
And its not only the economy stupid. Fast & Furious and this blatant attempt to make him out to be a warrior by leaking highly secret and critical intelligence info will continue to dog Team Obama for the rest of the summer and into the fall campaign. Contact your representatives and senators and let them know you demand answers to both of these very serious scandals. Do so on a weekly basis. First Holder is thrown under the bus and then BHO is a deer in the headlights.
Un huh.
The Israeli group Latma says it all at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_c-1Wl_Gag
These aren’t ever leaks in the sense that the NYT reporters were put in touch with their numerous sources (over 3 dozen for the drone story) by the White House. No “Deep Throat(s)” needed when they’re handed to you on a silver platter.
And that’s what is so distressing about these stories. National security personnel willingly, and by appearances, with approval from the president, violated security clearance by revealing information about ongoing, top secret operations to reporters. And we certainly didn’t hear Obama or anyone else in the White House condemning these “leaks” when the stories were printed.
“And we certainly didn’t hear Obama or anyone else in the White House condemning these “leaks” when the stories were printed.”
Tell that to your lefty friends at your next dinner party, and see the total lack of comprehension flash behind their eyes.
Then say “Plame”.
…oh, you’ll still see the total lack of comprehension well enough, but the irony will run deep in the ensuing tsunami of Bush recrimination. You’ll have that, at least.
Does that make me sound bitter? – I’m thinking I’m sounding bitter of late.
Apparently, his talk with Putin at the G20 didn’t go so well, and the Brits have stopped a Russian ship carrying arms to Syria. This Onion report should go viral.
http://www.theonion.com/video/obama-to-enter-diplomatic-talks-with-raging-wildfi,14374/
It should be easy to tie this to the leaks as further proof of foreign policy incompetence.
I would really like to see Mitt prosecute the NYT and Wapo for these releases. I can’t wait to hear the defense: “You can’t prosecute us for unauthorized release of classifed information, it was authorized by the President!”