Obama’s Safe and Cozy Pretend World

Disingenuous talk on torture and Guantanamo.

June 15, 2009 - by Mike McNally
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Obama’s remarks were bad enough even before they were thrown into sharp relief by the murder of Private William Long in Arkansas by an Islamist fanatic. Bush kept America safe for seven-and-a-half years; if you apply the lazy logic of the left, Obama managed to keep the country safe for a little over four months. But Obama — who never misses an opportunity to allude to “fearmongering” by his predecessor and by his current opposition — must pretend that America’s security has been endangered by Guantanamo so that he can scare people into supporting his policies.

Most compelling of Obama’s disingenuous arguments is that Guantanamo and waterboarding have caused Americans to abandon the moral high ground — that we’re no better than the terrorists they’re fighting. But again, the president is pretending. Guantanamo is an imperfect solution to a problem not of America’s making. And no one, Obama included, has yet come close to devising a better one.

When American forces “torture” terror suspects, they do so as a last resort in order to save innocent lives. When the jihadists torture their victims, it’s recreational — they inflict pain for their own gratification and to intimidate those who would resist them.

Thankfully, it’s becoming increasingly evident that for all of Obama’s rhetorical sleight of hand, the American public is unconvinced. The plot to indict former Bush officials over the “torture memos” backfired spectacularly, with Pelosi the main victim. Moderate Democrats have rebelled against Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo. And Dick Cheney’s national security speech, which effectively demolished each of Obama’s arguments minutes after he presented them, ended the president’s monopoly on moralizing and got the public to discuss the substance of the issues.

Polling on Guantanamo and torture suggest Americans are either evenly split on the two issues or support the use of torture in exceptional circumstances by a small majority and support keeping Guantanamo open by a large majority. Given that years of MSM propaganda has both prevented people from learning the facts and led them to answer pollsters with the “correct” positions rather than with what they truly think, the actual numbers are likely a lot higher.

Human nature makes us want to feel good about ourselves and to believe the best about others. In the case of terrorism, it’s easier and more comforting to believe that someone wants to do bad things to you because you’ve done bad things to them, rather than because of the good which you stand for. Because it follows that if you stop, they’ll stop.

Which is much more palatable than the alternative, which is that this won’t end unless we kill the terrorists and defeat their ideology, or they kill us and destroy our way of life.

In an imperfect and dangerous world, the left likes to pretend that we can always do exactly what we’d like to do in a perfect one. That’s why the make-believe world that Obama offers is so seductive. And that’s why it’s vitally important that those who have the facts to counter his rhetoric, and the moral courage to hold and explain unpopular positions, keep reminding America and the world of the reality.

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Mike McNally blogs at Monkey Tennis Centre.

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13 Comments

1. Realist:

The leader Obambi most resembles in his ‘all things to all men but do what I say’ mentality is Hitler. Very soon ‘neolibs’ are going to have to come out of the closet or pull their heads out of the sand and admit this. Either that or they are going to have to accept that just like Hitler a foreign born charismatic speaker (or in Obambi’s case Teleprompter Reader) can take over a rabid socialist left wing organisation, in Hitlers case the The National SOCIALIST German WORKERS Party (NAZIS) or in Obambi’s case the Democratic Party (NEOLIBS) and suborn them to HIS will and worship of him as supreme leader. We already have the Obambi personality cult and the LIAR Messiah is worshiped by gullible,hysterical ,emotional fools. 96% of Black Americans in a disgusting display of blatant barefaced RACISM voted for him. Just imagine the MSM’s outcry, outrage and disgust if 96% of Whites voted for McCain.

Jun 15, 2009 - 1:20 am 2. Aqua:

“He also pretended that the mere fact of Guantanamo’s existence has damaged America’s standing in the eyes of the world, rather than the relentless and mendacious campaign waged against it by Democrats, activist lawyers, assorted celebrities, and the media.

Closing the detention center will not appease those people … if detainees are moved to the U.S. then Supermax or Fort Leavenworth will quickly replace Gitmo in the lexicon of anti-Americanism.”

Yes, of course. When appeasement is made to aggressive power grabbers, it’s important to assess what their inevitable next demand will be — as most assuredly there will always be a “next.”

Wasn’t one of the Obama-endorsed books by terrorist Ayres written on the topic of the evils of our current prison system?

Jun 15, 2009 - 3:07 am 3. Aqua:

“Human nature makes us want to feel good about ourselves and to believe the best about others. In the case of terrorism, it’s easier and more comforting to believe that someone wants to do bad things to you because you’ve done bad things to them, rather than because of the good which you stand for. Because it follows that if you stop, they’ll stop.

Which is much more palatable than the alternative, which is that this won’t end unless we kill the terrorists and defeat their ideology, or they kill us and destroy our way of life.

In an imperfect and dangerous world, the left likes to pretend that we can always do exactly what we’d like to do in a perfect one.”

Yes. Except that it isn’t “human” nature. Of course, we treat our friends, allies and those who share values with us to this “benefit of the doubt,” and “do unto others as you would have them to unto you.” But it’s Liberal Left American and perhaps certain European nature to project this way of thought on everyone, including those who see it as laughable. It’s a way of thought that endows belief in the control of other people’s behavior by our own behavior. Very “empowering,” but purely fantastical.

Richard Landes has written at length on the topic and similar thought behaviors. This one, “Cognitive Egocentricism” — is “the projection of one’s own mentality or “way of seeing the world” onto others… [even on those whose own belief system is rather] “rule or be ruled…”
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/reflections-from-second-draft/cognitive-egocentrism/

Jun 15, 2009 - 3:15 am 4. Delia:

Wha–? No cosmic cotton candy clouds? No non-stinging bumble bees buzzing? I want a refund.

Jun 15, 2009 - 8:24 am 5. Marc Malone:

Is waterboarding torture? Try this. If your kid is kidnapped, are you down with waterboarding one of the kidnappers to get your kid back safely? Where do you draw the line? Pulling out fingernails? Electroshocking genitals? The protests doth fall apart.

Jun 15, 2009 - 11:01 am 6. Mike:

Movies and media have exposed us to fictional representations of people making difficult decisions about when and how to use torture. Dramas often force individuals to debate with themselves the morals of a particular situation.

One problem with Obama’s rhetoric to date is that he assumes that there are no gray lines when it comes to what he calls torture. He has reserved the definition of torture to himself, with the expectation that everyone will agree with his definition. He explains that there are no circumstances that justify its use, but an intellectual argument would consider both sides, no matter what the legal or moral conclusion.

If Obama’s argument is not intellectual, then his position on tortue would appear to be based on faith or religion. Applying a religious argument to a divisive matter is a symptom of a grave conflict in Obama’s character. He wants us to believe that people can reconcile different opinions by talking, but in this case he denies the merits of an opposing viewpoint, hence there can be no discussion.

Looking at Obama through the lens of his own logic, it would appear that the rift between his idealogy and the application of that idealogy is growing.

Jun 15, 2009 - 12:24 pm 7. Aqua:

TO THE WEB MASTER —

I DIDN’T, REPEAT — DIDN’T — CHECK THE “REMEMBER PERSONAL INFO” BOX. NEVERTHELESS, MY “NAME” AND EMAIL ADDRESS KEEP SHOWING UP NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I DELETE THEM OR REPLACE THEM WITH XXX. CAN YOU HELP ME GET THIS DELETED? I KNOW IT THE EMAIL ADDRESS DOESN’T APPEAR ON YOUR BLOG, BUT I’D FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE FOR SEVERAL REASONS IF THIS EMAIL ADDRESS AND NOM DE PLUME DIDN’T REMAIN. OTHERWISE, WHY THE “CHOICE?” HONESTLY, I WOULDN’T HAVE SENT A COMMENT IF I THOUGHT THIS WOULD GET STUCK ON MY COMPUTER.

THANKS FOR HELPING OUT.

Jun 15, 2009 - 2:14 pm 8. Aquabat:

Aqua, clear the cookies in your browser.

Jun 15, 2009 - 3:26 pm 9. asv:

Bravo Aqua-

Thanks for the reference to the Landes book. Many commentators refer to cognitive egocentrism as “mirror imaging” but never flesh out how it works and the consequences.

Jun 16, 2009 - 3:53 am 10. ashok:

I have to thank you for this post – it is a really useful summary of where the torture issue has gone so far.

Someone could say this: “Torture is distasteful, it’s important the American people think it isn’t happening when it actually is happening.” Now this is a very cynical position, but what it would do is protect President Obama’s having the issue both ways while slandering President Bush. Even though the position is cynical, one can see how it protects the government from ever more frequent populist backlashes in an increasingly open society.

In order to counter that argument most effectively, we really have to ask whether or not President Obama constantly attacking President Bush is a good thing. It’s actually a terrible thing when there can’t be anything like unity over the most basic security issues, when we can’t agree that Americans being safe is a good thing. The lie being perpetrated against President Bush/VP Cheney is incredibly dangerous: people are believing, as you rightly argue, that a gov’t can exist which protects people by doing nothing to protect them. In order to test that proposition, which is literally wishful thinking, one has to give terrorists and their ilk the initiative while attacking one’s own security establishment.

I know. It seems like I’m ranting. But those of you aware of how much high moral ground torture opponents are claiming is theirs know exactly where I’m coming from: we can’t afford for reality to give us all a wake up call in this case, and therefore we need the debate to engage the realities of power quickly, for the sake of all Americans and their allies.

Jun 16, 2009 - 7:46 am 11. Albert:

“When American forces “torture” terror suspects, they do so as a last resort in order to save innocent lives. When the jihadists torture their victims, it’s recreational — they inflict pain for their own gratification and to intimidate those who would resist them.”

..and how do you know the above statement is true? You wish! You are engaging in what is called the ‘Fundamental Attribution Error’; their gang does bad things because they are evil, my gang does bad things because circumstances force us to do so. Further, the more committed you are to your gang, the more blatant the error. I’d hazard you are pretty committed to your gang, given the complete lack of even an attempt to provide a reference for your claim.

Jun 16, 2009 - 9:38 am 12. Aqua:

Uhh, thanks “Aquabat” (or is that me?) — how embarrassing.

Jun 16, 2009 - 11:17 am 13. Ms. Attitude:

Go to Atlasshrugs.com and watch the torture videos. That will open your eyes.

Jun 16, 2009 - 12:42 pm

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