Of course, a lot of people - on seeing the cover and the title - will dismiss it and lump it under the umbrella of conspiracy theory. Leftists will for sure. I think it would be hard for them to make that case though, as a great deal of the book focuses on the actions Obama has taken that are pretty much public record, including commentary from both critics and adherents of Obama, from senators to journalists.
The book documents his rise; showing you what influenced him growing up, who is mentors were (socialists), who he surrounded himself with once he became President (socialists again). It shows his pandering to Islamic nations, his alienating of America's traditional allies, his attack on free speech and economics, his internationalist aspirations, the White House's refusal to use the terms "jihad", "war on terror", and certainly never to use "Islam" and "terrorism" in the same sentence for fear of insulting Islam.
If Obama isn't a Muslim (and the book doesn't make that claim in black and white), there is no mistaking his Muslim heritage, the many "outreaches" he has made toward Muslims at home and abroad, and the lack of criticism of Sharia and it's many abuses of human rights and the rights of women.
Having finished reading the book, I couldn't make a comment about Obama any better than the one attributed to George W. Bush when he was supposed to have come in fuming one day and said of Obama, "This is a dangerous world, and this cat isn't remotely qualified to handle it. This guy has no clue, I promise you".
If he said it, it was very prescient.
[update] the Bush quote above is not from the book; in fact, Bush is not mentioned a whole lot. I thought I'd better mention this fact due to the comment by Psycho Milt below. Although I personally think Bush was a better President, this comparison is not made in the book, and it is my view and not the author's.
A must read book - 5/5 stars
Given the spectacular and hilarious irony of the last sentence, is the intent of the post satirical?
ReplyDeletePM, I happen to think that Bush was a very good President. A writer in the Telegraph thinks that he will go down in history as a very good president, and why not? Once you get past all the media BS, he actually did a very good job. At least he did what he believed was right, stood up and defended his country, while all Obama can do is apologize for America.
ReplyDeleteI guess the people who think that Bush was a very good President are in the same camp as those who laude reagan while ignoring the growth of the State under Reagan was the biggest in any President's term.
ReplyDeleteI'm not particularly surprised that conservatives are pleased with a PotUS who invaded and occupied other countries, legitimised torture as an interrogation method, loved a good execution and was a poster boy for corruption and crony capitalism, but I really am surprised that conservatives are pleased with a president who oversaw significant growth in federal spending and left his successor a truly colossal level of public debt.
ReplyDeleteAs to Obama - if his predecessor hadn't left him two unpopular wars of occupation, an economy in the toilet and that public debt mountain, he probably would have had an easier couple of years.
PM, public debt? Excuse me? Are we talking about the same POTUS that just spent $13 trillion dollars and rising? Bush never spent anything like that - neither has any other president. As for torture, Obama ignores the worse torture that's happening in Islamic countries that he is approaching with an outstretched hand. Obama believed torture was wrong enough when he released the so-called "torture memos" but not the classified information that showed the success behind the effort. Dick Cheney said -
ReplyDelete: "One of the things I find distubing about this recent disclosure ..... is they put out the legal memos but they didn't put out the memos that show the success of the effort. There are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. I have now formally asked that they be declassified now"
"They are not telling the whole story". "If you're going to have this debate, let's have an honest debate".
I do not find the Left patriotic at all. They attack their own country and leaders repeatedly, weakening America as a whole. I wish for once, that people were willing to stand up for their own country FFS.
Also, there is no doubt that "waterboarding" (although I do not like it), according to a Justice Dept memo dated May 30th 2005, "led to the discovery of a KSM plot, the 'second wave' to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into a building in Los Angeles - the Liberty Tower, the tallest building in the West.(LINK)
Would you rather those people had died?
ps, President Bush made a statement about this also -
ReplyDeleteIn this new war, the enemy conspires in secret -- and often the only source of information on what the terrorists are planning is the terrorists themselves. So we established a program at the Central Intelligence Agency to question key terrorist leaders and operatives captured in the war on terror. This program has produced critical intelligence that has helped us stop a number of attacks -- including a plot to strike the U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti, a planned attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi, a plot to hijack a passenger plane and fly it into Library Tower in Los Angeles, California, or a plot to fly passenger planes into Heathrow Airport and buildings into downtown London.
Despite the record of success, and despite the fact that our professionals use lawful techniques, the CIA program has come under renewed criticism in recent weeks. Those who oppose this vital tool in the war on terror need to answer a simple question: Which of the attacks I have just described would they prefer we had not stopped? Without this program, our intelligence community believes that al Qaeda and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland. This CIA program has saved lives -- it is vital to the security of the American people.
According to Theissen, Obama's dismantling this programme endangers America (from the preface to this book - Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack)
President Obama declared our intelligence professionals had committed "torture." They did nothing of the sort. And while Obama's revelations have done enormous damage to our national security, they have also made it possible to prove that he is wrong.
Now, for the first time, the true story can finally be told: the story of how dedicated men and women at the Central Intelligence Agency went head-to-head with the world's most dangerous terrorists, got them to tell us their plans, and kept America safe for eight years; this is the story of how Barack Obama has exposed their secrets to the enemy, unilaterally disarmed us in the face of terror, and invited the next attack.
Again, Obama is an idiot...
Yes, public debt. Dubya inherited an economy in good shape with a low level of public debt, and left his successor a trashed economy and enormous public debt. We can't really say what Obama would be doing if he'd inherited an economy in good shape and a low level of public debt, because he had the misfortune to follow Bush.
ReplyDeleteRe the torture, your argument seems to be that it's OK because it works - ie, the ends justify the means. I have a couple of issues with this: first, you might want to review Lucia Maria's post below about moral relativism; second, if it was actually true, we're left to wonder how many lives were lost because the Bush administration lacked the courage to torture people properly, the way Saddam used to.
PM, except now it has gone the other way, thanks to Obama. You can see Jon Stewart interviewing Mark Theisssen HERE and he aquits himself very well, I think. He makes the point that now under Obama, the Americans have to conform to the Army Field Handbook that doesn't even allow interrogation that is lawful even to police officers in New York. They can't even look evilly at an enemy now.
ReplyDeleteObama is demoralizing those who keep America safe, and making them powerless. In November 2009, three Navy SEALS captured Ahmed Hashim Abed, the mastermind of the killing and horrible mutilation of Americans in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. These SEALS, instead of being hailed as heroes, were faced with court-martial because Abed emerged with a bleeding lip... awwwww. The SEALS were so angry about the court martial proceedings that they talked about not taking any more prisoners.
I believe in treating POWs right, but Obama is going overboard...
The Democrats and Republicans have been guilty of "big government" spending and intervention. More thye shame to the Republicans because they supposedly see the dangers in this.
ReplyDeleteHowever, your point that Bush ruined the economy, needs to include the actions of the Democrats prior to Bush. He bears responsibility for missing the opportunity to reverse their damage, but then you'd also have to look to the senate, which can be controlled by the Democrats in even with a Republican President (and vice versa).