Al Queda's Second In Command Vaporized
I am curious as to why the president didn't have a press conference to celebrate this yesterday?
It's quite an accomplishment (a big fu(king deal, as Joe Biden would say) We got Al Quada's second in command in a drone strike ordered by the president yesterday!
Several missiles were fired at a suspected hideout, near the Afghanistan border in Pakistan, early Monday morning, killing al-Libi and an estimated 4 to 15 bystanders.
(http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/06/05/abu_yahya_al-libi_72354832_fullwidth_620x350.jpg)
Of course the Pakistani people are getting all pissy about this, and their government is upset
(http://cbswashington.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/143660187-e1338918815486.jpg?w=300)
Man! This beats the old days when we had to capture these bozos and pour water down their noses to get them to tell us where their buddies are. Then we had to feed them, clothe them, give them prayer rugs and DirectTV. They stayed in GITMO for a while then when we were done with them they would get released. What a pain in the donkey.
Now it's just a game of Whack-a-Mole. Venture out of your cave to get a burger and BOOM! you and everyone around you gets dead. We fly right into a sovereign country without permission using a CIA drone and off these dirt-bags.
You know why we aren't using military aircraft or drones? Because that would require congressional approval under the War Powers Act. By using the CIA, President Obama can decide who to kill in the morning and get results by the afternoon. So far this has resulted in 1,277 confirmed terrorist kills in the last three years. Here's a cool map: Obama's Kills (https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111611283754323549630.00047e8cdfc55d220dee7&ll=33.100745,70.444336&spn=4.41699,7.03125&t=p&z=7&source=embed)
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/06/05/u-s-official-al-qaedas-no-2-killed-in-drone-strike/
Now there's real no data on the "collateral damage," but hey, if you're hanging out with a terrorist you probably deserve to die. Am I right?
So if a Republican ever makes it into office and does the same thing will you just post "USA USA USA"?
Quote from: Townsend on June 05, 2012, 02:04:12 PM
So if a Republican ever makes it into office and does the same thing will you just post "USA USA USA"?
I'll post it now USA USA USA!
Our drones can kick any country's honor student's asses!
Quote from: Gaspar on June 05, 2012, 02:28:02 PM
Our drones can kick any country's honor student's asses!
So far.
How many times have we killed the second-in-command? It seems to be a bad job.
I think if I was third-in-charge, I would resist getting a promotion.
Quote from: RecycleMichael on June 05, 2012, 03:05:35 PM
How many times have we killed the second-in-command? It seems to be a bad job.
I think if I was third-in-charge, I would resist getting a promotion.
Hail Hydra.
I'm just glad we're not engaging in so called "enhanced interrogation tactics."
We should have just done one of those good old-fashioned CIA coups on Saddam Hussein and Bush would have looked brilliant. It's not like he didn't have any contacts in the agency. :P
Quote from: Conan71 on June 05, 2012, 03:42:56 PM
We should have just done one of those good old-fashioned CIA coups on Saddam Hussein and Bush would have looked brilliant. It's not like he didn't have any contacts in the agency. :P
Seriously!
Quote from: Gaspar on June 05, 2012, 04:01:16 PM
Seriously!
And saved $ 2 trillion, plus the lives of more than 4,000 of our kids!
Seriously is right!
Got to meet and visit with some of the people from the 160th field artillery and 180th infantry brigades during their Yellow Ribbon event last weekend. Really great bunch of people! They all look so young - even the 30 somethings! Grandson is back!
Gaspar, you don't sound that far off from most Republicans. They deny that Obama has had any foreign policy successes (note Romney's 'F' grade..really, Romneybot, there's nothing about Obama's foreign policy you like?) and claim that what we need to fix the economy is more of what we've been doing for the last year or two since the stimulus wore off. Be careful, it's bizarro-world out there.
(I may have misread sarcasm into your post, if so, sorry)
It's like we are spawn killing alquida #2. Poor bastards.
I have problems with the drone program. Notably, of China had a super spy plane and was offing people in the USA they considered undesirable I'd have a serious problem with it.
BUT, we are at war with these guys. They readily admit, on film, they want to kill us and are trying on a daily basis. Pakistan doesn't have thevpolitical will to do anything about it. I'm pretty sure we don't want to invade Pakistan and Yemen. I have my doubts, but grant that it is an effective means to the end. On decades past the same thing happened and we just said "nope, cars sometimes explode. Wasn't us." That doesn't make it right... but it is effective. I suspect a republican president would continue the course of action or decimated.
I have mixed opinions... but overall at least the president is taking decisive action that costs the least blood (on both sides) and treasure. Alt
Quote from: Gaspar on June 05, 2012, 02:01:06 PM
Al Queda's Second In Command Vaporized
I am curious as to why the president didn't have a press conference to celebrate this yesterday?
It's quite an accomplishment (a big fu(king deal, as Joe Biden would say) We got Al Quada's second in command in a drone strike ordered by the president yesterday!
Several missiles were fired at a suspected hideout, near the Afghanistan border in Pakistan, early Monday morning, killing al-Libi and an estimated 4 to 15 bystanders.
(http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/06/05/abu_yahya_al-libi_72354832_fullwidth_620x350.jpg)
Of course the Pakistani people are getting all pissy about this, and their government is upset
(http://cbswashington.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/143660187-e1338918815486.jpg?w=300)
Man! This beats the old days when we had to capture these bozos and pour water down their noses to get them to tell us where their buddies are. Then we had to feed them, clothe them, give them prayer rugs and DirectTV. They stayed in GITMO for a while then when we were done with them they would get released. What a pain in the donkey.
Now it's just a game of Whack-a-Mole. Venture out of your cave to get a burger and BOOM! you and everyone around you gets dead. We fly right into a sovereign country without permission using a CIA drone and off these dirt-bags.
You know why we aren't using military aircraft or drones? Because that would require congressional approval under the War Powers Act. By using the CIA, President Obama can decide who to kill in the morning and get results by the afternoon. So far this has resulted in 1,277 confirmed terrorist kills in the last three years. Here's a cool map: Obama's Kills (https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111611283754323549630.00047e8cdfc55d220dee7&ll=33.100745,70.444336&spn=4.41699,7.03125&t=p&z=7&source=embed)
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/06/05/u-s-official-al-qaedas-no-2-killed-in-drone-strike/
Now there's real no data on the "collateral damage," but hey, if you're hanging out with a terrorist you probably deserve to die. Am I right?
2 Kings 14:8
"Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face. (9) And Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle. (10) Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up: glory of this, and tarry at home: for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?"
Can you translate that to English?
Quote from: nathanm on June 05, 2012, 07:39:23 PM
Can you translate that to English?
Don't gloat.
Pride goes before the fall.
Be careful what you wish for - it might backfire on you.
Paraphrased.
Drones suck, says....brother of killed terrorist.
QuoteThe attack is likely to fuel an increasingly fierce debate about the legality and morality of the drones, which have become one of the chief U.S. weapons against al Qaeda but which opponents say stretch the definition of the legitimate use of lethal force.
"The United States talks human rights and freedoms for all, but the method they used to kill him is savage," Abu Bakr al-Qayed, brother of al-Libi, told Reuters on Wednesday in a telephone interview.
"The way the Americans killed him is heinous and inhumane," he said, speaking from the town of Wadi Otba, south of the Libyan capital. "We are in the 21st century and they claim to be civilized and this is how they take out people."
"Regardless of my brother's ideology, or beliefs, he was a human being and at the end of the day deserves humane treatment," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/06/us-usa-qaeda-drone-idUSBRE8551B820120606
Now, altogether... "AWWWWWWWWWWW". I wonder how ol' bro would have felt if this guy took out that terrorist sh!t stain.
(http://bossip.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/luka-rocco-magnotta.jpg)
If you look at drone strikes, Obama looks tough in the war on terror.
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111611283754323549630.00047e8cdfc55d220dee7&ll=33.100745%2C70.444336&spn=4.41699%2C7.03125&t=p&z=7&source=embed
Quote from: TeeDub on June 07, 2012, 10:22:36 PM
If you look at drone strikes, Obama looks tough in the war on terror.
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111611283754323549630.00047e8cdfc55d220dee7&ll=33.100745%2C70.444336&spn=4.41699%2C7.03125&t=p&z=7&source=embed
I have no problem with this approach to the WOT.
Quote from: guido911 on June 07, 2012, 10:24:38 PM
I have no problem with this approach to the WOT.
Perhaps you might let Romney in on that. He might raise Obama's foreign policy grade from an F to a D. I think that was one of the most legitimately clueless things he's said the entire campaign. The gaffes merely reflect either straight misspeaking or a certain cluelessness about how to communicate with the not-wealthy, not anything particularly substantive policy-wise like his talk about Obama's foreign policy.
I'm not against this, but I do have a problem with how it's being carried out.
It's just funny that the Left would get so upset at his predecessors for capturing terrorists, interrogating them, and holding them with out due process of law, but has no problem with lobbing hellfire missiles at them along with any innocents that happen to be in their vicinity at the time.
Seems like a bit of a stark double standard, but then again, I understand liberal positions on liberty are more aligned with the maintenance of power than real convictions.
The only problem that I have is that by using a nonmilitary entity to carry out these strikes the president has essentially escaped any scrutiny by congress. In fact, he alone is able to essentially wage a war beyond the constitutional constraints that protect us and others from the abuse of this kind of power. In fact, according to the NY Times, they meet in his office every Tuesday for "Terror Tuesday" meetings to decide who to kill. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?_r=1
Here's the legal/constitutional conundrum, If he is making decisions on established military targets to kill, and using a civilian force to kill them (the CIA) without first gaining permission from the military, he and his civilian advisor, David Axelrod, have a great deal of freedom without any oversight on who to kill, and how to prioritize the killings. Slippery slope. What if we opt to adopt this policy in other sovereign countries, or domestically? It's an exercise of war powers, without approval. There are over 1,000 killings that we know about, but I guarantee you that we don't hear a word about the mistakes.
It's just strange to see a liberal supported administration take this action. Even stranger to see liberals defend it. Sets quite a precedent for the future!
Quote from: nathanm on June 08, 2012, 01:34:53 AM
Perhaps you might let Romney in on that. He might raise Obama's foreign policy grade from an F to a D. I think that was one of the most legitimately clueless things he's said the entire campaign. The gaffes merely reflect either straight misspeaking or a certain cluelessness about how to communicate with the not-wealthy, not anything particularly substantive policy-wise like his talk about Obama's foreign policy.
Are you serious? Drone strikes are just one aspect of foreign policy-assuming it is even considered foreign policy. And what does any of this have to do with Romney? Obama sucks on Syria, Iran, Russia, and most recently Poland and its "death camps". Perhaps is because he was speaking Austrian or something while asking for "space" with Russia until after this election.
(https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSZ-LOiwV3GxYCfz3C6Zzc2vCsGDhXH9UwIWBZDD3oJRki8Mf_W)
Quote from: nathanm on June 08, 2012, 01:34:53 AM
Perhaps you might let Romney in on that. He might raise Obama's foreign policy grade from an F to a D. I think that was one of the most legitimately clueless things he's said the entire campaign. The gaffes merely reflect either straight misspeaking or a certain cluelessness about how to communicate with the not-wealthy, not anything particularly substantive policy-wise like his talk about Obama's foreign policy.
I think Mitt taking credit for the GM and Chrysler bailouts and how well they worked is one of him most clueless....
Quote from: Gaspar on June 08, 2012, 08:13:03 AM
It's just funny that the Left would get so upset at his predecessors for capturing terrorists, interrogating them, and holding them with out due process of law, but has no problem with lobbing hellfire missiles at them along with any innocents that happen to be in their vicinity at the time.
You may not know this because you don't actually know any actual lefties, but the left is upset at him for the drone strikes. That may have something to do with the smaller number of individual donors Obama has this year.
Drone strike not exactly playing well with some:
Quote
Yet Guiora – no dove on such matters – confessed he was "deeply concerned" about President Barack Obama's own "kill list" of terrorists and the way they are eliminated by missiles fired from robot drones around the world. He believes US policy has not tightly defined how people get on the list, leaving it open to legal and moral problems when the order to kill leaves Obama's desk. "He is making a decision largely devoid of external review," Guiroa told the Observer, saying the US's apparent methodology for deciding who is a terrorist is "loosey goosey"...
Obama has presided over a massive expansion of secret surveillance of American citizens by the National Security Agency. He has launched a ferocious and unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers. He has made more government documents classified than any previous president. He has broken his promise to close down the controversial Guantánamo Bay prison and pressed on with prosecutions via secretive military tribunals, rather than civilian courts. He has preserved CIA renditions. He has tried to grab broad new powers on what defines a terrorist or a terrorist supporter and what can be done with them, often without recourse to legal process.
The sheer scope and breadth of Obama's national security policy has stunned even fervent Bush supporters and members of the Washington DC establishment. In last week's New York Times article that detailed the "kill list", Bush's last CIA director, Michael Hayden, said Obama should open the process to more public scrutiny. "Democracies do not make war on the basis of legal memos locked in a [Department of Justice] safe," he told the newspaper.
Even more pertinently, Aaron David Miller, a long-term Middle East policy adviser to both Republican and Democratic administrations, delivered a damning verdict in a recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine. He wrote bluntly: "Barack Obama has become George W Bush on steroids."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/02/drone-wars-secrecy-barack-obama
Where oh where are all those Bush b!tchers today??? Not that I really care.
I wonder how this will play?
Supreme Court Declines Guantanamo Bay Cases
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/11/supreme-court-guantanamo-bay-dc-circuit-boumediene_n_1567367.html
It's working so well, lets order like a bizillian more!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/11/border-agency-overextended-drone-program/
"The Homeland Security Department ordered so many drones it can't keep them all flying and doesn't have a good plan for how to use them. . ."
President Obama is even going to find a way to screw this up!
Apparently we dont always know who we're assassinating:
The ramp-up started in 2008, the last year of Bush's term, when there were 35 air strikes in Pakistan, and escalated under Obama to a peak of 117 in 2010, according to The Long War Journal ( http://www.longwarjournal.org/pakistan-strikes.php ).
That jump in use of armed drones resulted from the authorization to use "signature" strikes, which allowed targeting terrorism suspects based on behavior and other characteristics without knowing their actual identity, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/17/us-usa-security-drones-idUSBRE92G02720130317