NewsTrust - Bush Administration - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Renouncing Islamism: To the brink and back again

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Johann Hari - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - In the mosques across the city, I hear a fringe of young men talk dreamily of flocking to Afghanistan to "resist". Yet this whisper never has an immigrant accent. It shares my pronunciations, my cultural references, and my national anthem. Beneath the beards and the burqas, there is an English voice.

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Zakaria on a Third Surge in Afghanistan

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Fareed Zakaria - Oct. 26 (Opinion) - The real question we should be asking in Afghanistan is not "Do we need a surge?" but rather "Do we need a third surge?" The number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in January 2008 was 26,607. Over the next six months, the Bush administration raised the total to 48,250. President Bush described this policy as "the quiet surge," and he made the standard arguments about the need for a counterinsurgency capacity—the troops had to not only fight the Taliban but protect the Afghan population, strengthen and train the Afghan Army and police, and assist in development.

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Obama’s Dick Cheney Moment

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Benjamin Wittes - Sep. 28 (Opinion) - His decision not to consult Congress on detentions represents a virtually wholesale adoption of Bush’s failed policies.

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Fear was no excuse to condone torture

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miami Herald - By Charles C. Krulak, Joseph P. Hoar - Sep. 15 (Opinion) - In the fear that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Americans were told that defeating Al Qaeda would require us to ``take off the gloves.'' As a former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and a retired commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command, we knew that was a recipe for disaster. But we never imagined that we would feel duty-bound to publicly denounce a vice president of the United States, a man who has served our country for many years. In light of the irresponsible statements recently made by former Vice President Dick Cheney, however, we feel we must repudiate his dangerous ideas -- and his scare tactics.

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So far, Obama's failing miserably

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By Jeremy Lott - Sep. 15 (Opinion) - When he ran for president, George W. Bush promised to be a modest reformer at home and a humble representative of the United States on the world stage. The Al Qaeda-organized-and-funded terrorist attacks of eight years ago changed all that.

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Cheney for President

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By James Taranto - Aug. 31 (Opinion) - As the Obama administration moves toward prosecuting intelligence agents for allegedly overzealous questioning of terrorism in the months following the 9/11 attacks, the Washington Post delivers a timely reminder of why those methods were thought necessary.

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Video: Dick Cheney calls Eric Holder's interrogation investigation political

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Fox News - By Chris Wallace - Aug. 31 (Interview) - WALLACE: So even these cases where they went beyond the specific legal authorization, you're OK with it. CHENEY: I am.

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Reopening the Interrogation File

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Eugene Robinson - Aug. 25 (Opinion) - History's demands can seem inconvenient, unfair or unreasonable. But they can't be ignored. The Obama administration has a legal and moral duty to determine whether crimes were committed in the Bush-era detention and interrogation of "war on terror" prisoners -- and, if so, to prosecute those responsible.

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What the CIA hid from Congress

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Jane Harman - Jul. 26 (Opinion) - Were members of congressional intelligence committees told everything about the Bush administration's surveillance programs? Not even close, reveals Jane Harman, the former top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

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Now Can We Investigate?

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By William Rivers Pitt - Jul. 13 (Opinion) - Half a dozen times since his inauguration, President Obama has seen his agenda depth-charged by a report on some nefarious activity by the previous administration. Not only have his plans and intentions been derailed by these reports - whether they be about torture, government secrecy, indefinite detention, or whatever else - he has himself become culpable for the damage done by either trying to ignore these transgressions or by adopting them himself.

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Rep. Reyes: CIA 'Deliberately Lied' To Intel Panel

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - Jul. 11 (Interview) - The CIA last week launched a review of how it briefs key members of Congress after House Democrats complained that the CIA has been misleading Congress for the past eight years. House Intelligence Committee chairman Silvestre Reyes says his committee was "deliberately lied to."

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Two Standards of Detention

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Amy Goodman - Jul. 08 (Opinion) - Nonviolent activists like Stepanian, and Muslims like Hashmi, secretly and dubiously charged, are held in draconian conditions, while Roeder trumpets from jail the extreme anti-abortion movement’s decades-long campaign of intimidation, vandalism, arson and murder.

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5 Leaders Who Miss George W. Bush

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Joshua Keating - Jul. 08 (Comment) - Foreign Policy: 5 Leaders Who Miss George W. Bush

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Realism and Iran: Interesting Times

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Yorker - By George Packer - Jun. 16 (Opinion) - The brutal apparent fraud taking place in Iran puts the Obama Administration, and anyone who cares about both American security and human rights, in an extremely difficult position. For eight years, George W. Bush maintained that there was no tension, let alone contradiction, between “our interests and our values.”

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Can A New President Make A New World?

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - By Ron Elving - Jun. 05 (Opinion) - In his effort to reach out to the Muslim world from a lectern in Cairo, President Obama relied on the stark differences separating him from former president George W. Bush. This was at once the underlying strength of the speech, and its ultimate weakness. Those who heard the speech, or who will hear of it, cannot fail to note the change of regime. For the Muslim world, and others disenchanted with the previous American president, nothing could be more welcome.

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Cheney and Rice Remember 9/11. I Do, Too.

Fri, 29 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Richard A. Clarke - May. 29 (Opinion) - Yes, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice may have been surprised by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- but it was because they had not listened. And their surprise led them to adopt extreme counterterrorism techniques -- but it was because they rejected, without analysis, the tactics the Clinton administration had used. The measures they uncritically adopted, which they simply assumed were the best available, were in fact unnecessary and counterproductive.

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Two Speeches

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Yorker - By Jeffrey Toobin - May. 26 (Opinion) - It’s tempting to see last week’s speech-making duel between Barack Obama and Dick Cheney as a mismatch, with the eloquence of the admired incumbent set against the snarl of the discredited predecessor. Certainly, there was no contest in terms of political stagecraft. Obama appeared in the hushed rotunda of the National Archives, in front of the documents that embody the highest aspirations of American government, while Cheney found a secure location at a right-wing think tank, one of a handful of places in the country where he could be assured a friendly audience.

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An Obama-Cheney Thought Experiment

Sat, 23 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By David Ignatius - May. 23 (Opinion) - Here’s a thought experiment: When you watch excerpts of the Obama-Cheney great debate over national security, try to imagine how these issues would play if America should be hit by another 9/11-level terrorist attack.

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Close Read: See You in Court

Sat, 23 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Yorker - May. 23 (Opinion) - The practice of rendition, the conditions at Guantanamo, the lack of evidence and tainting of evidence, and, above all, the prior Administration’s paralytic fear of the courts and of the Constitution—did all that make it more expedient to simply shuffle them off to Yemen or Saudi Arabia?

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Obama tries to show that America can have a thoughtful war president.

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By John Dickerson - May. 22 (Opinion) - On Thursday, President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney both spoke about the war against terrorists. Obama spoke to America's ideals, literally if not figuratively, delivering his speech in the building that houses the Constitution. Cheney spoke from a bunker, figuratively if not literally, holding forth in a roomful of conservative partisans. How this debate plays out politically will depend on where the American people find themselves.

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Obama Can’t Turn the Page on Bush

Sun, 17 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Frank Rich - May. 17 (Opinion) - To paraphrase Al Pacino in “Godfather III,” just when we thought we were out, the Bush mob keeps pulling us back in. And will keep doing so. No matter how hard President Obama tries to turn the page on the previous administration, he can’t. Until there is true transparency and true accountability, revelations of that unresolved eight-year nightmare will keep raining down drip by drip, disrupting the new administration’s high ambitions. That’s why the president’s flip-flop on the release of detainee abuse photos — whatever his motivation — is a fool’s errand. The pictures will eventually emerge anyway, either because of leaks (if they haven’t started already) or because the federal appeals court decision upholding their release remains in force. And here’s a bet: These images will not prove the most shocking evidence of Bush administration sins still to come.

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The Obama doctrine: Charm enemies, arm-twist friends

Thu, 07 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - May. 07 (Editorial) - The Obama doctrine in foreign policy is to squeeze friends into changing their ways and to disarm American adversaries with charm. It is a long way from the Bush theme of squeezing enemies and largely ignoring friends. But then, President Bush basically wanted one certain result – no follow-up attack on the US by Al Qaeda. Over seven years, he was successful, although at a cost in lives, civil liberties, and America's reputation.

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Dick Cheney, Former V.P. as Critic in Chief

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By John Harwood - Apr. 26 (Opinion) - Dick Cheney became a one-of-a-kind vice president for two reasons: he cared deeply about governance, and not a bit about his future political standing. Those same factors, for better or worse, have turned him into a one-of-a-kind former vice president. In a sharp break with long-standing practice, Mr. Cheney has emerged as the highest-profile critic of the new administration.

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Op-Ed Columnist - The Banality of Bush White House Evil - NYTimes.com

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Frank Rich - Apr. 25 (Opinion) - WE don’t like our evil to be banal. Ten years after Columbine, it only now may be sinking in that the psychopathic killers were not jock-hating dorks from a “Trench Coat Mafia,” or, as ABC News maintained at the time, “part of a dark, underground national phenomenon known as the Gothic movement.” In the new best seller “Columbine,” the journalist Dave Cullen reaffirms that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were instead ordinary American teenagers who worked at the local pizza joint, loved their parents and were popular among their classmates.

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My Tortured Decision

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Ali Soufan - Apr. 23 (Opinion) - FOR seven years I have remained silent about the false claims magnifying the effectiveness of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding. I have spoken only in closed government hearings, as these matters were classified. But the release last week of four Justice Department memos on interrogations allows me to shed light on the story, and on some of the lessons to be learned. One of the most striking parts of the memos is the false premises on which they are based. The first, dated August 2002, grants authorization to use harsh interrogation techniques on a high-ranking terrorist, Abu Zubaydah, on the grounds that previous methods hadn’t been working. The next three memos cite the successes of those methods as a justification for their continued use.

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