(Via Instapundit) Mr. Yoo is cruel, yet accurate, in his assessment of the almost-competent GWOT strategy of Barack Obama.
Let’s give partial credit where it is due. Apparently the Obama administration argues that al-Awlaki was a legitimate target because he is a member of an enemy engaged in hostile conduct against the United States. At least Obama has figured out that the war on terrorism is in fact a war, and that it is not limited just to Afghanistan. We should be thankful that Obama officials have quietly put aside the arguments they made during the Bush years that any terrorist outside the Afghani battlefield was a criminal suspect who deserved his day in federal court. By my lights, I would rather the Obama folks be hypocrites in favor of protecting the national security than principled fools (which they are free to be in the faculty lounges both before and after their time in government).
I call it ‘almost-competent’ because one of the primary prerequisites for a truly good counter-terrorism strategy is to properly communicate that strategy. This is, of course, one of many areas where this administration suffers in comparison to the previous one: folks can like or dislike George W Bush all they like, but people can’t claim that they didn’t know where Bush stood on this, or on quite a few other issues. Which explains the bitterness that many people on the Left are feeling towards President Obama right now; they thought that they were getting somebody with the same sort of basic moral integrity and forthrightness, and they’re not handling well the realization that no, they did not…