President Obama and many other liberal critics for years criticized GITMO, enhanced interrogation techniques, and much else in the War on Terror. Ace details, point by point, how these supposedly inhumane and bad techniques were essential in finding and capturing Osama bin Laden. It is the fruits of these techniques, fruits which President Obama inherited and used to his advantage, that yielded the result of earlier this week.
I wrote a ways back the “One problem with the criticisms of Gore and others in recent weeks regarding intelligence gathering (and abuse) of Enemy Combatants is that the very absence of such human intelligence was one of the major failings of our intelligence services pre-9/11.”
In other words, if we do not mean to occupy foreign lands forever, we need a good defense and good intelligence, and good intelligence sometimes requires unsavory methods. Better a KSM gets water boarded and an OBL gets shot every now and again, then the multibillion dollar nation building adventures we now have in Afghanistan, coupled with an all-too-porous border and Draconian restrictions on Americans at home.
It will also save us from having to do business with “allies” like Pakistan, which, it can now be seen, was a major part of the problem.
We may always have to do some business with “allies” like that, but at least now we know that they are even more a part of the problem than ever previously and fully realized. Anyway, we can at least pull out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and stop the money to Pakistan on a high note, and thereby slightly stem the bankrupting of our country and the impossible missions in these areas.
I think most reasonable people would admit that sometimes extraordinary interrogations are required, providing they are effective. However, the danger is that a nation could become too comfortable with them, and resort to torture too quickly.