Dating all the way back to the battle for the democratic presidential nomination, we have known that President Barack Obama was against the “enhanced interrogation techniques” that we now know helped prevent further terror attacks after September 11.
But ever since that time, and continuing right up through Mr. Obama's banning of those techniques, many on both the Left and the Right have been telling me not to worry. You see, Mr. Obama had left himself an out. If we ever were to confront the dreaded “ticking bomb scenario,” where we knew that a bomb or bombs were about to go off in one or more U.S. cities and we had a prisoner, or prisoners in custody who we felt might know where and when this would happen, Mr. Obama would make an exception and allow our interrogators to do whatever it would take to get the information and prevent the attacks. After all, which U.S. president wouldn't want to protect American cities and save American lives? I have been asked this repeatedly. I now am certain that I have the answer: His name is Mr. Obama.
Although I always had my strong suspicions, I was left with no doubt after watching Obama's prime-time presser in celebration of his first 100 days in office. In responding to a question on torture, the president shockingly revealed just who he is, and just what he'd likely do to protect America, not under the “ticking bomb scenario,” but if we were in fact already under attack.
"I was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British, during World War II, when London was being bombed to smithereens, had 200 or so detainees, and Churchill said, 'We don't torture'. When all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat. And then the reason was that Churchill understood you don't take shortcuts. Over time that corrodes what's best in a people. It corrodes the character of a country."
First, the historical accuracy of what Mr. Obama said has been called into question. There appears to be no reliable evidence that Churchill ever said any such thing and many historians will tell you that the British used many of the same "enhanced" techniques that Mr. Obama has recently banned. But let's put historical accuracy aside. It is far from the point.
That the Commander-In-Chief would marvel at a nation whose cities were being “bombed to smithereens” and opted not to do everything in its power to stop the destruction and save its citizens, should scare the living hell out of every American, as well as motivate every one of our enemies and potential enemies alike.
So forget about the opportunity to prevent an attack on the homeland by sticking some terrorists’ head under water. I am convinced that Mr. Obama would sit by and watch your child and my child be “blown to smithereens” and still wouldn't wet the hair of the men in our custody who could possibly, maybe, somehow, give us some clue on how to defeat what we were facing. Even though I have long known that Mr. Obama is an apologist for America who is willing to embrace our enemies like Iran and North Korea, while selling out our friends like Israel who is more interested in appealing to the Muslim world then he is in protecting his own nation, I could never have imagined that he would be willing to sacrifice an American city or two or three, in the name of, “maintaining the character of our country.”
Mr. Obama maintains that his elimination of the interrogation techniques will take away a recruiting tool from terror organizations. Yet he is a master of contradiction. For while he makes it harder for the United States to protect herself, hoping to accomplish his goal, he gives our enemy a blueprint of the very techniques that were used which he calls “torture” and is about to release dozens of photos depicting U.S. abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It's as if Barack Obama has a mission—one that clearly is not in the best interest of keeping our country safe.
-Steve Malzberg is a nationally syndicated talk show host on the WOR Radio Network and a frequent guest on many of the television cable shows. He can be reached through www.worradionet.com
