Source: http://www.nytimes.c...ner=rss&emc=rssMr. Obama is the liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war and torture, and then insisted on approving every new name on an expanding “kill list,” poring over terrorist suspects’ biographies on what one official calls the macabre “baseball cards” of an unconventional war. When a rare opportunity for a drone strike at a top terrorist arises — but his family is with him — it is the president who has reserved to himself the final moral calculation.
“He is determined that he will make these decisions about how far and wide these operations will go,” said Thomas E. Donilon, his national security adviser. “His view is that he’s responsible for the position of the United States in the world.” He added, “He’s determined to keep the tether pretty short.”
The above was taken from and excellent (and lengthy) article from the NY Times, assessing the president's favoring of drone strikes targeting suspected terrorists in countries like Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Say what you want about his domestic policies, and even some of his foreign policies, but his counter-terrorism stuff overseas has been conducted adroitly and with an intensity that is fairly atypical for a modern Democrat. Sure, there are those who are butthurt about drone strikes, but I'll take these more precise attacks over the large-scale invasions and occupations of the Bush Administration.
Thoughts?
