Braden Smith, opinion editor. It was a little more than a year ago that President Barack Obama was sworn into office on the wings of change and hope. I decided to reserve judgment at the time, hoping for a little change myself. Well, he has had a year to impress me, and, so far, I am largely disappointed.
Now, hold on. I’m not saying he’s out to bring down America, that his birth certificate is fake or that he is trying to make America look inferior to other countries by bowing to their leaders.
My issues come from a little more to the left, and, for sake of space, I’ll confine my issues to those of national security, since these seem to be the most blaring.
For eight years, former President George W. Bush and his administration injected as much power as they possibly could into the executive branch, often in flagrant disregard for the United States Constitution, something he swore to preserve, protect and defend as the oath goes. It is my belief that Bush utterly and deliberately broke that oath.
As much as I would have liked to see the Bush administration put on trial, I assumed a new president would be the next best thing.
I hoped Obama would be someone who would denounce the atrocities committed by Bush and pledge never to commit them again. Not only has Obama refused to denounce Bush’s actions, he has also continued to commit them.
Let’s start with the first qualm on my list: assassinations. Under the Bush administration, assassinations of U.S. citizens abroad believed to be involved in terrorist activities were made legal. Our justice system works on the innocent-until-proven-guilty principle, meaning that if you are accused of a crime, you are given the chance to defend yourself. In this case, you may get the death penalty (an entirely different barrel of controversy) by simply being accused.
However, illegal and shady as this policy may be, it continues to be carried out by the Obama administration. According to a story on the matter by Democracy Now!, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said in a Congressional hearing, “Being a U.S. citizen will not spare an American from getting assassinated by military or intelligence operatives overseas if the individual is working with terrorists and planning to attack fellow Americans.”
I would expect that most people would find this news at least somewhat troubling. Some may say this practice is acceptable since we are at war. I would argue that war is no excuse for undermining our Constitution. In this case, we end up destroying the principles we seek to defend by going to war.
Even if you disagree with me, you have to admit that most liberals would have a problem with such assassinations. Obama is a liberal, isn’t he? You would have to imagine that the Obama administration would be against such a policy, but apparently it is not. This is Obama’s first major disappointment for me.
Another would be his failure to discontinue the practice commonly known as extraordinary rendition, a tactic which involves kidnapping suspected terrorists and transferring them to other countries to be detained.
According to a February 2009 article by Greg Miller in the Los Angeles Times, Obama plans to continue using these renditions.
“Under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States,” Miller wrote.
On its face, the practice does not seem overly terrible, but the major problems involve exactly how the CIA has been carrying it out. Miller points out some of these problems in his story:
“[The] program became a source of embarrassment for the CIA, and a target of international scorn, as details emerged in recent years of botched captures, mistaken identities and allegations that prisoners were turned over to countries where they were tortured,” Miller wrote.
All of these factors make this policy unacceptably inhumane and surreptitious, but Obama seems to accept it readily.
One issue on which I will give Obama some partial credit is Guantanamo Bay. I say partial credit because he missed his deadline of closing the facility by January 2010, but he made it clear that he tried.
However, while he did try, I feel that he gave up rather easily on his attempts. As soon as Republicans denounced him for even considering letting a terrorist set foot on American soil, he seemed to shrink away from the issue. While he has made some progress involving the matter, such as planning to send some detainees to a prison in Illinois, it seems as if he is not being as transparent about his attempts as he should, but maybe I’m just not paying enough attention.
Obama may not have come through on his promise of closing Guantanamo Bay in January, but, while this disappoints me, I still have faith that the facility will close eventually, though it now seems more like the sole responsibility of the Justice Department.
Another positive adjustment would be Obama’s denouncement of waterboarding.
While I am glad to witness some of the advances the new president has made, they do not make up for some of the frightening injustices still being carried out. Thus, I am left largely with disappointment over Obama’s first year in office. This does not mean I have lost all hope for the remainder of Obama’s term. However, this hope has dwindled considerably.
On that note, I would encourage all of you to keep an eye on presidential actions, whether they are Republican, Democrat or otherwise; whether you voted for them or not. We, as citizens, have a responsibility to hold our leaders accountable. Never assume those in power will simply bring about justice because you voted for them. If we do not hold our leaders accountable then we have forfeited the liberty our government is in place to protect.