By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. on 7.16.09 @ 6:08AM
Congressional Democrats harass those who would keep our country
safe.
WASHINGTON -- Witnessing the current attempt by liberal Democrats
in Congress to investigate CIA officers and possibly prosecute
them for a covert initiative allegedly undertaken in time of war
(a war that is still going on) inspires a happy thought. Perhaps
these liberals have a death wish. The American people do not want
another 9/11 attack on our shores. They approve of operations
against al Qaeda, covert or otherwise. If the liberals continue
in their harassment of the CIA for its efforts to protect
American national security, for a certitude the electorate will
turn these liberals out. Sayonara, my liberal friends!
If the liberals' death wish only extends to themselves, they have
my full support. Yet, it is conceivable that their death wish
extends to the country itself. They rarely have anything very
complimentary to say about their homeland. President Barack Obama
talks about the United States as though it were a failed state.
Liberals in general talk about the United States as though it
were the provenance of slavery, bigotry, male chauvinism, and --
oh yes -- cowboy diplomacy. The only favorable thing about
America that I have heard from the liberals recently is that
America was the birthplace of Michael Jackson. In Congress they
observed a moment of silence, to commemorate his assuming room
temperature.
The liberals' present furor over the CIA's covert operations
against al Qaeda suggests that they harbor a death wish not just
for themselves but for the whole country. Nations at war are not
supposed to divulge military or intelligence operations. Often
they keep them confidential for generations. The British
historian David Reynolds, in his superb book about Winston
Churchill's World War II memoirs, tells us that both Churchill
and the Labour government kept state secrets hidden from the
British public and from the world years after the war had ended.
Reynolds relates in In Command of History how
Churchill's famous Nobel Prize-winning memoir abounds with
evasions and inaccuracies, for instance, Churchill's silence
about cracking the Nazi code (Enigma), or Churchill's true
assessment of Eisenhower and Stalin. Had Churchill been
forthright on these matters the Labour government might never
have allowed the volumes to be published.
Today's liberals in Congress are demanding the investigation and
threatening the prosecution of intelligence officers who are
rumored to have undertaken a secret initiative to assassinate al
Qaeda leaders. The initiative was supposedly authorized by the
president immediately after 9/11. It is not clear that the
initiative ever got beyond the planning stages. Reportedly it
envisaged sending hit teams into al Qaeda territory to do what
our Predator and Reaper drones are now doing, killing our
enemies. Naturally much about the initiative is shrouded in
secrecy. Yet, by charging that Congress should have been informed
of the initiative, liberals are making a colossal fuss. They
claim the diabolical Cheney ordered the CIA to keep the Congress
in the dark. They claim the initiative was illegal. They want the
whole shocking scheme out in the open. Doubtless, al Qaeda does
too.
There are serious consequences to this sort of harassment of
intelligence operations. Over at the CIA there are professionals
today who are fearful that they may soon be forced to hire
lawyers to defend them against the politicians' investigations.
Uncertain as to whether the Obama Administration will protect
them, they are distracted and hunkering down. Ongoing operations
are being affected.
Right now, very reliable sources tell me that the CIA is aware of
the presence of al Qaeda leaders in Somalia and possibly Yemen.
The terrorists have moved operations there from Pakistan, but the
CIA is reluctant to take action against these brutes out of fear
that they will not be supported by the government and may be
exposed on Capitol Hill.
Such are the consequences of our liberals' death wish. As I say,
I do not mind them imperiling their existence. When they imperil
our intelligence community's ability to prevent another 9/11, it
is no joke.
topics:
National Security, CIA, Liberalism
