The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama
July 11, 2012 11:57 AM   Subscribe

The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama. Author Tom Junod follows up on Esquire's The Politics Blog.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar (12 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: AElfwine, I appreciate you've been making an effort as far as not Being That Guy about this stuff but this feels like that's slipping a bit. -- cortex



 
It's the modern form of warfare when you are battling enemies who wear no uniforms and are dispersed in cells around the world.
posted by ericb at 12:11 PM on July 11, 2012


I will not attempt to justify this, but I wonder -- how does his compare to other presidencies when it comes to funding, supporting and participating in overt, clandestine or semiclandestine wars, right-wing insurgencies and terror campaigns around the world? Thinking back to the time before Obama's presidency, I often found myself wondering whether, if we're gonna do this shit, we could at least do it a little more, well, surgically? In other words, instead of supporting the bombings of entire villages and terror squads and vast collateral horrors like that, just whack the guy we want to whack? Grim and unprincipled as this all is, is it possible that it is less bad than our usual, unacknowledged practice?
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:12 PM on July 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


"Fascism" tag? Really?
posted by kafziel at 12:14 PM on July 11, 2012 [9 favorites]


It all comes down to how far the ends justify the means.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:14 PM on July 11, 2012


It's an interesting and important discussion, but completely sabotaged in framing the story as about "the lethal presidency." It causes ones eyes to be drawn inadvertently to the previous president who invaded Iraq more or less out of boredom.

Killing a dozen specific people = lethal presidency.
Killing hundreds of thousands of people because they happen to live in the wrong country = regular wartime presidency.
posted by justkevin at 12:16 PM on July 11, 2012 [10 favorites]


just on the first page of first link:
You are the first president to make the killing of targeted individuals the focus of our military operations, of our intelligence, of our national-security strategy, and, some argue, of our foreign policy.

Beginning of article's fail. What was the Bay of Pigs, if not an attempt to take out Castro? What was the 2001 strike on Afghanistan, if not to take out Osama bin Laden?

The remote-control killing of hostile foreigners OR American citizens who are taking shelter in sympathetic countries isn't exactly comforting or laudable. But it IS a damn sight more responsible than the wholesale invasion of a foreign country, and the thousands of innocent lives lost or displaced as collateral damage.
posted by Artful Codger at 12:17 PM on July 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


I am glad that this article was written in a mainstream publication. I am a fan of Glenn Greenwald, who posts about this issue regularly. But Junod, unlike Greenwald, recognizes that Obama's kill program is the outcome of a struggle - perhaps even a compromise - between the president's humanity and the political pressure to optimize the war machine. The president is a very good guy who does some very bad things.

When Cowboy Jesus invades countries and shoots from the hip with the help of the vampire living in the basement, we all figured that this sociopathy was an aberration. Now a highly decent, brilliant man who inspired a generation with his optimism and enthusiasm wields the same power. And that makes me so sad because now I know that it's permanent. We will never go back.
posted by moammargaret at 12:18 PM on July 11, 2012 [11 favorites]


All Presidencies are lethal Presidencies. Make of that what you will.
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:18 PM on July 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


Esquire should have saved this for after the election. Anything that hurts Obama helps Romney at this point.
posted by Afroblanco at 12:22 PM on July 11, 2012


... the previous president who invaded Iraq more or less out of boredom.

More or less to provide avenues for his buddies to make a shit load of money (i.e. war profiteering), since a lot of the fighting and rebuilding was contracted out to their previous, as well as current companies (e.g. Halibutron, Blackwater, etc.).

Use of Contractors Added to War’s Chaos in Iraq.
posted by ericb at 12:23 PM on July 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


"Fascism" tag? Really?

No surprise that this particular OP would use that tag. Yawn.
posted by ericb at 12:26 PM on July 11, 2012


Esquire should have saved this for after the election. Anything that hurts Obama helps Romney at this point.

Journalists should withhold damaging stories, especially if a story could hurt the politician endorsed by a journalist's employer.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:26 PM on July 11, 2012 [2 favorites]


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