Personally I can never be comfortable with the 911 commission findings as it lacked material destroyed by Mr. Berger and was, itself, infested with the same people doing the investigation that should have been part of the investigation as deposed witnesses.

The Clinton Administration not only bore witness to the 93 WTC attack, it also experienced bombings of our east African embassies, the Khobar Towers and the USS Cole and yet treated each and all of these incidents with the aplomb of disconnected events unfit to necessitate anything more than pinprick military responses. They conducted the main battles in our courts where our soldiers were attorneys. This, along with the failure to procure and act on intelligence, begot 911.

The chief job of the Commander-In-Chief is national security, not the economy, not social engineering and certainly not the procurement of international and domestic popularity based upon ill defined concepts of hope and change that seem to trump a deliberately crafted ill-defined history of American monumental achievements and accomplishments which represent, not only our history, but also traditions and heritage which relate to our exceptional constitutionally protected naturally acquired liberties and freedoms.

For a nation that fire bombed the civilian German city of Dresden, dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese civilian centers, abandoned and permitted millions of Vietnamese and others to undergo atrocities by the NVA and Cambodian re-educators and also left thousands to die and/or be captured, executed and tortured at the Bay of Pigs, under democrat Administrations or the auspices of congressional democrats such as Ted Kennedy it is mind boggling that the present use of interrogation techniques on a relatively tiny number of proven high value targets, for the sole intent of protecting thousands, now deserves judgment by the Hague or other international courts and is the subject of consideration to beget special domestic congressional probes with the unbelievable purpose of procuring indictments for methods, that were not only approved on a bi-partisan basis, but which do not represent any violation of law, including Article 3 of the Geneva Convention. You have to first create the law, which itself would violate the separation of powers and then apply it ex post facto. It is amazing how the same people, who supposedly laud justice, consider the smallest minority a minority of one, for non-citizens in these instances, yet support group property rights that throw the individual under the bus to achieve unjust egalitarian outcomes that destroy real self-evident truths and rights in other instances. Even more unbelievable is that this whole smoke and mirrors charade about water boarding, created by the apostles of the Bush derangement syndrome, is clearly designed to stigmatize the previous Administration as some rouge, derelict Constitutional, Geneva Convention and War Powers Act secret sleuth violator for the sole purpose of creating American self-loathing and guilt and thereby detract from the current Administration’s failure to commit to procedures and practices that have been solidly proven to protect America. Last July, it was Obama who blamed America for the shift in Islam that he believed was due to the failure of the West to work with many of these governments to ensure that there is bottom up economic growth. It is his belief that the problem, with Islam is, stunningly, us. In reality it is they who are the rogue derelicts. I suspect that part of the moral solution is the abandonment of the basic tenants of self-defense.

During wartime Lincoln and FDR did what they knew was right, including the internment of over one hundred thousand Japanese Americans; they suffered no recriminations. When American lives are threatened certainly those that may be responsible must be interned. Typhoid Mary spent over a quarter century in isolation on an island off the coast NY because of the danger she posed for other Americans. Moreover, the new Castle Doctrine laws, passed by many states, recognizes that a person who uses deadly force, because he or she perceives imminent danger, has a presumption of innocence. The concept that American lives could be saved by the use of harsh interrogation tactics, even if it results in the death of the captive, has a lot in common with Castle Doctrines but, most of all, is rooted in the ageless tradition, history and necessity of self-preservation through self-defense. If Americans perish, the knowledge that high value captives possessed specific information to prevent a tragedy leaves those who failed to obtain that info as culpable and guilty as the captives themselves.

Would those who criticize us for invading Iraq (who are the same as those that critique harsh interrogation tactics) have felt better if harsh interrogation techniques debunked the concept that we faced an immediate WMD threat and thereby prevented the invasion? What side of that Catch 22 would they fall on? After 911 all bets are forever off because no President can afford to see American children burnt to a crisp, shredded beyond recognition with nails and ball bearings imbedded in their skulls.

Today we live in a World where huge oceans and small arms are insignificant defenses because modern physics, chemistry and biology could change international sociology in 30 minutes. Ultimately if the Obama Administration fails to grasp this concept the succeeding Administration will be voted in on the basis of a scenario that I have no desire to contemplate.