Scott Brown Visits Afghanistan

Scott Brown-Afghanistan, a photo by rbtenorio on Flickr.

We're almost 10 years into the Afghan War and it has yielded some good results, like the death of Osama bin Laden. On the other hand, the Taliban are still cashing in on the opium crop. Into this situation steps Sen. Scott Brown in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Will Obama Gloat Over Osama's Death?

Bin Laden Reaction Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

We've seen plenty of over-the-top celebrations over the years, George Bush's aircraft-carrier landing predominant among them. Now that Navy SEALs have taken out Osama bin Laden, how will President Obama respond? That's the question asked in this week's "Devil Made Me Blog It."

Fist-Bump Time for Obama

Osama bin Laden cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

Does Osama bin Laden's death mean "The End of Terrorism," just as the fall of the Berlin Wall meant "The End of History"? Satan wants to find out in the latest edition of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Boehner's Selective Shutdown

Boehner Shutdown Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

Satan suggests that when House Speaker John Boehner shuts down the government, he should leave room for a few exemptions in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Putdowns for Patdowns

TSA Patdowns, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

If you've gone on an airplane for a Thanksgiving trip this year, chances are you've endured the TSA's latest security measures, including full-body scans and patdowns. Satan and Frank Faust gauge the effectiveness of such measures in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Obama Gets it Right on McChrystal

The War on Terror that Gen. Stanley McChrystal formerly helped prosecute involved dealing with some pretty troubled countries. And part of these countries’ troubles occurred because their men in uniform grew too big for their britches (or, perhaps, their epaulets).
Iraq overthrew its monarchy after military man Abdel Karim Qassim staged a bloody coup in 1958. Qassim didn’t last long, but one of his soldier-successors, Saddam Hussein, did. Pakistan, meanwhile, endured 10 years of military rule after Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrew Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999. The resulting dictatorship only ended last year.
These tumultuous examples of military misdeeds contrast dramatically with the American tradition of subordinating the military to the chief executive. It is a tradition that has ensured, if not always success abroad, then at least the more important goal of stability at home … and it is a tradition that President Barack Obama upheld when he sacked McChrystal this week following the disclosure of the latter’s unfortunate remarks to Rolling Stone magazine.
For all of soldier-statesman Dwight D. Eisenhower’s warnings about a military-industrial complex, and for all of the continuing growth of our defense budget, our presidents have still stood up to the military in one crucial way. They remind the nation that it is the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- and not some would-be Napoleon -- who is Commander-in-Chief.
President Abraham Lincoln gave Gen. George McClellan the heave-ho … repeatedly … during the Civil War for multiple acts of disobedience. President Harry S Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur for insubordinate behavior during the Korean War (which marks the 60th anniversary of its outbreak this year). President Bill Clinton removed Gen. Wesley Clark from command of NATO forces overseeing the war in Kosovo in 1999 due to more obstinacy from the field. Now, Obama has joined his name to that resolute list.
Granted, McChrystal’s missteps seem tame compared to those of McClellan, MacArthur or Clark … and certainly with those of Qassim, Hussein and Musharraf. Still, he should have known better than to disparage his superiors before the media. A soldier, no matter how many stripes he has on his shoulder, should always salute the president and his officials … not give them the raspberry.
Maybe McChrystal felt he earned the right to speak out due to his achievements in Central Asia, which included a good working relationship with Afghan president Hamid Karzai. Maybe he’s even right in his remarks -- maybe the Obama Administration really is leading Afghanistan toward “Chaos-istan.” But the place to voice such misgivings is to the chief executive himself, not to the microphones of the media, and the tragedy of his public comments is that the insubordination they represent outweighs his accomplishments on the battlefield.
Obama may continue to make tactical mistakes in foreign policy, but on a larger issue he is as rock-solid as Lincoln, Truman and Clinton. He knows that democracy can only continue if the politicians can fire the generals, not the other way around.

Flight Security "Up in the Air"?

Air Safety Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

The Christmas Day bombing attempt on a US airliner has left many scared ... but what's just as scary is the security lapses in our system ... like the ebb and flow of the TIDE list and the inability to know if there really is an air marshal on board. Even Satan is a little leery in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Forgetting Twin Towers, Remembering Wall Street

9-11 Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

"Crisis" ... "catastrophe" ... "collapse" ... These are words you'd likely associate with the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01, right? Wrong. Eight years after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, people are using these words to describe a different anniversary ... that of a fateful stretch in September that sunk Lehman Brothers last year. Satan and Frank Faust assess this development in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Dick Cheney, Public Citizen?

Cheney Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

That's what Satan seems to think after the former vice president delivered a blistering speech against President Obama on Thursday. Read more in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Obama pulls a 180 on torture photos

President Obama announced Wednesday that he will try to block the release of photos of members of the US military engaging in torture, and the 180-degree turns from his administration on this issue are enough to mystify a Massachusetts motorist on I-93.
First, while the administration fears the 2,000-plus photos, taken between 2003 and 2006, might encourage "a deadly backlash against American troops," a Pentagon source told the Times the images "were not as provocative as pictures of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib." Question the reliability of the source all you want, but the latter images have been in the public domain for years, and I don't know that they've influenced the Global War on Terror in any tangible way. Meanwhile, if Obama is concerned about the effect pictures might have, why wasn't he equally worried about publicizing words -- namely, words about Bush-era torture techniques at Gitmo? Most bizarrely, in a quote tucked at the bottom of the Times story, Obama claims free speech will lead to censorship: "I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse."
Why the reversals? It's partly historical. Incoming presidents frequently find it difficult if not impossible to balance their dreams with DC politics -- witness what happened to Bill Clinton's wish to allow gays to serve openly in the military, and George W. Bush's goal to privatize Social Security. And part of it pertains to the specifics of the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Quoth the Times:

The administration said last month that it would not oppose the release of the pictures, but Mr. Obama changed his mind after seeing the photographs and getting warnings from top Pentagon officials that the images, taken from the early years of the wars, would “further inflame anti-American opinion” and endanger troops in two war zones.

Somewhere, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and disgraced former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards must be having a little chuckle. One day after Obama launched his successful bid for the presidency in 2007, he said that even before the Iraq War, "it was possible to make judgments that this would not work out well" -- a stance that Reuters called an indirect contrast to that of "presidential rivals Clinton and (Edwards), who both voted to authorize the war in 2002." The recent photo flap reveals that in terms of military policy, candidate Obama may have avoided making a 360-degree turn like Clinton and Edwards ("We voted for the war before opposing it"), but now that he's president, he's finding out the job he sought and won means having to make lots of 180-degree turns.

Obama Shakes up GOP on torture debate

"And let me speak to th' yet unknowing world
How these things came about. So shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts..."

~William Shakespeare, Hamlet

We observed the Bard's birthday this month -- he was baptized April 26, 1564 -- and we also observed President Obama do something in the style of Shakespearean monarchs (think Fortinbras in Hamlet) ready to examine the sins of their predecessors: He's looking for answers on the waterboarding issue. And maybe Obama's doing it in part for Shakespearean reasons: He's seeking to divide the Republican opposition.
Waterboarding, Fox News reports, works as follows:

(A) detainee is strapped to a gurney with his head lowered and a cloth placed on his face. Interrogators pour water onto the cloth, which cuts off air flow to the mouth and nostrils, tripping his gag reflex, causing panic and giving him the sensation that he is drowning.At that point the cloth would be removed, the gurney rotated upright and the detainee would be allowed to breathe.

No wonder the Obama Administration has taken steps against this -- the most recent one being last Thursday's release of Bush-era memos describing its use against detainees in the War on Terror.
In addition to rousing a nation's conscience, this move could split the opposition. Some Republicans could argue that while waterboarding is heinous, flying airplanes into buildings is even more despicable, and that winning the War on Terror justified whatever means were taken. On the other hand, GOP members already uneasy with sidestepping the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment may find the past administration even more unsavory now that we know just how cruel and unusual its punishments were.
"Let this same be presently performed," Horatio tells Fortinbras of disclosing former King Claudius' misrule in Hamlet, "Even whiles men's minds are wild, lest more mischance/On plots and errors happen." Not only has Obama stopped "more mischance" from the CIA, he could also start a debate among the GOP about how it prosecuted the War on Terror.

Satan Says Keep Gitmo Open!

Gitmo Cartoon
Originally uploaded by rbtenorio

President Barack Obama has ordered the closing of the notorious US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Satan, however, wants the base kept open -- and employs a little "citizen democracy" to that effect in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!