President Obama: U.S. 'lost way' fighting terror by failing to trust its institutions and values.

[jefferson_dem]

Barack Obama: U.S. 'lost way' fighting terror
By MIKE ALLEN | 5/21/09 7:35 AM EDT

President Barack Obama plans to say Thursday that the U.S. is at war with al Qaeda and its affiliates, but that the nation lost its way in fighting terrorism over the last eight years by failing to trust its institutions and values, according to an administration official.

Obama will also renew his pledge to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying he will honor the commitment he made in the first week of his presidency.

In a major speech on national security at the National Archives, Obama will say that the Bush administration established an ad hoc legal approach for fighting terrorism that was neither effective nor sustainable, and alienated the nation from our its allies.

Obama will argue that so-called enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding are not the most effective, undermine the rule of law, alienate the U.S. in the world, serve as a recruitment tool for terrorists, and increase the will of our enemies to fight us, while decreasing the will of others to work with America.

The president will say that while the nation must ensure that its security measures and our justice system are ready to address the threats of the 21st century, the Obama administration will uphold America’s laws and its values that are the reason we have become the strongest nation in the world and persisted through crises that have threatened our core.

Obama will say that the paramount responsibility of any president is to keep the American people safe. That is what he thinks about every morning when he wakes up and every night when he goes to sleep. The president believes with every fiber of his being that we cannot keep this country safe unless we enlist the power of our most fundamental values.

The president will refer to the setting, saying that the documents in the National Archives – including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights – are not simply words written into aging parchment. They are the foundation of liberty and justice in this country, and a light that shines for all who seek freedom, fairness, equality and dignity in the world.

<SNIP>

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22804.html

[tavalon]

1. We lost our way

by incarcerating without trial many prisoners of war. We lost our way by allowing torture. We continue to be lost because we refuse to prosecute the torturers. If President Obama really plans on saying that, I hope he smashes his irony meter to shreds. I know mine will be.

[LatteLibertine]

2. President Obama

will never be taken seriously on these things if he refuses to have deferring Dick and company properly investigated. We are a nation ruled by law, or no?

Chickenhawk Cheney will stay on the offensive and continue to justify his war crimes while making President Obama look somewhat weak.

[Clio the Leo]

3. Even the preview sounds lovely. NT