Fans of "Blazing Saddles" will remember Cleavon Little as the sheriff taking himself hostage. That was the impression that first came to my mind after hearing President Obama's plan to normalize relations with Communist Cuba.
But, did the President take himself hostage? Just his credibility (if there were any left!) Step into the Wayback Machine with me to 2009:
President Obama marked his 100th day in office Wednesday by holding a prime-time news conference from the White House. Obama said the Bush administration’s use of waterboarding was torture...OBAMA: What I’ve said—and I will repeat—is that waterboarding violates our ideals and our values. I do believe that it is torture. I don’t think that’s just my opinion; that’s the opinion of many who’ve examined the topic. And that’s why I put an end to these practices.
At the very beginning of his presidency, Obama made known his erroneous and disparaging views on enhanced interrogation, falsely calling it torture, which has specific meaning and connotation around the planet, casting the "land of the free and the home of the brave" as being morally equivalent with nations that practice genuine torture.
There was much public debate about the subject in 2009. A number of reporters volunteered to be waterboarded, (more reporters were waterboarded than terrorists, it turns out!) The lines were drawn. The Left disparaged everything George W. Bush did, so there was no reasoning with them. The furor eventually died down and people were soon inundated with a barrage of scandals, economic malaise and foreign policy debacles unabated by a White House obsessed with celebrities and golf, with an occasional funeral selfie.
Suddenly, after five years of being a non-issue, the lamest of lame duck partisan Senate committees under Dianne Feinstein, felt compelled to revisit the issue. They had to act with alacrity, since in January, adults would take over in the US Senate and such partisan claptrap would never see the light of day.
And then, mirabile dictu, after bringing the issue back into the limelight and into the nation's consciousness once again, Barack Obama announces that despite all the hand wringing and faux outrage shown towards the US for enhanced interrogation techniques, that he would seek to normalize relations with a brutal dictatorship known for torturing and killing political prisoners.
Desperately in search of a legacy, Barack will not let the lack of a consistent and rational foreign policy on his part, or the utter hypocrisy of his positions, deter him from giving aid and assistance to our enemies and their allies.
"Do as I say, or the black dude gets it!"
Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art
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