Thread: Bush & Obama: Dangerous Narcissists - Psychopaths-Obama's disorder threatens humanity

BUSH AND OBAMA: DANGEROUS NARCISSISTS

Canadian psychiatrist Robert Hare analyzes psychopathic behavior. He does so clinically. He believes about 1% of the general population is insane. So are 10% of Wall Street employees, he says.

Hare states:

"There is a class of individuals who have been around forever and who are found in every race, culture, society and walk of life." "Everybody has met these people, been deceived and manipulated by them, and forced to live with or repair the damage they have wrought."

"These often charming - but always deadly - individuals have a clinical name: psychopaths."

"Their hallmark is a stunning lack of conscience; their game is self-gratification at the other person’s expense. Many spend time in prison, but many do not. All take far more than they give."

"The most obvious expressions of psychopathy - but not the only ones - involve the flagrant violation of society’s rules."

"Not surprisingly, many psychopaths are criminals, but many others manage to remain out of prison, using their charm and chameleon-like coloration to cut a wide swathe through society, leaving a wake of ruined lives behind them."

"(I)f we can't spot them, we are doomed to be their victims, both as individuals and as a society."

Hare lists two psychopathological trait categories. Interpersonal ones include:

"glib and superficial
egocentric and grandiose
lack of remorse or guilt
deceitful and manipulative
shallow emotions"
Social deviance ones include:

"impulsive
poor behavior controls
need for excitement
lack of responsibility
early behavior problems
adult antisocial behavior"

Psychopathology is complex and poorly understood, Hare believes. It involves an "interplay" between biological and genetic factors. They influence how people "respond to, and interact with, life experiences and the social environment."

Psychopaths don't feel they have psychological or emotional problems. They see no reason to change their behavior.

Hare's survival guide includes knowing who you're dealing with. It's not easy. Experts get fooled. "A good psychopath can play a concerto on anyone's heart strings."

Don't be influenced by "props." It's not easy avoiding being captivated by a winning smile, body language and fast talk. They blind us to their real intentions.

Don't wear blinders. Most psychopaths are "con artists."

Keep your guard up. Psychopaths take full advantage. They're "skilled at detecting and ruthlessly exploiting your weak spots."

Safety from determined psychopaths isn't easy. They play by their own rules. They have lots of victims. They "have a strong need for psychological and physical control over others."

Their personalities are "carved in stone." They have an "insatiable appetite for power and control."

Administration and congressional leaders exhibit prominent traits.

They're amoral, unethical, deceitful, and manipulative. They breach social and legal standards. They suffer no remorse. They're callously unconcerned about others. They're indifferent to human suffering.

They're "without conscience." They're clinically insane. They're psychopathic. Top priority is stopping them. Otherwise we're doomed.

In 2005, Professor Psychiatry Justin Frank headlined "Bush on the Couch." He traced his character development from childhood through the presidency.

He identified and analyzed "patterns of thought, action, and communication." A "troubling portrait" emerged. It provided disturbing insights into:

Bush reacting to 2006's Democrat congressional sweep; he did so by surging troops into Iraq;
his "telling habits and coping strategies - from his persistent mangling of English to his tendency to 'go blank' in the midst of crisis;
his father's tearful public breakdown; it reflects their relationship; and
Katrina: "the moment when Bush's arrogance finally failed him."

Frank said Bush I was for the most part emotionally detached from GW. His mother was an insecure disciplinarian. Her emotional neglect left her unable to supply love.

GW had to rely on his inadequate "crude tools." They prevented him from developing a "stable personality." He's a "dry drunk."

"His abstinence protects him from the crippling effects of heavy alcohol consumption, but he remains in the grip of alcoholic thinking…."

He's "rigid" and "inflexible." He's unable "to consider the idea that anything in his own behavior might qualify as destructive."

"Instead, he projects such impulses onto his many perceived persecutors, to maintain his sense of self."

This type pious/crusading behavior cuts to the heart of decisions he made as president. He's mentally unfit to lead. While still president, Frank advised:

"Our sole treatment option - for his benefit and ours - is to remove (him) from office. It is up to all of us - Congress, the media and voters - to do so, before it is too late."

It's way too late now. He's gone. Obama replaced him. America went from bad to worse. Dr. Sam Vaknin explained.
He's a writer certified in psychological counseling techniques. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy. He's editor in chief of Global Politician. His best known work is "Malignant Self-Love: Narcissism Revisited." He's an expert on the subject.

Separately, he discussed Obama, saying:

He was impressed the first time he saw him. Soon enough he was put off. He reflects "shallowness (and) haughtiness in his demeanor…."

It's "unsettling. His posture and his body language (are) louder than his empty words."

His speeches have "quasi 'religious' impact on so many people." He's a "total incognito with zero accomplishment(s)."

"He is not a genius." He's "quite ignorant on most important subjects." He's a "narcissist." He may have "narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)."

They project grandiose false self-images. Jim Jones was a known narcissist. He convinced hundreds of his followers to commit suicide.

Other dangerous narcissists included "Stalin, Saddam, (and) Hitler." They exerted great influence over followers.

They created a personality cult around themselves. Their fiery rhetoric and speeches elevated admirers. They filled their hearts with enthusiasm. They gave them a new zest for life.

They promised them great achievements and victories. Instead they delivered "doom."

Cult personality victims don't know it until it is too late. Childhood abuse is one determining factor.

"Obama's early life was decidedly chaotic and replete with traumatic and mentally bruising dislocation."

"Mixed race marriages were less common then." His parents were divorced when he was two years old. He saw his father only once after that. He died in a car accident.

His mother re-married. She relocated with Obama to Indonesia. Adjusting wasn't easy. He was raised by his stepfather.

At age 10, "he was whisked off to live with his maternal (white) grandparents. He saw his mother only intermittently…." In 1979, "she vanished from his life." In 1995, she died of cancer.

Narcissists lack interest in whatever won't help them reach personal goals. They focus largely on control, on power. Details and trivialities don't concern them.

As Harvard Law Review's first Black president, he received a contract and cash advance for a book on race relations.

Instead of a scholarly work, his autobiography followed: "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance."

Narcissists focus more on themselves than anything. The Mayo Clinic's narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) definition states:

It's "a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration."

"Those with narcissistic personality disorder believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings."

"But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism."

"Narcissistic personality disorder is one of several types of personality disorders."

"Personality disorders are conditions in which people have traits that cause them to feel and behave in socially distressing ways, limiting their ability to function in relationships and in other areas of their life, such as work or school."

Symptoms include:

"Believing that you're better than others

Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness

Exaggerating your achievements or talents

Expecting constant praise and admiration

Believing that you're special and acting accordingly

Failing to recognize other people's emotions and feelings

Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans

Taking advantage of others

Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior

Being jealous of others

Believing that others are jealous of you

Trouble keeping healthy relationships

Setting unrealistic goals

Being easily hurt and rejected

Having a fragile self-esteem

Appearing as tough-minded or unemotional"

Narcissists can't handle criticism. They don't think anything is wrong. They lack fulfilling relationships. They're conceited, boastful and/or pretentious. They lack conscience. They're callous and ruthless.

They regard themselves as special. They care only about themselves. They have a sense of entitlement. They belittle others perceived as inferior.

They're dangerous. They're treacherous. Fantasy and reality are intertwined. They cause enormous problems for others. They react with rage or contempt.

Obama's a "malignant narcissist." He lacks empathy with others. He "lacks the crucial faculty of feeling human."

He's sort of "alien. He never experienced humanity, or humanness, and he cannot empathize with other people. He can't put himself in other people's shoes."

"He cannot feel for them because he lacks the emotional apparatus. He lacks emotions, or at least, access to" them.

He's "exploitive, anti-social, destructive, self-destructive, arrogant, feels superior, feels he's superman, and so on and so forth."

"All of these are derivatives from the inability to know what it means to be human." It reflects the difference between a normal and malignant cell.

If the narcissist is your neighbor or local butcher, "the damage is limited. But if he happens to be the president of the United States, it's a calamity. It's an apocalypse."

All signs are there, Vaknin believies - his chaotic childhood, his dysfunctional family, and orthodox background. It causes narcissistic anti-social personality disorder.

"Obama lies pathologically, incessantly." His biography is "diffuse. There's nothing there. It's all in the air. You can't pinpoint dates, names, places, nothing. It's a very fog-like, foggy history."

There's no there there. Vaknin said he studied him closely. His body language, speeches, unscripted reactions, and attitude toward colleagues exhibit classic narcissism.

He's haughty and pretentious. He exhibits superiority and "pronoun density (PD)." It reflects how many times you say "me," "my," "I" and "myself" in a single sentence unnecessarily.

Obama's PD is "three times the average (of other) psychopathic narcissists. I mean, that's how bad it" is. It tends to increase during crises. It's a "major clinical sign."

Another is called "adversity tolerance threshold (ATT). It refers to how often you snap at underlings. He does it often. He's irritable, irascible, and cantankerous more often, and very often on camera."

At times, he can't control himself. "I am convinced he's a narcissist."

"I have no doubt in my mind" proper diagnosis will reveal "classical, malignant, psychopathic narcissism." He's "a walking time-bomb." He created cult followers around him.

He has "no personality whatsoever." He's "a walking piece of fiction." He's "paranoid." He's a "vacuum wrapped in a shell."

"He's afraid of being exposed for what he is. He's "hyper-vigilant. He protects his turf." He's "alert to slights and insults, both real and imaginary."

His defenses include denial. "He projects onto others what he hates in himself." He craves special treatment. He wants it boosting his "bloated ego."

He's "unstable, chaotic and dangerous." He has "psychotic episodes" but he's not psychotic. "The distinction is artificial and useless." If he's psychotic at critical times, that's all that matters.

As president, even a second of psychosis is calamitous.

He's an "adrenalin junky." He needs increasing amounts. Narcissists "provoke artificial crises." It can be domestic or foreign.

"I'm terrified," said Vaknin. Who knows what he'll do next? He can't control himself. His disorder reflects a Damocles sword over humanity. "It can cut all our heads off."

Vaknin calls Obama more dangerous than Bush. Expect more crises ahead. He "endanger(s) the foundations of the republic."

People don't understand what's going on. "The bigger the crisis, the more the narcissist thrives." Normal people try avoiding them. Narcissists provoke them. It's their "natural state." It's their "comfort zone."

Narcissistic personality disorder is "untreatable." At best it can be modified. It can be made less abrasive. "Their false self devours them. They become walking zombies. They're shells."

There's a "mechanism inside, a robotic, cold, calculated evil that drives them inexorably." They can't stop it. As US president, Obama's disorder threatens humanity.


http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/...us-narcissists

http://antiwar.com/blog/2013/04/16/o...act-of-terror/

Double tap drone strikes target civilians
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-dr...p-plan-2012-12

65% of Americans approve of drone strikes abroad
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/346554

Names of children killed in U.S. drone strikes

(Information taken from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s database[19] of drone strikes and corresponding casualties.)

Name Age Date

Unknown 10 June 17, 2004

Unknown 16 June 17, 2004

Unknown(3 girls) unk November 5, 2005

Abdul Wasit 17 December 1, 2005

Noor Aziz 8 December 1, 2005

Unknown unk February 6, 2006

Unknown (5-6) unk February 13, 2006

Najibullah 13 October 30, 2006

Adnan 16 October 30, 2006

Inayatullah 15 October 30, 2006

Iftikhar 17 October 30, 2006

Wali-ur-Rahman 17 October 30, 2006

Rahman 13 October 30, 2006

Fazal Wahab 18 October 30, 2006

Jamroz Khan unk October 30, 2006

Talha 8 October 30, 2006

Sakirullah 16 October 30, 2006

Nimatullah 14 October 30, 2006

Shafiullah 16 October 30, 2006

Qari Sharifullah 17 October 30, 2006

Shabir 15 October 30, 2006

Shehzad Gul 11 October 30, 2006

Zabihullah 16 October 30, 2006

Wilayat Khan 11 October 30, 2006

Kitab Gul 12 October 30, 2006

Hizbullah 10 October 30, 2006

Naeemullah 17 October 30, 2006

Noor Mohammad 15 October 30, 2006

Ziaur Rhaman 13 October 30, 2006

Inayatur Rahman 17 October 30, 2006

Shaukat 14 October 30, 2006

Ameer Said 15 October 30, 2006

Darvesh 13 October 30, 2006

Abdul Waris 16 October 30, 2006

Saeedullah 17 October 30, 2006

Siraj 16 October 30, 2006

Abdus Samad 17 October 30, 2006

Rahmatullah 14 October 30, 2006

Qari Abdul Karim 19 October 30, 2006

Alam Nabi 11 October 30, 2006

Jamshed Khan 14 October 30, 2006

Qari Ishaq 19 October 30, 2006

Zaheeruddin 16 October 30, 2006

Taseel Khan 18 October 30, 2006

Ismail 12 October 30, 2006

Jannatullah 13 October 30, 2006

Salman 16 October 30, 2006

Luqman 12 October 30, 2006

Ihsanullah 16 October 30, 2006

Mashooq Khan 16 October 30, 2006

Numair 14 October 30, 2006

Bakht Muneer 14 October 30, 2006

Gul Sher Khan 15 October 30, 2006

Shahjehan 15 October 30, 2006

Mohammad Salim 11 October 30, 2006

Khan 21 October 30, 2006

Rahatullah 17 October 30, 2006

Yahya Khan 16 October 30, 2006

Inayatur Rhaman 16 October 30, 2006

Shahbuddin 15 October 30, 2006

Ikramullah 17 October 30, 2006

Abdullah 18 October 30, 2006

Ziaur Rahman 17 October 30, 2006

Ghulam Nabi 21 October 30, 2006

Qari Alamzeb 14 October 30, 2006

Mohammad Yaas Khan 16 October 30, 2006

Sultanat Khan 16 October 30, 2006

Nawab 17 October 30, 2006

Mashooq Jan 15 October 30, 2006

Razi Mohammad 16 October 30, 2006

Saifullah 9 October 30, 2006

Khalid 12 October 30, 2006

Noor Mohammad 8 October 30, 2006

Kalilullah 9 October 30, 2006

Shoaib 8 October 30, 2006

Asadullah 9 October 30, 2006

Sohail 7 October 30, 2006

Ilyas 13 October 30, 2006

Fazel Hakim 19 October 30, 2006

Mohammad Yunus 16 October 30, 2006

Ziauddin 16 October 30, 2006

Fazel Wahab 16 October 30, 2006

Azizul Wahab 15 October 30, 2006

Maulvi Khaleefa unk October 30, 2006

Mohammad Tahir 16 October 30, 2006

Possible children unk June 19, 2007

Unknown (3 children) unk February 29, 2008

Unknown (3 children) unk May 14, 2008

Unknown (3 children) unk July 28, 2008

Unknown unk August 30, 2008

Unknown (3-4 children) unk September 5, 2008

Unknown (8 children) unk September 8, 2008

Unknown unk October 3, 2008

Unknown (3 children) unk October 3, 2008

Unknown (1-4 children) 14.5 October 9, 2008

Possible students 12-18 October 23, 2008

0-3 children unk October 26, 2008

Unknown unk November 14, 2008

possible children unk November 29, 2008

Azaz-ur-Rehman 14 January 23, 2009

Maezol Khan 3 January 23, 2009

Noor Syed 8 February 14, 2009

Unknown (3 children) unk April 1, 2009

Unknown (3-4 children) unk April 4, 2009

Unknown (2 children) unk April, 19, 2009

Unknown (10 children) unk June 23, 2009

Ibad Ullah unk August 11, 2009

Mohammad Arif unk August 11, 2009

Abdul Qadeer unk August 11, 2009

Hazart Ali unk August 11, 2009

Syed Wali Shah 7 August 21, 2009

Unknown (5 children) unk August 21, 2009

Unknown (3 children) unk September 8, 2009

Sakeenullah 15 November 20, 2009

Zenullah Khan 17 December 31, 2009

Wajid Noor 9 January 3, 2010

Ayesha 3 January 8, 2010

Naila 10 February 24, 2010

Unknown 14 March 31, 2010

Fatima Khan unk May 21, 2010

Nisar Khan unk May 21, 2010

Naeem Khan unk May 21, 2010

Unknown unk May 21, 2010

Unknown unk August 14, 2010

Unknown (3 orphans) unk August 23, 2010

Unknown (4 children) unk September 8, 2010

Naeem Ullah 10 October 18, 2010

Unknown unk November 16, 2010

Ismael Mohammed unk March 17, 2011

Atif 12 April 22, 2011

Unknown (2 children) unk April 22, 2011

Unknown unk August 16, 2011

Unknown (2 children) unk August 22, 2011

Tariq Aziz 16 October 31, 2011

Waheed Khan 12 October 31, 2011

Unknown unk February 9, 2012

Osama Haqqani 13 August 21, 2012

http://www.warcosts.com/178_report

The President’s Privileged Right to Kill

Does the government work for us, or do we work for the government? How can the president claim the lawful power to kill whomever he wishes and at the same time ask Congress to incapacitate our ability to defend ourselves against those who might seek to kill us?

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul struck a raw nerve in the weak underbelly of the Obama administration last month with his 13-hour filibuster. Paul was furious — as every American should be — that the president refused to admit that he does not possess the lawful authority to kill Americans with drones. The senator used the confirmation hearings of now CIA Director John Brennan as a forum in which to articulate the principled constitutional argument that whenever the government wants the life, liberty or property of anyone, it can only obtain that via due process.

Due process is the command of the Fifth Amendment. “Due process” is the jurisprudential phrase for a fair jury trial and the accompanying constitutional protections. The reasons we have these protections are the wish of the Framers that our natural rights — here, the rights to life, liberty and property and to fairness from the government — be guaranteed and their fear that they not suffer under another Star Chamber. Star Chamber was a secret gaggle of advisers to British kings that decided who among the king’s adversaries would lose his life, liberty or property without due process. Once that decision was made, it was carried out.

Paul articulated all of this during his filibuster. He did not read gibberish, as those who have filibustered in the past sometimes have done. He made principled moral and legal arguments for 13 hours. His arguments read like a passionate college lecture on personal liberty in a free society.

The next day, Attorney General Eric Holder sent a terse letter to Paul that reads in its entirety as follows: “It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: ‘Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?’ The answer to that question is no.” This is an unremarkable statement, but one that only came about after the senatorial equivalent of pulling teeth.

Paul’s filibuster was prompted by the administration’s repeated refusal to answer that question. Those refusals came from the testimony of Holder, FBI Director Robert Mueller and then CIA Director-nominee Brennan. They all declined to answer the question of whether the president has the power to use drones to kill Americans in America, and they all referred the questioners to their boss in the White House.

Their boss in the White House has never publicly answered that question, but he has exercised that horrific power without publicly defending or legally justifying it. When lawyers for potential victims of presidential killings (how terrifying does that sound?) sought to ascertain the source of that power, the president dispatched Justice Department lawyers into court to persuade judges that the (SET ITAL) legal argument supporting killings (END ITAL) is classified. That’s because, those Justice Department lawyers argued, the decisions to kill — just like Star Chamber’s decisions to kill — are made in secret; hence, the legal support for the killings must be kept secret.

How could a legal argument be classified? How could a judge accept that sophistry? How could a president sworn to uphold the Constitution claim the power to kill people on his own?

As if to antagonize further those who believe the Constitution means what it says, the same president who says he can’t reveal the legal basis for his killing wants to take away your right to self-defense against a killer, and he wants to prevent you from having the means with which to shoot at a tyrant should such a monster take over the government.

The reason we are a free and independent people today is our secession from Great Britain, and that secession only came about because we had the means with which to repel the soldiers of the British king. Without weaponry in the hands of ordinary folks and unknown to the government (so it doesn’t know from whom to seize weapons), we will lack the ability to repel a modern-day George III.

So, today we have a president who has sworn to uphold the Constitution but seems hell-bent on violating it. He wants to use the force of legislation to weaken your right to self-defense, and he is already using powers never granted to him to kill uncharged, unindicted Americans whom his advisers in secret have decided must go.

The government derives its powers from the consent of the governed. Do you know anyone who consented to this? If you do, they consented for themselves. The rest of us will keep our lives, liberty and property and defy any government efforts to take them.

http://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p...right-to-kill/

TWO OBAMAS, TWO CLASSES OF CHILDREN

An Associated Press photograph brought the horror of little children lying dead outside of their home to an American Audience. At least 10 Afghan children and some of their mothers were struck down by an airstrike on their extended family household by order of President Barack Obama. He probably decided on what his aides describe as the routine weekly “Terror Tuesday” at the White House. On that day, Mr. Obama typically receives the advice about which “militants” should live or die thousands of miles away from drones or aircraft. Even if households far from war zones are often destroyed in clear violation of the laws of war, the president is not deterred.

These Obama airstrikes are launched knowing that very often there is “collateral damage,” that is a form of “so sorry terrorism.” How can the president explain the vaporization of a dozen pre-teen Afghan boys collecting firewood for their families on a hillside? The local spotter-informants must have been disoriented by all those $100 bills in rewards. Imagine a direct strike killing and injuring scores of people in a funeral procession following a previous fatal strike that was the occasion of this processional mourning. Remember the December 2009 Obama strike on an alleged al-Qaida training camp in Yemen, using tomahawk missiles and – get this – cluster bombs, that killed 14 women and 21 children. Again and again “so sorry terrorism” ravages family households far from the battlefields.

If this is a war, why hasn’t Congress declared war under Article 1, Sec. 8 of the U.S. Constitution? The 2001 Congressional Authorization to Use Military Force is not an open-ended authorization for the president. It was restricted to targeting only nations, organizations or persons that are determined to have been implicated in the 9/11 massacres, or harbored complicit organizations or persons.

For several years, White House officials, including ret. General James Jones, have declared that there is no real operational al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan to harbor anyone. The Pakistani Taliban is in conflict with the Pakistani government. The Afghan Taliban is in brutal conflict with the Afghanistan government and wants to expel U.S. forces as their members view occupying-invaders, just as their predecessors did when they expelled the Soviet invaders. The Taliban represent no imminent threat to the U.S.

President Obama’s ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron P. Munter, used to complain to his colleagues about the CIA’s drone attacks saying “he didn’t realize his main job was to kill people.” He knew how such attacks by whining drones, hovering 24/7 over millions of frightened people and their terrified children produce serious backlashes that fester for years.

Even a loyalist such as William M. Daley, Mr. Obama’s chief of staff in 2011, observed that the Obama kill list presents less and less significant pursuits. “One guy gets knocked off, and the guy’s driver, who’s No. 21, becomes 20?” Daley said, describing the internal discussion. “At what point are you just filling the bucket with numbers?”

Yet this unlawful killing by a seemingly obsessed Obama, continues and includes anyone in the vicinity of a “suspect” whose name isn’t even known ( that are called “signature strikes”), or mistakes, like the recent aerial killings of numerous Pakistani soldiers and four Afghan policemen – considered our allies. The drone kill list goes on and on – over 3000 is the official fatality count, not counting injuries.

In a few weeks, The Nation magazine will issue a major report on U.S.-caused civilian casualties in Afghanistan that should add new information.

Now switch the scene. The president, filled with memories of what his secret drone directives as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner have done to so many children, in so many places, traveled on Monday to Newtown, Connecticut for the second time. He commiserated with the parents and relatives of the 20 children and six adults slain by a lone gunman. Here he became the compassionate president, with words and hugs.

What must be going through his mind as he sees the rows of 10 Afghan little children and their parents blown apart in that day’s New York Times? How can the president justify this continued military occupation for what is a civil war? No wonder a majority of the American people want out of Afghanistan, even without a close knowledge of the grisly and ugly things going on there in our name that are feeding the seething hatred of Obama’s war.

'Sometime after 2016 when Barack Obama starts writing his lucrative autobiographical recollections, there may be a few pages where he explains how he endured this double life ordering so-called precision attacks that kill many innocent children and their mothers and fathers while mourning domestic mass killings in the U.S. and advocating gun controls. As a constitutional law teacher, he may wonder why there have been no “gun controls” on his lawless, out-of-control presidency and his reckless attacks that only expanded the number of al-Qaeda affiliates wreaking havoc in Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Mali, North Africa and elsewhere.

Al-Qaeda of Iraq is now merging with an affiliate called “al-Nusra” in Syria that will give Obama more futile exercises on Terror Tuesdays. The CIA calls the reaction to such operations “blowback” because the unintended consequences undermine our long-term national security.

Obama is not like the official criminal recidivist, ex-Vice President Dick Cheney, who misses no chance to say he has no regrets. Obama worries even as he greatly escalates the aerial attacks started by George W. Bush. In his State of the Union speech he called for a “legal and policy framework” to guide “our counterterrorism operations,” so that “no one should just take my word that we’re doing things the right way.” Granted, this is a good cover for his derelictions, but it probably reflects that he also needs some restraint. Last year he told CNN it was “something you have to struggle with.”

Not that our abdicatory Congress would ever take him up on his offer for such legal guidance should he ever submit a proposed framework. Nor would Congress move to put an end to secret laws, secret criteria for targeting, indefinite imprisonment, no due process, even for American citizens, secret cover-ups of illegal outsourcing to contracting corporations and enact other preventive reforms.

Mr. Obama recognized in his CNN interview that “it’s very easy to slip into a situation in which you end up bending rules thinking that the ends always justify the means. That’s not who we are as a country.”

Unfortunately, however, that’s what he has done as a president.

Unless the American people come to realize that a president must be subject to the rule of law and our Constitution, our statutes and treaties, every succeeding president will push the deficit-financed lawlessness further until the inevitable blowback day of reckoning. That is the fate of all empires.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/04/11-10

http://www.alipac.us/f9/barack-obama...9/#post1341474

http://www.alipac.us/f19/lyndon-laro...5/#post1341480

http://www.alipac.us/f9/democracy-ac...rorism-277303/