Presidential Apologies (op-ed)
History credits President John F. Kennedy for preventing the nuclear annihilation of the world by resolving the Cuban missile crisis through diplomatic means.
Hard line critics claim the threat of the world’s extinction materialized because of Kennedy’s mishandling of the Bay of Pigs invasion which was intended to overthrow Fidel Castro.
After the mishandling, of a pre-approved operation by his predecessor, Kennedy asked for airtime on the networks to address the nation. In this address Kennedy accepted the blame for the botched military operation, and it was viewed by some as the first televised presidential apology. Then Kennedy accepted the resignation of the CIA director. (Kennedy fired him.)
Barack Obama promised the reversal of his predecessor’s policies during his presidential campaign. Once in the oval office he embarked upon what could be called the first foreign policy apology tour. The Heritage Foundation lists ten significant apologies Obama made during his first four months. One of the apologies was for the “War on terror”. Then Obama ordered his administration to terminate the Bush invented phrase. The terminology that replaced “War on terror” at the time was “Overseas contingency operations”.
This linguistic change seemed to suffice as the reversal of policy Obama promised during his campaign. (After 9-11 the Bush administration declared an open war on terror. This was a policy change from the Clinton administration who viewed terrorism as isolated incidents dealt with by retaliatory air strikes.) But it wasn’t a new policy direction. Obama simply returned his predecessor’s open war back to the “need to know” operations conducted under every previous administration since the Bay of Pigs, and the new president was able to continue his predecessor’s policies, if necessary, because the public didn’t need to know.
The next time the American people were reminded of the “War on Terror” Obama announced the death of Osama Bin Laden. The president proclaimed, “Justice has been done.” leaving many with the impression, after the announcement, so was Al-Quida.
Now Obama’s second term is ending and the president recently delivered another televised presidential apology. Obama apologized for a CIA drone strike on an Al-Quida compound that accidentally killed two hostages, one American.
How long have drone strikes against Al-Quida been in effect after the Obama administration stopped using the term “War on Terror” and, more importantly, how many accidental casualties have occurred after the announcement of Bin Landen’s death? According to the Washington post the CIA has conducted drone strikes against Al-Quida for more than a decade, first authorized by President Bush then expanded by President Obama. The strikes have cause widespread anger because of civilian casualties. In 2013 a US drone strike hit a wedding procession in Yemen, killing twelve, (The US government refused to formally recognize the attack or publicly acknowledge civilian deaths.) and at the time of this debacle the Obama administration already surpassed the amount of drone strikes launched by his predecessor.
Kennedy apologized for the appearance of American weakness and emboldening the Soviet Union, but he personally regretted abandoning his own judgment by following a previous course of action he didn’t strategize. Obama apologized for the loss of American life because he extended his predecessors course of action. But what did he regret personally? Could it be the mishandling of the Bin Laden death announcement?
According to Richard Miniter, author of Leading From Behind, after Bin Laden’s death the Navy seals took trash bags full of documents and hard drives out of Bin Laden’s layer. The intelligence community expected Bin Laden’s death to remain secret until they could analyze the data, pinpoint locations of operatives, figure out how their funded, and then strike them before they realized their leader was dead.
If Obama would have remained silent he could have announced the death of Bin Laden, the dismantling of the Al-Quida network, and the end of “The War on Terror”.
But the President immediately announced Bin Laden’s death as a foreign policy accomplishment to aid his reelection campaign.
Kennedy fired his CIA director and redeemed himself during the Cuban missile crisis. Obama got reelected, but he surrendered the element of surprise for political expediency causing Al-Quida to go deeper underground, and now he’s ending his second term like he began his first, apologizing for foreign affairs.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 4/29/15
Hard line critics claim the threat of the world’s extinction materialized because of Kennedy’s mishandling of the Bay of Pigs invasion which was intended to overthrow Fidel Castro.
After the mishandling, of a pre-approved operation by his predecessor, Kennedy asked for airtime on the networks to address the nation. In this address Kennedy accepted the blame for the botched military operation, and it was viewed by some as the first televised presidential apology. Then Kennedy accepted the resignation of the CIA director. (Kennedy fired him.)
Barack Obama promised the reversal of his predecessor’s policies during his presidential campaign. Once in the oval office he embarked upon what could be called the first foreign policy apology tour. The Heritage Foundation lists ten significant apologies Obama made during his first four months. One of the apologies was for the “War on terror”. Then Obama ordered his administration to terminate the Bush invented phrase. The terminology that replaced “War on terror” at the time was “Overseas contingency operations”.
This linguistic change seemed to suffice as the reversal of policy Obama promised during his campaign. (After 9-11 the Bush administration declared an open war on terror. This was a policy change from the Clinton administration who viewed terrorism as isolated incidents dealt with by retaliatory air strikes.) But it wasn’t a new policy direction. Obama simply returned his predecessor’s open war back to the “need to know” operations conducted under every previous administration since the Bay of Pigs, and the new president was able to continue his predecessor’s policies, if necessary, because the public didn’t need to know.
The next time the American people were reminded of the “War on Terror” Obama announced the death of Osama Bin Laden. The president proclaimed, “Justice has been done.” leaving many with the impression, after the announcement, so was Al-Quida.
Now Obama’s second term is ending and the president recently delivered another televised presidential apology. Obama apologized for a CIA drone strike on an Al-Quida compound that accidentally killed two hostages, one American.
How long have drone strikes against Al-Quida been in effect after the Obama administration stopped using the term “War on Terror” and, more importantly, how many accidental casualties have occurred after the announcement of Bin Landen’s death? According to the Washington post the CIA has conducted drone strikes against Al-Quida for more than a decade, first authorized by President Bush then expanded by President Obama. The strikes have cause widespread anger because of civilian casualties. In 2013 a US drone strike hit a wedding procession in Yemen, killing twelve, (The US government refused to formally recognize the attack or publicly acknowledge civilian deaths.) and at the time of this debacle the Obama administration already surpassed the amount of drone strikes launched by his predecessor.
Kennedy apologized for the appearance of American weakness and emboldening the Soviet Union, but he personally regretted abandoning his own judgment by following a previous course of action he didn’t strategize. Obama apologized for the loss of American life because he extended his predecessors course of action. But what did he regret personally? Could it be the mishandling of the Bin Laden death announcement?
According to Richard Miniter, author of Leading From Behind, after Bin Laden’s death the Navy seals took trash bags full of documents and hard drives out of Bin Laden’s layer. The intelligence community expected Bin Laden’s death to remain secret until they could analyze the data, pinpoint locations of operatives, figure out how their funded, and then strike them before they realized their leader was dead.
If Obama would have remained silent he could have announced the death of Bin Laden, the dismantling of the Al-Quida network, and the end of “The War on Terror”.
But the President immediately announced Bin Laden’s death as a foreign policy accomplishment to aid his reelection campaign.
Kennedy fired his CIA director and redeemed himself during the Cuban missile crisis. Obama got reelected, but he surrendered the element of surprise for political expediency causing Al-Quida to go deeper underground, and now he’s ending his second term like he began his first, apologizing for foreign affairs.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 4/29/15
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