The day after he had been inaugurated, President Barack Obama ordered that torture no longer are to be used by the United States. He also ordered the controversial prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be closed within a year. Both of these issues have damaged the image of the United States. In a democracy, method like the ones used at Guantanamo should never be accepted. Arresting random people and detaining them for years with no trials. It seems like President Obama is trying to restore some kind of dignity in the way the US fight wars. Obama has sent out a message to the world. The United States will fight the war on terror, but with different means than under President Bush.
Obama has argued that the war in Iraq is a big mistake, it is Afghanistan President Bush should have focused on. In October 2002, Barack Obama said: “I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. … You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s finish the fight with Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.”
Al Jazeera makes it clear that it is not an easy task that lays ahead for the Obama administration:
“President-elect Obama should break from the Bush legacy of treating Pakistan as hired help rather than valued ally. Pakistan has paid a heavy price for being America’s frontline ally. Thousands of people, including 2,000 military personnel, have been killed in terrorist attacks since 2001. Economic losses are estimated at $34 billion.
Three decades of strife in Afghanistan have taken a heavy toll on Pakistan. George W. Bush’s flawed Afghan strategy compounded by the fatal distraction of Iraq, widened the conflagration and pushed the war into Pakistan.
Obama has pledged a troop surge in Afghanistan. But without a fundamental change in strategy, this may increase the sense of occupation and mire the United States in a war without end. Moscow deployed more than 150,000 troops at the height of its occupation of Afghanistan and failed to avoid defeat.
A more realistic approach must start with redefining U.S. goals, and distinguish between what is vital and attainable (disruption of terrorist networks) and what is desirable but best left for Afghans to undertake (transforming society).”
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April 12, 2009 at 21:35
Aaron Musk
You make some good points here, but personally i have a bit of a problem with both of these. For one, i believe that “torture” in some way has to be permitted and has always been a part of war. People need this done for the safety of their country, they just do not want to hear about it. The big problem with this war and other wars, it we give our selves no chance to win them because of the american public being to see what really happens in a war. People die, we will and we die. Torture happens, we were so tough to beat back in the glory days because we did not have the american people back home questioning everything that we did. Bad things have to happen for victory to come to us. If we had no media in iraq and afghanistan, these wars would have been long over by now. American citizens can not stand the thought of death and destruction, this will be our down fall. Osama bin laden after the black hawk down incident said to his people, “see all you have to do is shed the american blood and show it to their people, they will not have the stomach to continue fighting, this is how it must be from now on.” He saw our weakness and now is exploiting it. My second problem is that pakistan is now becoming more of a player and getting involved in handing over intel. we now have the capabilities to take out a car full of insurgents, rather than a town full of people thanks to their intel. Pakistan was just reluctant to help us before because they can not handle their own northern region, but now they know we can help them, they are helping a lot. Now there is a lot less civilian casualties.
April 12, 2009 at 21:35
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April 12, 2009 at 22:17
Ola
I see your point, Aaron, but I believe that a nation that wants to stand for democracy and freedom must never resort to torture or illegal persecution of prisoners.
There is also another issue here. The fact that tortured prisoners eventually brake down and tell interrogators what they want to hear, regardless of whether it’s true or not, just to make the torture stop. Therefore, a lot of false intelligence comes from tortured prisoners. When some of them haven’t even been involved in terrorism, it’s a very difficult situation. If one knew for sure that the prisoners at Guantanamo actually were terrorists, which many of them aren’t, it would be different. But even then, I would feel that torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners would be immoral.