Arianna Discusses Obama's Approach to National Security

Arianna appeared on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" Monday night to discuss whether Obama is too closely following Bush's policies on taxes and terrorism. See the full segment below.

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Comments

[Netizen]

I am disappointed. Profoundly disappointed.

[hu.man]

The criticism Obama is taking from the left on the Bagram issue is unfair. The Afghan war was mishandled by Bush and Obama having to deal with it must make decisions that make sense. Bagram is under the Afghan jurisdiction and needs to be returned to them to deal with it as they see fit. However, at this time, we can't turn the prisoners over to the Afghan government because their judiciary is weak and we are ensured that they won't be getting any due process.

Gitmo, on the other hand, was under the American jurisdiction so Obama correctly put it under review. To try to apply American jurisprudence to Bagram is like having Cuban trying to apply their laws to Gitmo prisoners. Cuba is not relevant to Gitmo prisoners neither is U.S. to Bagram prisoners. The solution is to get the Afghans to get together a decent legal system to deal with the prisoners captured during a war on THEIR soil.

All of this, Gitmo & Bagram, are remnants of poor management on Bush administration's behalf. Bush just made ad hoc and off-the-cuff decisions which most of time were not well thought of in terms short and long term ramifications. I think the trauma of 9/11 was just too much for Bush and he checked out after that. We were led by someone for 7 some odd years who was shell shocked himself.

[GalenL]

Concur, it will probably take years to sort this mess out. Not a bad start though.

[Dailykook]

The uber left interviews the ultra ....left pretty funny.

[Diogenis]

Arianna, you are always refreshing and informative. Evge!

[Dukedraven]

I consider myself a bleeding heart liberal, although I leave the issues about Gitmo, black sites and rights of privacy to other liberals. For various reasons, these matters don't upset me too much, and I feel guilty for it. I'm pleased that you're taking the charge, Arianna, and I wish you all the success, darling.

[Ramirez]

On matters of national security President Obama has at this point been a pleasant surprise.

His appointments have been prudent and he has demonstrated a willingness to listen to experts and to our commanders on the ground. His decisions have been measured and he has demonstrated a committment to protecting our nation, even if he must continue policies he opposed during the campaign.

Kudos to President Obama.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

President Obama was never as radical and dangerous as McCain and the Republicans said he was. Go figure Republicans lied again.

President Obama clearly stated he would increase troop levels in Afghanistan and continue to attack ter rist targets in Pakistan.

He never promised to close prisons in Afghanistan but is keeping to his promise of closing Gitmo.

And finally President Obama promised to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

This displeases many in his party but not myself because it is just as delusional to think that people are not he ll bent on attacking America, our allies and our interests as it was to think Iraq had WMD.

[Liberterna]

well, the uncomfortable truth is that we broke a lot of laws our own and international. And the Obama administration isn't about to admit to it.

reality is catching up to our PR work.

We're like children realizing there's no Santa Clause. The rule of law is a mythical beast, it's always been the rule of the ones with the most killing power.

War corrupts everything, that's why the founders of the American Republic tried to make it very difficult to Declare wars. As a result, the inventive political elite of the US decided to wage wars without congressional declaration, we're heading down a very bad path, and Obama may not be the savior he was thought to be.

[FlamingLibrul]

Thank you Arriana, AND KO, for holding President Obama accountable for his questionable actions of late. What disturbs me the most, is Obama's administration blocking the millions of "Bush admin. emails from being released. I cannot possibly fathom why they're doing this. I was afraid Pres. Obama would take the "We should move forward" (meaning let Bush and his minions off the hook for their criminal behavior) approach- and it appears those fears are grounded in reality.

[madatnewsmedia]

If you don't know why he's blocking the emails, why speculate? President Obama has always maintained that he wanted to move forward! What pisses me off is the fact that the country had eight years to bring Bush and his cronies to justice, but no, make the black president do the dirty work! I personally don't care! He has to repair our country first and that's the only matter that's important. He's been in office for a little over thirty days, but everyone wants him to fix every damn thing right now, or folks threaten to impeach him! THIS IS AMAZING! To FlamingLibrul; why didn't you push for Bush's impeachment? All talk! No action!

[pro america]

We are moving forward. National security issues are complex and takes time to detangle.

With all the problems we're facing now, we need to be pragmatic. We can't handle more political instability which prosecuting Bush and company would surely create.

[GalenL]

No one seems to be proposing the possibility that there are already people with the appropriate clearances reading through those emails for the purpose of constructing a case and indicting various people (as opposed to releasing everything and trying them in the court of public opinion), so I'll go ahead and do it. Thoughts?

[kshawNCvoter]

smart and pretty lady. get it girl......

[vesaversa1]

I just love Ariaanna she is so dam intellectual

[cdnnewsjunky]

I'm with Arianna on this one.

[Okieborn]

I "TRUST" Our New President And I Am Looking Forward To A New And Stronger Nation !!!!!

[xsonogall]

Can't wait to hear what the right says about this.

"Obama's policies are crap!!! Bush had much better policies!! Oh wait...."

[Truthsfire]

Well, two things are wrong with this. First -- from a pragmatic standpoint -- if we hated Bush's policies and Obama's following them, wouldn't WE then have objections to the policies? Second, what The Right is usually doing these days is to just say they've always objected to Bush's policies (sort of like Bush saying we never torture people and the economy's in great shape).

So don't look to The Right to get itself into any kind of logic trap. They have no need for logic when they can just revise the facts to suit what they need.

[ceindependence]

Kinda like Maxine Waters saying, " they came up with these fantastic no documentation loans!" They have no need for logic when they can just revise the facts to suit what they need.

[kotexbarbie]

The real left is waiting for you to say:

"Bush's policies were crap!!! Obama has much better policies!! Oh wait..."

[Pyfagorus]

You'd think the Right would be overjoyed about 0bama carrying over these Bu5h policies. But that wouldn't fit their agenda of painting him in a poor light. So what they'll do instead is distort the facts - pouncing on any trivial detail to argue that he's being much softer on t3rror. In fact, not an hour after Ari@nna appeared on 0lbermann, I flipped over to H@nnity and he was doing just that!

[luvangelHussein330]

There is more to the story then what we see on the surface level...
I would like to see all detainees get thier right to leagal justice but in refrence to the emails etc...there is more to the story