Foreign Affairs and the G.O.P.

The Republican Party likes to look tough. The latest indication of this desire was its effort to bar all non-US citizens from the judicial system in terrorism cases.

Their argument is that  "it would be dangerous to let terrorists exercise the protections against self-incrimination and other rights of civilian courts that they might use to avoid surrendering critical information to investigators." As the "investigators" involved keep saying, though, this line of reasoning is badly mistaken. Neither the Justice Department nor the DoD wants to lose the option of criminal trials because that option can get people into and throught the system more effectively and efficiently. Law enforcement and even spooks get better information that way.

Mainly, though, the push was an effort to look like the baddest boys on the block at a time when the president is looking pretty damn bad. Bush could not find or kill bin Laden, but Obama did. And has has been remarked on this blog on several occasions, Obama has killed more terrorists in one-to-one operations than any president in history. Not only that, but Obama did exactly what he said he would do in Libya: kick out a brutal dictator and then go home. Neither Bush did that.

That makes Republicans hopping mad. Michele Bachman reportedly complained that

Now we have a mess in Libya. We don't know who the ruling party will be going into Libya....There's tremendous uncertainty and chaos. And of course, when there's uncertainty and chaos in a nation, that's when you see trouble and potentially extremist elements that could come into power.

I suppose she can't see the desperate irony in these complaints, given her protrayal of Obama as wishy-washy compared to Bush, but I hope her audience can.

I don't much like the fact that Obama is trigger-happy; I think his policies are illegal and therefore not helpful in the long run. But the GOP has to get itself in order here.