We’re following perspectives on a critical day in American Politics – which saw a current and past administration going head to head.
Vice President Dick Cheney and President Barack Obama spoke on terrorism, Guantanamo detainees and national security.
We’re following perspectives from the Boston Globe, Politico, The Economist, The Guardian, The New Republic, Human Rights Watch plus we’ll have a special note from the Council on Foreign Relations.
While most news sources are looking at the differences, the Boston Globe says the two speeches had one aspect in common…
“…[it] wasn't the passion of their convictions or the clash of their values. It was what they agreed on: That the nation went a little crazy after 9/11… And both men, speaking before friendly audiences, pushed a little too hard.”
The two speeches were only minutes apart – and Politico focused on the pressure put on President Obama to go on the defensive…
“With some Democrats worried that Cheney is building a case to blame Obama if the United States is attacked again, the new president argued on Thursday that the former vice president's ideas for harsh interrogations and holding prisoners indefinitely made the nation less safe, not more.”
With that in mind, The Economist took a hard look at President Obama…
“Mr Obama looked like a man whose closest brush with terror had been watching “Independence Day”. Mr Cheney, by contrast, had been there. He recalled the moment on September 11th 2001 when he had been bundled from his White House office into the presidential bunker. It had not made him a different man, he said, but it had focused all his thoughts on the safety of the country.”
Digging deeper - an opinion in The Guardian says the vice president is still defending the dark side:
“...this theme (including the 25 repetitions of "9/11" sprinkled throughout the speech) explains a lot about the failure of Cheney's policies and his recent, quixotic attempts at self-justification.”
But Human Rights Watch was not satisfied, asking if the current administration is back to another form of self-justification…
“President Obama insisted that his security policies represent a ‘new direction’ from the policies of the past eight years, and yet today he endorsed indefinite detention without trial. Not only was indefinite detention a central element of the Bush administration’s misguided and abusive approach to fighting terrorism, it’s deeply inconsistent with the values that Obama defended in his speech.”
Finally – for more information – the Council on Foreign Relations has in-depth background on Guantanamo – from the inmates – how they could be tried – even constitutional considerations.
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