“The Terrorist Notches on Obama’s Belt”

Jason Attermann — October 3, 2011 – 1:22 pm | Barack Obama | Foreign Policy | Terrorism Comments (2) Add a comment

In a blog post for Haaretz, Yossi Melman compared the respective efforts by President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama to combat international terrorism by making a simple movie reference: “To paraphrase the movie ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,’ one could say that Bush talked and talked about the war on terror, but Obama shot.” In light of the successful targeting of al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, Melman recognized Obama’s hard-lined stance and lauded the President’s successes in combating terrorism:

The Obama administration’s successes can be attributed to a structural change in the security forces, typified by heightened cooperation between different agencies along with intensified involvement in the war on terror. But none of this would be possible if Obama was not in tune with the U.S. army and intelligence agencies. Obama’s unprecedented willingness to use a presidential directive to assassinate al-Awlaki exemplifies this approach to security threats.

Al-Awlaki’s death only contributed to the Obama Administration’s already extensive list of targeted leaders of al-Qaeda and its affiliated terrorist groups. Click here for a list of top leaders killed and their affiliations, prepared by The New York Times.

An ABC News report also highlighted the numerous terrorist leaders around the world successfully targeted by the Obama Administration. Jake Tapper summarized Obama’s credentials quite accurately in a piece called “The Terrorist Notches on Obama’s Belt”:

Remember when Rudy Giuliani warned that electing Barack Obama would mean that the U.S. played defense, not offense, against the terrorists?

If this is defense, what does offense look like?

 

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