Politics

Barack Obama, ‘Killing Machine?’

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John Rambo, Cordell Walker, Jack Bauer, America can add to their pantheon of relentless killers….and this one has a Nobel Peace Prize.

President Barack Obama has surprised some who expected that the liberal president would be weak on fighting terrorism, but his aggressive action has earned him compliments from conservative radio host Dennis Miller, who has provided him a new nickname: the “Killing Machine.”

“I told you months ago,” Miller told his audience Monday morning reacting to Bin Laden’s death, “Barack Obama is a killing machine.”

To date not only has the President authorized the hit on Osama Bin Laden, but also provided for the killing of numerous other threats, including but not limited to: 3 Somali pirates; Baitullah Mehsud; Najmiddin Jalolov; Saleh al-Somali; Abdallah Sa’id, Hakimullah Mehsud; Kaddafi’s youngest son and three grandchildren; thousands via his large increase in drone attacks; and has ordered the assassination of the American terrorist Imam Anwar al-Awlaki.

Obama intensified the Bush administration’s effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan, increasing troop levels and number of stealth drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“These tools were not Obama creations, but he’s increased their use and he has shifted the U.S. attention full front to Afghanistan,” said Thomas Sanderson, a defense analyst and national security fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Some of his hawkish political critics have praised Obama’s drone efforts as well.

“The efforts overseas are bearing fruit,” said South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. “I give them generally high marks for their efforts to capture and kill terrorists in Pakistan, and they’re pushing the envelope in Yemen.”

Former Bush administration officials also had words of congratulations regarding Bin Laden’s death.

“It says to those that would harm us out there that it takes patience, but we keep working at these issues across administrations, across presidencies, and we will eventually get you,” said Former Secretary of State Condelezza Rice.

Many critics have noted, however, that Obama’s success comes largely as a result of the Bush administration’s interrogation policies.

“Let me be clear about something else. For all the talk that Obama has now embraced the Bush and Cheney policies, he has not,” conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said this week. “They’ve utilized them; they took advantage of them. They recoil at — at any mention that any of this or all of this was put in place by their predecessor.”

Mocking Obama, Rush Limbaugh since has added a new t-shirt to his thriving “Club Gitmo clothing line” including a partial list of Obama’s kills including the U.S. economy.

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