Patterico's Pontifications

4/23/2015

Commander In Chief Rightly Assumes Responsibility In Two Deaths; Spokesman Says, Look Over There

Filed under: General — Dana @ 5:56 pm



[guest post by Dana]

President Obama announced today that an American and an Italian were accidentally killed by a U.S. drone strike that was targeting an al-Qaeda compound in Pakistan. As Commander in Chief, Obama rightly assumed responsibility for the tragedy:

“As president and as commander in chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni,” Obama said. “I profoundly regret what happened. On behalf of the United States government, I offer our deepest apologies to the families.”

“It is a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war generally and our fight against terrorists specifically, mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes, can occur,” the president added. “But one of the things that sets America apart from many other nations, one of the things that makes us exceptional, is our willingness to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes.”

However, per NBC News, White House spokesman Josh Earnest assigned responsibility elsewhere:

In response, Rush observed the irony that now Congress has a role in something?

Congress doesn’t have a role in immigration. Congress doesn’t have a role in practically anything else, but now that the Regime has mistakenly, erroneously killed an American in a counterterrorism op, all of a sudden Congress has a role in the policy that sent the drone up there.

I’m sure Boehner and McConnell are on the phones, “What? When did we order the drone strike?”

You don’t get to have it both ways.

–Dana

34 Responses to “Commander In Chief Rightly Assumes Responsibility In Two Deaths; Spokesman Says, Look Over There”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (86e864)

  2. TFG is somehow beyond accountability… parody, as well.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  3. Took responsibility for it,how did he?hmmmmmmmmmm Didhe resign? Take a pay cut? Just how did he take responsibility?

    Yoda (7d462a)

  4. Take responsibility for something, requires consequences it does!

    Yoda (7d462a)

  5. Remember Shrillary! took responsibility for Benghazi. That word, it does not mean what they think it means.

    Gazzer (5bcc65)

  6. the fog of war

    …leaves the bastard blameless.

    one of the things that makes us exceptional, is our willingness to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes.

    One of the things that apparently sets us apart is to delude ourselves that things are just too foggy to figure out, then after writing off the notion we just can’t figure things out, because, fog, pronouncing ourselves exceptional.

    I may yet vomit. The night is young.

    War just isn’t this foggy, folks. In case I need to do some ‘splainin. But it’s a convenient excuse.

    Steve57 (cd6f9a)

  7. Take responsibility

    …means to mouth now meaningless words.

    Steve57 (cd6f9a)

  8. Yoda,

    I understand what you’re saying, but for this guy, giving a public apology without any *buts* attached to it, is noteworthy.

    Of course, Rush also noted that he gave this speech in the “Bergdahl” Garden at the WH.

    Dana (86e864)

  9. It’s OK to shoot a paratrooper in his chute. As opposed to an aircrewman who bails out. One is on a combat mission, the other has been rendered Hors de Combat.

    No “fog of war” excuses allowed.

    I now have a Preezy who delivers excuses I wouldn’t accept from a recruit out of basic.

    Steve57 (cd6f9a)

  10. “I take responsibility…” Didn’t Janet Reno say something like that regarding a fire in Waco, TX a while back?

    To be truly meaningful, such a statement should be accompanied by at least a written offer of resignation. I look around and don’t see one; what am I missing?

    Gramps, the original (9e1415)

  11. this was not an “accident” … this was friendly fire … an “accident” is when your car skids off the road and runs over someone … those missiles hit exactly where they were aimed … its called war and when you choose to use missiles to kill one man instead of sending in SEALS or Delta this is the obvious and expected consequence …

    KaiserDerden (399734)

  12. 11. this was not an “accident” … this was friendly fire … an “accident” is when your car skids off the road and runs over someone … those missiles hit exactly where they were aimed … its called war and when you choose to use missiles to kill one man instead of sending in SEALS or Delta this is the obvious and expected consequence …
    KaiserDerden (399734) — 4/23/2015 @ 7:21 pm

    No, it wasn’t.

    One of the things that used to make us “exceptional” was that we didn’t kill the hostages.

    Here’s the bad news, folks. In most of the world, if none of the terrorists get away it’s a successful operation. So if they surround your Moscow theater or your Algerian gas plant, and no terrorist leaves alive, that’s a successful operation. But, a few of us train to a higher standard. Or used to.

    If one of the hostages gets killed, we failed.

    Or, used to.

    I’m not comfortable with President, Whoops!

    Steve57 (cd6f9a)

  13. On an unrelated note, who names their kid K. Hunt?

    Edoc118 (ffe670)

  14. Better than Mike.

    Gazzer (5bcc65)

  15. when you are The One Obama Barak you do get to have it both ways.

    seeRpea (2852e8)

  16. If you watched any of the videos of women’s Olympic volleyball, one of the US players was unfortunately named Destinee Hooker.

    Whoever named her that needs, well, at least, a severe spanking.

    Steve57 (cd6f9a)

  17. I’m not going to suggest that Obama committed actual war crimes. Just that he has a casual attitude toward illegitimate targets.

    One of the things I used to take pride in was that we made such distinctions. We do it, the Aussies do it, the Brits do it, the Isaelis do it, a few other peeps.

    It takes a big ammo budget, so most don’t.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHP3Qerw8lc

    Japan Coast Guard SST

    Some still do.

    Steve57 (cd6f9a)

  18. 14… damn straight, Gazzer, lol!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  19. Or Eric

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  20. Yea, it’s a broken record to say that the US has chosen the most disreputable, contemptible, dysfunctional, mediocre, unethical, dishonest, bankrupt-leftwing person to be its president. But isn’t that reality, which even a cynic would not have predicted 10, 20, 60, etc, years ago, astonishing?

    The worst thing of all is Obama really is a reflection of far too much of America, of far too many Americans, at this time in the country’s history. And an illustration of why great nations perhaps don’t have a shelf life much beyond 200-or-so years. All thanks to the corrupting nature of lazy-liberal sentiment.

    Mark (607f93)

  21. I take full responsibility lolololololololol

    JD (3b5483)

  22. This announcement was within a day of the anniversary of the USA shooting Admiral Yamamoto out of the sky. Did we care for two seconds who else may have been on board?

    We are in an age when the bad guys purposefully entrench themselves with innocents. Just what are we supposed to do?

    War has been brought to us. We did not seek it.

    Ed from SFV (3400a5)

  23. Killing Yamamoto was legit. I can defend that. It’s not hard, really.

    This announcement was within a day of the anniversary of the USA shooting Admiral Yamamoto out of the sky. Did we care for two seconds who else may have been on board?…
    Ed from SFV (3400a5) — 4/23/2015 @ 10:36 pm

    Do we care for two seconds who should be making the rules?

    Steve57 (cd6f9a)

  24. I can just see terrorists the world over making memos to themselves, “If I really want to be safe from attack I need to keep two or three captive American citizens around me at all times. To make it simpler I should find some American traitors to join with me and stay with me at all times. If I do this I shall never face attacks because that would be targeting the American citizens, which is illegal.”

    By the way, what is the specific legal citation that makes such killings illegal?

    {+_+}

    JDow (770dee)

  25. I could make the case that the argument was consistent with the customs and treaties that a large number of nations had agreed to.

    As opposed to ISIS.

    What do you want to undo, folks?

    Steve57 (cd6f9a)

  26. I can just see terrorists the world over making memos to themselves, “If I really want to be safe from attack I need to keep two or three captive American citizens around me at all times. “

    A recommendation for the quick application of the death penalty.

    Steve57 (cd6f9a)

  27. Nothing to trade for, I mean.

    Steve57 (cd6f9a)

  28. Ace seems to have opened the or rather acknowledged the School of Adulthood.

    http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/12/01/the-winston-churchill-school-of-adulthood-is-now-in-session/

    Steve57 (cd6f9a)

  29. You don’t get to have it both ways.

    .

    Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you do, when you have the media on your side….

    .

    IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)

  30. Greetings:

    Yesterday, I saw the video of what we have for a President these days doing his version of a “mea culpa”. There’s something about that man saying he takes “responsibility” for the operation that I find almost unbearable to watch. This 21st Century concept of responsibility that includes no consequence other than the unpleasantness of having to announce bad news publicly doesn’t come anywhere close to convincing my Catholic school mentality that there is any depth at all to his demonstrated emotional state.

    And then, as if to put a cherry on top of a sundae, he has the nerve to say that he is making this insincere announcement because of his personal commitment to his administration’s transparency. Lie after lie flow from this man like water off a duck’s ass.

    Unfortunately, it seems that no one reads or teaches Conrad’s “Lord Jim” anymore.

    11B40 (0f96be)

  31. “You don’t get to have it both ways.”

    Maybe most don’t, but apparently some do.

    Amazed_476 (78a5e8)

  32. Obama and his Administration have lied about so much in the past 6 years that I have no reason to believe anything they say about terrorism, drones, and intelligence. For instance, in August 2013, John Kerry said the US planned to end drone strikes in Pakistan. Yet the drone strike that killed two hostages occurred in January 2015 in Pakistan.

    War is not predictable and its consequences cannot be controlled. Nevertheless, Obama and the Democrats never cut Bush any slack over what happened in wartime on his watch, so I’m unwilling to change the rules for Obama now … especially since we have no idea if he or his surrogates are telling the truth.

    DRJ (e80d46)

  33. According to the Guardian, the Obama Administration claimed it stopped drone strikes in Pakistan for 6 months after Kerry’s statement, but then resumed the strikes in June 2014. The Guardian also reported last November that 41 terrorists have been targeted by U.S. drone strikes, and 1,147 civilians were killed as collateral damage. As I recall, liberals frequently cited the Guardian’s casualty figures during the Iraq War, so I assume they will find these claims equally compelling.

    DRJ (e80d46)

  34. 41/1147 is approximately 3.5%. Does that sound like the targeted, surgical pressure that John Brennan promised the Obama Administration was bringing to bear on terrorism and terrorists?

    DRJ (e80d46)


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