GERSON NAILS IT – AT 5:58 P.M. ET:  A distinguished scholar, who prefers anonymity, writes to alert us to today's superb column by Michael Gerson on the Obama view of terrorism.  This is about the best analysis of the subject that I've read:  From the Washington Post:

A president can't be held responsible for every mistake at every level of government. But every level of government takes its cues from the president and his main advisers. And it is difficult to argue that the Obama administration has even attempted to create an atmosphere of urgency in the war on terror. The listless, coldblooded and clueless response of the Hawaii White House to the Christmas Day attack was only the most recent indication...

...Add to this the Holderization of the war on terrorism. Attorney General Eric Holder began his work not with a high-profile assault on al-Qaeda but with a high-profile assault on the CIA -- making clear to every ambitious officer that counterintelligence is a dead end of recrimination and legal bills. And now both the mastermind of Sept. 11, 2001, and the underwear bomber are headed toward celebrity trials.

And remember this quote well:

The reality here is simple and shocking: A terrorist with current knowledge of al-Qaeda operations in Yemen has been told he has the right to remain silent.

Gerson was one of President George W. Bush's speechwriters, and that is a great campaign line.

And granting Abdulmutallab that privilege only because he tried to commit murder on American soil is an incentive of disturbing perversity.

Finally...

The president has occasionally talked of a war on terrorism. But lip service is different from leadership. In the war on terrorism, 2009 was not a year of urgency and vigilance. It was a year of lullabies, hot toddies and Ambien -- though it nearly ended with a bang.

COMMENT:  Very well said.  The fact is, the president's heart isn't in it.  This is a president nurtured on the hard left, a man who believes that terrorism is the result of poverty and oppression – oppression by us, that is – when in fact it is the fruit of an ideology taught in schools and training camps, much as was the Nazi ideology, or the ideology that produced Japanese kamikazes in World War II.     

We hope that the president is learning, but I doubt if the wing of the party that he represents will ever learn much of anything, for it is devoted to those same myths.  The head of the Congressional Black Caucus, Barbara Lee of California, is a fan of Fidel Castro, and was the only member of Congress to vote against military action following the 9-11 attacks. 

We will have a difficult year coming up.  Jack Kennedy improved dramatically during his second year in office.  The jury is assembling to judge Barack Obama.

January 6, 2009