Thursday, May 5, 2011

Krauthammer Destroys Obama's 'Spike the Football' Analogy. 'I'm not sure what planet he has been living on in the last 10 years'


BRET BAIER, HOST, "SPECIAL REPORT": Charles, what about the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers saying imagine how the American people would react if Al Qaeda killed one of our troops or military leaders and put the photos of the body on the internet? Don't we see that time and time again? Daniel Pearl, all kinds of examples of that happening.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I think you are absolutely right. I mean, I'm not sure what planet he has been living on in the last 10 years. That is the modus operandi of Al Qaeda and other jihadists. They have actually shown the live execution of some of their hostages in the past. I'm not sure we ought to be comparing ourselves with them. We ought to be applying American standards.

I can understand if the president's decision is based exclusively on consideration of the diplomats abroad. You don't want to take the risk. I would disagree but that is a respectable conclusion. But for the president to say this is not who we are, we don't go about displaying trophies, we don't spike the football, is there any serious American, any serious leader in the country who is proposing the release as a way of strutting?

The only reason you want to release it is to prove he is dead, especially in parts of the world, there will be mythology. The only reason the president ordered the raid the way he did, a risky operation, he could have used a predator and destroyed the compound and reduced bin Laden to a cinder. The reason he ordered a raid, risky operation, is to produce proof of death. We did not enter this to produce a trophy. I'm not sure why the president has a compulsive need to morally preen that he is not spiking the football.

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