It's a point of honor, I suppose. With Republicans making a great deal of headway on health care obstruction and public impatience with economy recovery, they continue to attack on the one front where they are losing. Handling terrorism used to be their political strong point. You want to get tough with bad guys? The Republican candidate was your choice.

Torturing captives, shouting down allies, suspending civil liberties, and invading dictatorships quite extraneous to any attacks on the United States were all tactics more satisfying to those insecure about national manhood than to those actually concerned with terrorist threats. They pleased an apprehensive political base who wanted tough action more than effective action. Rage against those responsible for mass murder on American soil demanded furious retaliation, and the previous administration, in the opinion of many of us, flailed to the immense satisfaction of conservatives. If tactics did not work, try harder, double down.

The mentality that pushes for the tough move over the smart move, that favors muscle at the expense of brains has been frustrated by a new President who uses both muscle and brains. The Christmas underwear incident has been a powerful catalyst for blind Republican rage. The accusations have taken on a curious relationship to actual events.

Republicans accused the administration of losing the opportunity to gain valuable information from the would-be bomber. Authorities had failed to subject him to what is euphemistically called "harsh interrogation." They had gone so far as to tell him of his rights within an hour (9 hours, actually). The accusations were followed by accounts of valuable information the young self immolator had given up both before and after being advised of his rights.

Senator Kit Bond was furious at the accounts. Facts may have disproven the accusations, but terrorists had been warned. Intelligence gained was now useless. This Senatorial anger was followed by urgent requests by the US for action against terrorists in Yemen and Pakistan soon after information was gotten from the mirandized bomber. Then came confirmation that multiple high level al Qaeda leaders had been killed.

Conservatives attacked on another front. They explained that killing more 9/11 murderers than ever before is actually a disaster for the United States. Those dead terrorist organizers could no longer be captured and waterboarded. You see, killing terrorists was actually soft on terrorism. So what happened? This week brings news of the most important capture of a Taliban leader ever. The number two man in the entire enemy force in Afghanistan has been apprehended in Pakistan.

Those of us who want to see al Qaeda crushed have a new way of divining the future. If we want to know in advance what success will next come to Obama, it seems we have only to listen to Republican political attacks.

I'm just very concerned, on behalf of counterterrorism professionals throughout our government, that politicians continue to make this a political football, and are using it for whatever political or partisan purposes. ... I think those counterterrorism professionals deserve the support of our Congress. And rather than second-guessing what they're doing on the ground, with a 500-mile screwdriver from Washington to Detroit, I think they have to have confidence in the knowledge and the experience of these counterterrorism professionals.

 - - John Brennan, February 7, 2010
     Current Assistant to the President,
     President Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser for
     Homeland Security and Counterterrorism,
     Director of the National Counterterrorism Center under President Bush