When I survey the past two years, when I think of the ridiculous “we’ll get it right once we’ve killed enough people” war in Afghanistan, when I think of the long-distance murders via “killer drones,” of the continuing practice of denying the most basic human rights to our political prisoners lest they do anything that the Obama Administration might find embarrassing, of the bi-partisan endorsement of the very worst claims of the Bush Administration for unreviewable executive authority whenever the executive finds it politically convenient to make such a claim—when I think of these things, then I can only conclude that the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, and its civil liberties policy—or rather its absence of one—have been one long exercise in political cowardice. Cynics tell me I shouldn’t be surprised. I guess if I were a cynic I wouldn’t be.
