He describes Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a "suspect" who "allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device on his body" and notes that the 23-year-old Nigerian was "subdued," taken into "custody" and charged with a crime. Rest assured, however, that a "full investigation" was launched into this "attempted act of terrorism." Our "wartime president" sounds more like a small-town mayor reporting on the fire department's progress in getting the neighbor's cat out of a tree.
On his first full day in office, Mr. Obama signed two executive orders -- 13491 and 13492 -- a form of presidential hypnosis designed to erase from our collective memory the fact that we are at war so we all could move on to more important things, such as expanding government. The first EO mandated that individuals in U.S. custody "shall not be subjected to any interrogation technique or approach" unauthorized by a published "Army Field Manual." The second order directed the closure of the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility. American and European political leftists were euphoric. The terrorists were happy to get home to Yemen.
On Feb. 17, Mr. Obama ordered the deployment of more than 12,000 troops to Afghanistan, saying the situation "demands urgent attention and swift action." Then he dithered for nine months, before halfheartedly announcing a kinda, sorta, escalation-cum-retreat policy at West Point on Dec. 1.
Despite promises to "look forward, not back," Mr. Obama ordered the release -- in alarming detail -- of four classified CIA memos on enhanced interrogation techniques. He then authorized his attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate those who wrote and carried out the interrogations.
When he isn't throwing his predecessor over the side, he throws Uncle Sam under the bus. Mr. Obama's global "penance and kowtow tour," in which he bows to foreign potentates and apologizes for America, has gone on unabated since he became president. Last month in Oslo, in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, he all but apologized for being the "commander in chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars."
After invoking the memory of Martin Luther King's real courage to a room full of simpering European pacifists, Mr. Obama described himself as "living testimony to the moral force of nonviolence." He then held a surreal debate with himself regarding the "difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace and our effort to replace one with the other."
We are at war, Mr. President. You said it yourself. Now, if only you believed it.