US President Barack Obama took on his Republican critics over national security on Saturday by declaring that the US remained at war with terrorists and vowing to strike at those behind the Christmas Day aircraft bomb attempt.
The move marked a dramatic shift in tone from the White House, which has endured a week of withering attacks from Republicans who said it had mismanaged the response to the failed attack.
Obama used his weekly radio address to respond to comments by former US vice president Dick Cheney accusing him of pretending the US was not at war. Obama insisted he had said the US was at war from his first day in office.
PHOTO: AFP
“On that day I also made it very clear that our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred, and that we will do whatever it takes to defeat them and defend our country,” he said.
To back up his hard line, Obama also blamed the Christmas Day attack on al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula. He said the group had equipped and sent out the Nigerian-born bomber Umar Abdulmutallab and would now be brought to justice.
“All those involved in the attempted act of terrorism on Christmas must know: you, too, will be held to account,” Obama said.
It is unlikely, however, that Obama’s stance will do much to appease his Republican critics. The right has been eager to attack him on a range of issues from Iran to Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan. Yet at the same time Obama is also coming under pressure from the leftwing of his own party and liberal groups which see him as continuing too many of fomer US president George W. Bush policies.
Yemen has now emerged as an unwelcome new front. The US has been providing support for the Yemeni government in its battle with Islamist militants, but the country has become more unstable and terrorist attacks from there more frequent. Before the attempted aircraft bombing, a radical Yemeni cleric was linked to the recent shooting at Fort Hood where a Muslim American killed his fellow soldiers.
The issue has been further complicated by the fact that several former Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been linked to the recent aircraft attack.
Many of the criticisms leveled at Obama have had a strong echo of those that followed Sept. 11 terror attacks. Critics have pointed out that much key information was known about the attackers, but had not been coordinated among intelligence agencies. Indeed, reforms brought in by Bush, such as creating the Department of Homeland Security, may have made the problem worse.
“We are still having the coordinating problems that we had before 9/11. There is too much bureaucracy,” said Ivan Eland, director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at the Independent Institute.
Obama has already ordered a review of procedures for intelligence gathering and information sharing, and will hold a meeting of top staff tomorrow. In his radio address, he said he would ensure there was more effective co-ordination and that people would be held more accountable for their actions.
“Let us ask the questions that need to be asked. Let us make the changes that need to be made. Let us debate the best way to protect the country we all love,” he said.
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