Cheney Hits Back In Dueling National Security Speeches

It is kind of historic to see a former VP debate against a sitting President. Basically Obama took the tact of "blame Bush" in his speech.

“In dealing with this situation, we do not have the luxury of starting from scratch. We are cleaning up something that is – quite simply – a mess; a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges that my Administration is forced to deal with on a constant basis,” Obama said. “The problem exists because of the decision to open Guantanamo in the first place.”

Then he went with this nonstarter:

“I believe with every fiber of my being that in the long run we…cannot keep this country safe unless we enlist the power of our must fundamental values,” Obama said. “We uphold our most cherished values not only because doing so is right, but because it strengthens our country and keeps us safe. Time and again, our values have been our best national security asset.”

The problem with values is that they won't stop a dirty bomb from going off in an American city. It is just that simple. We can say we don't torture, give every terrorist we catch the full Geneva Convention treatment, and we can give them the full rights of our Constitution (even though they aren't US citizens) and they will still try to attack us.

Values by themselves will not keep us safe. If Obama has another suggestion on how we can get actionable information quickly from the next Al-Quida leader we catch then please tell us because that will keep us safe. Do we only get to hear "name, rank, and serial number" from the next guy or can we break him down a bit? What can the CIA do to get that information that we need to save lives? Can they use tougher measures if that doesn't work?

These questions are what Obama needs to answer instead of talking about what Bush did. I mean Bush did keep us from getting attacked again after 9/11. I think Obama needs to release the information that waterboarding was able to give us. If it was nothing or not actionable then he proved his point that waterboarding was worthless and only hurt our reputation with the world. If it did give us intelligence but Obama doesn't want it used then tell us what the CIA should replace it with.

I think basically Obama needs to tell us what he will do in the next 4 years that will keep us as safe as Bush did in the last 7.5.