Saturday, January 10, 2009

Blaming Bush Still Simpler Than Fact-Checking

Fable, as told in the January 9th Guardian (U.K.):
The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon George Bush's doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.

The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush ­presidency's ostracising of the group.
Reality, quoted from the Treasury Department's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence website:
The U.S. designated HAMAS as a terrorist organization pursuant to Executive Order 12947 in 1995 and as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.1
Reality, quoting the second para of Executive Order 12947 (Jan. 24, 1995):
I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of America, find that grave acts of violence committed by foreign terrorists that disrupt the Middle East peace process constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.
Question: Is it the media or the Obama team that think we're stupid?

(via Andrew McCarthy on The Corner)
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1 Ramifications of foreign terrorist organization designation here.

4 comments:

OBloodyHell said...

> Question: Is it the media or the Obama team that think we're stupid?


Quite unfortunately, there is ample evidence that "we" are.

Not me, not you, but enough of the idiots out there.

MaxedOutMama said...

It could be that the Obama team is stupid enough to believe this. I would think most of the citizenry remember that Clinton wasn't exactly tongue-kissing these people.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

My suspicion is grimmer. The memory of progressives is based on emotion, not events. They remember Clinton as basically okay, so his Hamas policy must have been different from Bush, who isn't okay. Four legs good, two legs bad and all that.

So accepting that we have always been at war with Eurasia isn't that difficult for them.

@nooil4pacifists said...

I like AVI's formulation, particularly the tie to Orwell.