The Warm Fuzzies

Somehow when this country seems to be doing the right thing, I get the warm fuzzies.  That is, I sense that this or that move is going to make things better … be it domestically or internationally. For some reason, the actions of the Obama administration seldom reward me with this cozy feeling. It is more often a forehead-slapping, “Oh no!” … such as with its recent Keystone Pipeline can-kicking. Or, giving up control of the Internet … ouch! Or, deploying snipers in Nevada … cringe! Or, allowing Iran six more months of plutonium production … groan!

Actually our recent moving of U.S. troops into Poland came close to producing some comfort for me … until I heard the number … 150! I sincerely doubt that this small of a military contingent will keep Russia’s Putin up at night … nor stop any designs he might have on Eastern Europe. In fact, this namby-pamby number may well tell him more about Obama’s intentions … or lack thereof … than the act itself.

And I would love to understand what this administration hopes to get out of its current far-east excursion … other than dining on the best sushi in the world. Yes, I hear the words “better trade” and “reassure allies,” but I don’t really feel that this trip can have any consequences other than the “Hillary effect” …  getting on and off an airplane as a pretend pretext to “doing something.” The mere fact that there are virtually no headlines coming out of this trip tells me how vacuous it really is.

And so, dear reader, this country is sleep-walking through one crisis after another without, it seems, any overarching strategy or design. Fuzzy thinking doesn’t tend to give me the warm fuzzies.

Excluded Middle

There seems to be a crisp dichotomy between the opinions regarding Edward Snowden’s leaking of National Security Agency (NSA) secrets.  Many, like Daniel Ellsberg and the New York Times view him as a patriot and Dick Chaney (among many others) think him a callous traitor.  Snowden himself says, “I’m neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American.”  The Diplomad blog, which I often read, views him as treasonous … but many of the comments therein disagree … see: The Diplomad Blog … and please read through the many thoughtful comments.

Now comes my opinion -- there is a law in logic that deals with such a situation, namely that most opiners are ignoring that both possibilities might be true … or the “excluded middle” (see: Princeton Comments ). And so, I believe that Snowden is both a patriot and a traitor.  He has opened up the debate about what exactly the intelligence operations in this country should be permitted to do without destroying our fundamental freedoms.  For this he is a hero.  But he has also a turncoat … and, through fuzzy thinking and media grandstanding, is revealing many national security secrets that are doing great damage to our counter-terrorism efforts and embarrassing us with our allies.  Unlike many Americans, I don’t think that one conclusion mitigates the other one.

For this latter gross malfeasance, I think he should be extradited and tried for treason.  If he is found guilty, I would have no problem with his being executed.  Such a punishment would clear the minds of other potential Benedict Arnold's before they are duped and try to grab international headlines with such dangerous revelations.