Anwar al-Awlaki, who became a radical Muslim cleric and leading figure of al-Qaida, was killed September 2011, by a drone strike launched from a U.S. aircraft. He was also a United States citizen.
Al-Awlaki’s death isn’t necessarily a truly senseless one — even if he is technically an American. What is senseless, however, is the refusal of the Obama administration to acknowledge the occurrence and sweep it under the rug.
Al-Qaida is an organization responsible for the death of thousands of Americans as well as our current involvement in the Middle East. Few would criticize the loss of one of its top agents. But what many could, and should criticize, is the silence from the president on the situation.
The Obama administration’s continued silence on the issue screams hypocrisy, considering he, as well as other democrats, slammed Mitt Romney all throughout the election for not opening up or being transparent enough in foreign policy.
Every head of state has secrets. That’s an obvious component of the job. Classified files, inherently, don’t get released to the public and, as private people, we are not privy to certain conversations. That’s fine. What isn’t fine is the secrecy running rampant in Obama’s administration at the present time.
More specifically, the administration refused to release a summary of arguments about why the executive branch is within its power to order a killing of an American citizen without any other form of approval. This summary was unclassified but eventually discovered and published by NBC News. As Americans, we are affected by the government’s haziness on arguments especially during war times.
Let’s avoid the argument that Obama could order any of our deaths on the fly, and we still have stake in the issue. Why does a president, or one specific branch, get to make such a decision without the approval of the other branches? Checks and balances are in place for a reason, and bypassing them opens up a can of worms disastrous for everyone — especially the American people.
The circumstances surrounding the summary is reminiscent of the Pentagon Papers save for one key detail. Unlike the Pentagon Papers, this summary was an unclassified file. No enormous breach of American security should be expected thanks to the release. What comes as a result of the leak is a better understanding of who our president truly is.
Obama has proven himself a successful candidate after being re-elected following an economic recession. We put our faith in him as our leader, but that can quickly change if his actions
continue to be so secretive and surreptitious.
The president blasted Romney for behaving in that specific manner, yet it seems Obama behaves similarly. Why should the American people put stock in a leader who not only follows a “do as I say, not as I do” policy on leadership, but is also unwilling to be transparent to the public he serves? Our last president, who we blindly trusted, sent us on a wild goose chase for weapons of mass destruction, gave us illegal wiretapping and indefinite detention. One would hope we learned from our mistakes.
Although Obama has proven that he can be trusted, these recent instances of secrecy and deception cannot. Transparency was one of the best points of Obama. Sadly, it seems things have begun to shift. The American people cannot allow that to happen. Accountability in our president is a must.
We cannot condone the acts of a head of state who puts his branch in absolute power. And we cannot condone the actions of a president who does not hold up to the expectations he sets for the opposition.