REPLIES TO THE CURRENT QUESTION

Our question last week was:

Former Vice President Cheney says that the policies of the Obama administration are making the United States less safe.  Do you agree, and why?

Here are your answers.  The name of a writer is included only if he or she actually placed a name at the end of the message.  Otherwise, we assume the writer wished anonymity and "name withheld" is inserted.

First, the context.  VP Cheney was referring specifically to intelligence gathering methods used to fight terrorism when he made that remark.  In that context, I agree absolutely.  In most other cases, the jury is still out but the omens are all ominous.  

Why?  Interrogation is a combination of perception and practice.  Hence, the classic "good cop/bad cop" notion that actually works in realit, as well as in a whole lot of movies, TV shows and crime novels.  If the person being interrogated is uncertain of what is going to happen to him/her, his perception of what is transpiring is distorted by apprehension and fear of the unknown.  If he is told at the outset, "Our policy is to coddle you, hold your hand and never, ever do anything to you that will upset you," his ability to resist interrogation is enhanced both in the short run and over time.  By stating the policy that we won't do anything bad to suspected terrorists, the Obama administration has taken the biggest arrow out of the interrogator's quiver.  Whether or not we plan to use "enhanced" interrogation techniques or any other methods to gather intelligence should have been kept secret.  Then, interrogator can play the game with a full deck even if his hands are tied by a poorly conceived policy.

The second part of the question relates to stated policies, and the practice of foreign policy.  They are different things.  The Obama administration, so far, has simply continued most of the practices of the Bush administration in fighting the war and confronting terrorism.  So far, so good.  Unfortunately, President Obama's policy pronouncements have led other nations to believe that we are weaker, and they are experimenting to see how weak we actually plan to be.  Examples include:  Russia, in partnership with Venezuela and Cuba;  Iran; and North Korea.  Trial balloons are floating on the horizon.  How President Obama's practice of foreign policy deals with those trial balloons will determine whether we are less safe or not.  Hopefully, he will figure out that, when he says something, the world is listening and reacting.  As stated above, the jury is still out.

Don Newell

I agree with Vice President Cheney for the simple reason that Obama's approach to combating terrorism is faulty because of his assertion that we are dealing with criminals and not enemy combatants. Criminals want your money, enemy combatants want your country.  

Tom Bullock

The first tenet of any country's foreign policy is "self interest."
It seems the Obama Administration's first tenet is "just be nice."
Or anything that is "un-Bush." Being nice does not protect the
United States. The naivete of this Administration was quite evident
this past week by the complete rebuff of Obama's overture to Iran.
Basically, the religious fanatics who rule Iran told the US to go
straight to Hell. So much for being nice.

Will Obama learn from this embarrassment? Doubtful. He has no foreign policy experience to rely upon, just like Jimmy Carter, and we know how that turned out relative to Iran.   And good luck with Syria, North Korea, Venezuela,
Hamas and Russia.  I'll bet the "just be nice" foreign policy doesn't
work with this bunch either.

Dick Cheney is correct in his assessment that this administration's recent decisions will make us more vulnerable to our enemies.   Hopefully, the administration will wake up before things get really dangerous for us all.

(name withheld)