From Larry King Live, all this talk of terrorism and the Underwear bomber has got the righties worked into a lather to go drop some more bombs on poor people's heads, Bay Buchanan and Amanda Carpenter being the examples here. Bay's too old, but Amanda honey if you love the idea of starting more wars I'm sure you're still young enough to sign up and join the military.
And what has this Marc Lamont ever done to deserve to get on television besides play Democratic flunky to Bill O'Reilly? Fox cans him and now CNN brings him in to pretend he speaks for Democrats. Miller failed to note that we're already dropping bombs from predator drones in Yemen right now, although that's a far cry from the type of military action Buchanan and Carpenter seemed to be calling for.
Transcript via CNN.
KING: Amanda Carpenter, let's start with you.
What does the president do about Yemen?
CARPENTER: Well, I think what he's got to do is get some kind of promise that they will start producing some members of Al Qaeda. There's reports earlier this week that they arrested three people, but I think we're going to need a heck of a lot more than that before we start sending troops in ourselves.
KING: Stephanie?
MILLER: Well, you know, yes, I mean, I think this points up, though, Larry, exactly why the Bush administration had the wrong strategy on -- on terrorism and they have no grounds to criticize the president now. The worst security failure in our history happened on their watch, despite numerous warnings. Then they let the people behind it go at Tora Bora, attacked the wrong country, in Iraq.
They have no credibility on this matter.
CARPENTER: Well, I don't think, Stephanie...
MILLER: What are we going to do, bomb every country? Are going to bomb Yemen now?
CARPENTER: I wish...
MILLER: We need to fight a top smart war on terror and we need intelligence sharing.
CARPENTER: I wish Stephanie...
MILLER: That's what we need.
LAMONT HILL: But we also...
CARPENTER: ...would have gotten the president's memo on behaving like citizens right now when we're attacked with these kind of attacks. But if you do want to talk about somebody that should be blamed in the briefing today, it's Secretary Janet Napolitano. She was asked...
MILLER: Excuse me, but the right...
(CROSSTALK)
CARPENTER: She was asked in that briefing...
MILLER: The right is the one politicizing this, Amanda.
CARPENTER: ...what was the most surprising thing...
MILLER: But you know what...
CARPENTER: ...that you found...
KING: One at a time.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: One at a time, girls.
MILLER: ...never politicized this after 9/11.
CARPENTER: OK.
MILLER: And we never politicized this after the shoe bomber.
CARPENTER: You know...
MILLER: The right is the one that's politicizing this now.
KING: All right. Let me get...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Let me get Bay and Marc in...
LAMONT HILL: But I mean...
KING: Marc?
LAMONT HILL: Let's be...
(CROSSTALK)
LAMONT HILL: Let's be...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Hold it. Hold it. Hold it.
Let Marc comment and then Bay.
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: OK, Marc.
KING: Marc?
LAMONT HILL: I mean I tend to support President Obama on his -- on some of these tactics. But the reality here is that the Obama administration certainly dropped the ball here. There -- there's no doubt about that. President Obama was courageous enough today to step up and say, look, there were enormous intelligence gaps. We had enough information to stop this from happening and we failed. That's an important thing.
Should someone lose their job? Perhaps. But I think President Obama is doing something wise by being deliberative and not being completely reactionary.
My only concern with President Obama is, with regard to Yemen and with regard to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan and everywhere else, is that if we continue to engage in militaristic policies that galvanize terrorists and if we continue to engage in language that is really covertly anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rather than anti-terrorist -- and that's what Obama is trying to get away from -- then we're going to continue to radicalize and recruit more terrorists to attack the United States.
MILLER: Right.
LAMONT HILL: So it has to be a very balanced...
KING: All right (INAUDIBLE).
LAMONT HILL: ...thoughtful approach.
BUCHANAN: There's no question...
KING: In a sense, Bay, he's saying that we create the terrorists.
BUCHANAN: Well, there's -- there's no question. He makes an excellent point. You know, you go over there to Iraq, you have a war, you -- you aggravate people and it ends up creating more terrorists than we kill.
KING: Yes.
BUCHANAN: I would -- I don't disagree with that. But at the same time, when there is an act of war against this country and our commander-in-chief does not respond with something more than soft words, it -- we are in trouble. They will come after us again. He has -- it was -- it was Barack Obama who said we're not going to use "war on terror" anymore because it's so offensive to people, we will talk about individual extremists or -- or man-caused disasters.
Well, excuse me, hopefully, from Christmas Day now, he understands we are at war with Al Qaeda and he best respond as...
LAMONT HILL: Yes, but he...
BUCHANAN: ...a commander-in-chief and not as some kind of English professor trying to come up with different words on how to talk about it.
KING: Stephanie...
LAMONT HILL: But -- but...
KING: Stephanie, don't you agree, Stephanie, that these are perilous times?
MILLER: Well, yes. And that's a completely false criticism of the president that the right is making, Larry. If you -- you know, just use the Google, as George Bush called it. He says the words terror and war on terror and terrorism many times. I think he understands it. I think we disagree on how to fight it. And, Bay, my point is you can't do it militarily. I think you agree on that. You can't now go bomb Yemen. I mean we -- we've...
BUCHANAN: You take action when they come after us, just as we did...
MILLER: Sure.
BUCHANAN: ...in Afghanistan, Stephanie. And -- and that is absolutely certain...
LAMONT HILL: But that's a straw argument...
BUCHANAN: We must take strong action today.
LAMONT HILL: But that's a straw argument. At no point did President Obama suggest that we should not take action.
BUCHANAN: I agree.
LAMONT HILL: I've never met anybody on that -- even Dennis Kucinich doesn't say that we shouldn't take action if someone attacks us. So it becomes a straw argument to suggest that President Obama doesn't want to be tough on terror.
KING: Now, Amanda...
LAMONT HILL: You don't need big words.
KING: The -- the right-wing is criticizing that he doesn't say terror. I believe he said it 11 times today.
CARPENTER: Yes, he said it. I mean he talks about how this was an attempted act of terror.
But I do want to say, the most shocking thing that came out of the press conference today were statements made by Secretary Janet Napolitano. She was asked what were the most surprising things that you found in this intelligence review.
And she said, one, the determination of Al Qaeda. We all know how determined Al Qaeda is, but she said this was a surprise.
And, two, that they -- they tried to attack us with a lone suspect. We have seen this before. We know they use suicide bombers. So it is shocking that she thinks these were two of -- the two most shocking things that came out of this review. People have been calling for her head and I think when people review that tape, that those calls will be renewed.
LAMONT HILL: I think that's a bit un -- I think that critique is a bit unfair. I mean the reality is the Obama -- even if -- the Obama administration certainly didn't underestimate Al Qaeda's determination. They've been at it for over a (INAUDIBLE)...
CARPENTER: That's what she said.
LAMONT HILL: No, no, I...
CARPENTER: She was asked. Go look at the tape.
LAMONT HILL: No, I'm not doubting what was on the tape, Amanda, that's my point. I'm saying that she gave a bad press conference, as she did -- as she's done for the second time in a row now. I think she's really bad at talking to the media.
But the Obama administration, to be sure, doesn't think that Al Qaeda isn't tough. What they did underestimate, though, was the -- the capacity of Al Qaeda in Yemen.
What they thought was an aspirational terrorist practice was actually far more developed than they ever thought. They dropped the ball on that. They -- there was an intelligence gap.
KING: Thanks...
LAMONT HILL: But let's not think (INAUDIBLE)...
KING: All right, guys...
LAMONT HILL: Sorry, Larry.
KING: Thanks to everybody.
We'll be having you back.
No, thank you, Marc.
Stephanie Miller, Bay Buchanan, Marc Lamont Hill and Amanda Carpenter.
