Looking left and confused

A popular admonition in sports and combat is to keep one’s head on a swivel, meaning to watch in all directions. President Barack Obama’s recent application of the concept with regard to prosecuting Bush officials over terrorist interrogations means Americans might be wise to be on the lookout, too, for another attack. Terrorists who are perpetually watching surely have seen our weakness showing.

Prodded by leftists to pledge he’d pursue prosecutions, Obama the campaigner feigned center, declaring that “we should be looking forward and not backwards.” Two of Obama’s highest ranking honchos, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, reiterated this position last week and over the weekend.

Then came a snap of the fingers from Moveon.org. Obama’s head dutifully swiveled left.

On Tuesday, he reopened the question of whether to prosecute legal advisers – Republicans, of course – and placed it in the lap of Attorney General Eric Holder, a move the Christian Science Monitor described as “Obama’s torture memo two-step.” The University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato marveled, “It always amazes me when presidents reverse course. It either means they didn’t think it out well to begin with or it wasn’t vetted properly. ... [N]ow he’s stuck.”

The position is between a rock and a soft place. The rock takes shape in the reality of what prosecution might bring: a stirring of America’s terrorist enemies; an unmasking of U.S. interrogation tactics and their limits; a crippling of morale at the CIA, which has worked heroically and without notice to prevent a repeat of 9/11; and paralysis among officials tasked with deciding how far interrogators might go in seeking the truth. From all of this would emerge a gaping vulnerability to attack.

The soft place is held by the leftist band Obama seeks to appease. This is the same group that battered Gen. David Petraeus because he dared tell a Senate committee that the surge in Iraq was succeeding. How dare he. Sensible people, a dwindling group, don’t take Moveon.org seriously, and neither should the president of the United States.

We do not suggest that Obama should sanction torture or wave through history’s turnstiles those who might have ordered it. But what’s been described so far is not torture but so-called harsh interrogation techniques, including the most controversial, waterboarding; sleep deprivation; and, in at least one case, slamming against a flexible wall an accused terrorist who wore a neck cushion to prevent injury. Ask a veteran of World War II’s Pacific Theater if this sounds like torture.

Bush lawyers admonished that techniques resulting in “severe mental or physical harm” were off-limits. The interrogations likely prevented more “severe physical harm” of American innocents. Officials say their questioning produced intelligence that unraveled a series of plots, including an attack on Los Angeles called the “Second Wave.”

As a column by the National Review’s Victor Davis Hanson shows, what Obama persists in forgetting others seem to recognize, providing some hope: Terrorists do not have “a right to remain silent” and are “not, in fact, people entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention.” Who says? Eric Holder, during an appearance on CNN in January 2002.

Less than two weeks ago, a rare display of stiffened spine from Obama encouraged us: he gave Navy Seals permission to take down Somali pirates. Another show of resolve is needed, this time to reject the calls of some of the leftist allies who backed his rise to power. Yes, he can win an election. Now let him show us he can lead, putting the country first by protecting American security interests rather than his base.