Erick Erickson, editor-in-chief of the conservative blog RedState, has an interesting theory on the Obama administration's timing on the release of information related to torture. In a post entitled "Is Obama Rushing Another Attack?" Erickson writes:
We know, because Joe Biden told us, that the Obama administration expects us to get attacked again domestically.
That’s the working M.O. of this administration: no matter what we do, we’re going to eventually get hit again. The Obama administration views the seven years after 9/11 as more a fluke than a successful strategy by George Bush to prevent domestic terror attacks.
So if the working theory is that we’re going to get hit again, what is the best response? After all, the public does credit George Bush with keeping us safe at (sic) 9/11...
If your working premise is that they are going to attack anyway, get them incited quickly, get it over with, and blame Bush.
The idea that this is a plausible theory (which, of course, neglects the fact that the releases thus far have been prompted by lawsuits) isn't worth dealing with. But one thing is worth pointing out: The idea that another attack is inevitable is hardly limited to the Obama administration. It was also -- correctly, given that the country's borders are impossible to defend completely -- the working assumption of the Bush administration. Erickson paints this as some sort of defeatist notion, but that's just not true; it's the realist attitude to take.
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