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Wednesday 30 December 2009 | Blog Feed | All feeds

By Toby Harnden World Last updated: December 30th, 2009

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There is no more solemn duty for an American commander-in-chief than the martialling of  “all elements of American power” – the phrase Obama himself used on Monday – to protect the people of the United States. In that key respect, Obama failed on Christmas Day, just as President George W. Bush failed on September 11th (though he succeeded in the seven years after that).

Yes, the buck stops in the Oval Office. Obama may have rather smugly given himself a “B+” for his 2008 performance but he gets an F for the events that led to Umar...