A President's View of War

Yale law professor Stephen L. Carter writes about President Obama's approach to war in his new book The Violence of Peace: America’s Wars in the Age of Obama, released by Beast Books. Carter analyzes Obama's actions cleaning up after President Bush's wars to reveal a similarity between the two leaders, writes The New York Times. While Obama issued an executive order banning torture, he continues the tactic known as rendition that allows American forces to capture and interrogate enemy combatants in other countries. So while Obama continues on a similar, but circuitous path as Bush, "American hands will no longer be dirtied." Carter writes that perhaps the president has no choice when it comes to torture during war time—and that there is important knowledge that can still be acquired.