The President on Terrorism

Recently, President Obama spoke about the terrorist attack on Christmas Day.
He stated that he accepted the responsibility for the failure to protect our nation.
And President Obama stated (finally) that we are at war with al-Qaeda. However, I might suggest that we Americans also need to be careful of other terrorist groups. Such as the suicide bomber who came to us via our "friends", the Taliban.
At Cato Institute, Mr. Obama's low key response to the would-be underwear bomber is applauded. http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/12/30/talking-about-terrorism/ Well, maybe. Yet, his low-key response was woefully late. And, I would moreover suggest that the Homeland Security Secretary's response was a total "failure". Mr. Obama needs to accept responsibility for her idiotic response.
In the end, however, the issue is security. In Afghanistan and in our airplanes, and everywhere in the world, Americans need to be as safe as possible.
Perhaps the answer isn't to chastise our intelligence community, but to aid it. Despite Secretary Napolitano's assertion that the underwear bomber had nothing suspicious about him, this has been shown to be patently false. And the State Department needs to investigate how this person obtained a visa. Heritage has several proposals for the issuance of visas, including more cooperation between the State Department and Homeland Security, and expanding the Visa Waiver program, which increases information for our intelligence gathering agencies.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/HomelandSecurity/wm2749.cfm
http://www.heritage.org/Research/HomelandSecurity/wm2743.cfm
President Obama should also reconsider releasing terrorists back to their home countries. At present, the release of Yemenis back to Yemen has been suspended--but not stopped or even investigated for the safety of this action. And terrorists need to be tried by military tribunal so that they can interrogated and charged and punished appropriately. The underwear bomber is not even charged with a capitol offense. His charge of attempted murder with a weapon of mass destruction carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
That just doesn't seem quite just to me!