Posted by Tina
The Obama administration vowed in 2008 to fundamentally transform America. In many ways, including national security, he seems to be right on track. We have experienced several incidents that suggest security policy that isn’t working and represents a major change from the years prior to his taking office. The biggest change is in how this administration views the enemy that has sworn to destroy America through violence and through infiltration.
Let’s review findings from reports that suggest the trans-formative security policies this administration has adopted have severely weakened national security and the safety of the American people in the face of a dangerous, murderous enemy.
Five separate House investigations into events surrounding the Benghazi attack and the failures by our government to adequately provide security and defense for the Ambassador and his staff have been completed. The executive summary concludes in part the following:
Reductions of security levels prior to the attacks in Benghazi were approved at the highest levels of the State Department, up to and including Secretary Clinton. This fact contradicts her testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on January 23, 2013.
In the days following the attacks, White House and senior State Department officials altered accurate talking points drafted by the Intelligence Community in order to protect the State Department.
Contrary to Administration rhetoric, the talking points were not edited to protect classified information. Concern for classified information is never mentioned in email traffic among senior administration officials.
This report highlights the administrations careless disregard for American security. It reveals a concerted effort to deceive the American people on security measures. It provides a window into the “see no evil” position the administration has taken regarding the enemy. The President’s redistribution and transformation ambitions have taken precedence over security concerns as well as other issues that matter most to Americans.
Each of the five House committees investigating Benghazi will continue to investigate. The House summary on Benghazi concludes:
In sum, the events in Benghazi thus reflect this Administration’s lack of a comprehensive national security strategy or effective defense posture in the region. This singular event will be repeated unless the United States recognizes and responds to the threats faced around the world, and properly positions resources and security assets to reflect those threats. Until that time, the United States will remain in a reactionary mode and should expect many more situations like Benghazi, where those on the ground act bravely, but the United States simply fails to provide the resources for an adequate response. Ultimately, those opposed to U.S. interests will continue to take advantage of perceived U.S. weakness, the United States will continue to lose credibility with our allies, and we will face the worst of all possible outcomes in strategically important locations around the world.
Long before Boston, the Fort Hood case should have been instructive. It should have set off warning bells that caused the administration to rethink its security policy. But the administration’s weak analysis and response in Fort Hood is not inconsistent with the Obama position on terrorism and Islam. The President is unwilling to acknowledge that Islam has a direct role in the terrorism being inflicted around the world. He has a vested interest (what is it?) to downplay the role the Muslim religion plays. His propensity is to create moral equivalence with other religions. The message is that Islam is no more and no less relevant than other religions (or no religion) to the violent attacks on citizens in countries around the world.
George Neumayer reflects on the problem for The American Spectator:
The Obama administration tries to leave the public with the impression that its security failures are due to “incomprehensible” forces. But most of them are easy enough to comprehend, as they follow upon repeated and ignored warnings.
The father of the jihadist who tried to blow up a plane over Detroit in 2009 went to a CIA office in Africa and announced to anyone who cared to listen that his son was a threat to the U.S. No one did.
Major Nidal Hasan, the jihadist who shot up Fort Hood, spared American intelligence even that minor step of dot-connecting. He held public presentations on his hatred of America and sympathy for suicide bombers. The soldiers in the audience politely listened, not wanting to risk demotion or open themselves up to scoldings from their PC overlords. Some of Hasan’s colleagues even thought he had the makings of a thoughtful adviser to the government on Islamic affairs.
Short of a bombing or shooting, it is hard for Islamic warriors to get the attention of an administration that insists it is not at “war with Islam,” and even then no lessons are learned. The horror just becomes an occasion for more “diversity” and “understanding.”
I hope you will read the Spectator piece which states this case much better than I have.
The Presidents fundamental transformation of America includes stripping certain language from the lexicon to protect a religion that has been deemed “not responsible” for the brand of radicalism that is terrorizing people all over the world, including within American cities and military compounds. This is simply unacceptable. Unfortunately Obama’s new Secretary of State, John Kerry, doesn’t appear to be an improvement over Hillary Clinton:
I think the world has had enough of people who have no belief system, no policy for jobs, no policy for education, no policy for rule of law, but who just want to kill people because they don’t like what they see. There’s not room for that. That’s what we’ve been fighting against after all of the wars of the 20th century. Now we’re in the 21st century, and it’s time for a different organizational principle. And we need to, all of us, do a better job of communicating to people what the options of life are. And we’re open. Democracies are open to people participating in the democracy, not killing people. And so I hope that we can all figure out how we translate these better opportunities more effectively in our politics.
See how easy it is to dismiss the radical teachings that inspire murder and mayhem in the name of Islam? You just say (pretend) those bombers don’t believe in anything!
The next step in the Benghazi hearings will include the testimony of whistle blowers. Let’s hope that their revelations will get the attention of the American people. Our cities and our military serving around the world deserve much better than they are getting from this Commander-in-Chief and his sorry national security staff.
by Pie Guervara
