Obama dangerously ignorant on security

By Tom Jeffers

To say that Barack Obama is ignorant with regard to national security is not to say that he is stupid. Rather it is to say that he is either woefully uninformed or deliberately taking the left-wing liberal do-nothing approach to protecting America. He seems unaware of recent history. Barack Obama says that the federal government's prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings was the best way to counter terrorism. Like Bill Clinton, he would rather prosecute terrorists as criminals, in American courts, with American lawyers defending them, than hunt them down and kill them. He and Clinton think terrorists are entitled to American Constitutional Rights and Protections.

He recently told an ABC interviewer that we should "crack down on terrorists within the constraints of the Constitution." Obama's memory is ignorantly short. The 9/11 attackers wanted to be martyrs and were prepared to die for their cause. No legal threats of our Constitution and court system would have stopped them from completing their missions.

He also seems to have forgotten that the 9/11 commission recommended that America must identify potential or actual terrorist sanctuaries and threats and use all elements of "national power" to keep possible terrorists on the run and away from our borders. The commission said nothing about reading them their Miranda rights.

Barack Obama also seems ignorant of the fact that, because of America's deliberate, intense pursuit and destruction of terrorists and their resources, we have not been attacked in the seven years since 9/11. The liberals, and Obama, like to say that we have just been lucky so far. They give NO credit to the world-wide war on terror which has been extremely successful to this point. The prosecutions of the 1993 World Trade Center terrorists offered no relief from future terrorist attacks. President Bush's aggressive, seek and destroy policy of terrorism targets and assets has prevented another 9/11 catastrophe! Luck had nothing to do with it.

Following the February, 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Bill Clinton did little to nothing to keep Americans safe. Under his inept policy of prosecuting terrorists IF he could catch them, Americans all over the world became frequent targets of terrorism.

Under Bill Clinton's watch, Americans were attacked over and over again following the first 1993 World Center attack. History has recorded many terrorist attacks worldwide since then. The following attacks are a selected few that were directed specifically at Americans.

? The Attempted Assassination of President George H. W. Bush by Iraqi Agents, April 14, 1993.

? The Attack on U.S. Diplomats in Pakistan, March 8, 1995: Two killed and a third wounded in Karachi.

? The Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, April 19, 1995: 166 Americans killed and hundreds more injured in what was up to then the largest terrorist attack on American soil.

? The Attack on the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, September 13, 1995.

? The Khobar Towers Bombing, Dhahran, June, 25, 1996: killing 19 U.S. military personnel and wounding 515 persons, including 240 other U.S. personnel.

? The U.S. Embassy Bombings in East Africa, August 7, 1998: killing 12 U.S. citizens, 32 Foreign Service Nationals, and 247 Kenyan citizens. Approximately 5,000 Kenyans, 6 U.S. citizens, and 13 others were injured.

? The Attack on the destroyer U.S.S. Cole, October 12, 2000, in Aden, Yemen; killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 others.

? There were many dozens more attacks worldwide.

Instead of pursuing terrorists with determination and resolve, following the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Janet Reno installed fire walls between the CIA, the FBI, the NSA and the FISA organizations that prevented these agencies from sharing and coordinating intelligence and gathering details about terrorist plans and training camps. Obama thinks this was a good plan of action.

Barack Obama seems intent on again repeating the failed policies of the Clinton administration if elected. He will treat terrorists like common criminals instead of international terrorists dedicated to destroying America. He wants to communicate with them instead of defeating them. He actually thinks he can negotiate with terrorists when and if he becomes President. Terrorists don't want to talk. They want only one thing, the destruction of America and its western allies.

America cannot afford to elect an ignorant appeaser like Barack Obama as President. He has no experience, no skills, and no common sense and has been a do-nothing U. S. Senator who has spent a total of only 143 actual working days in the Senate. During those 143 days he has not written or sponsored ANY meaningful legislation on ANY subject, has voted against the war on terror and has vigorously declared defeat in the war on terror just as we are winning.

His plan is to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory if he can.

Obama's recent mid-eastern side-show trip to try to show support for the troops and learn more about the war was a sham. He even met secretly with Iraqi leaders and asked them to delay the U. S. troop withdrawals until after the new administration is seated so HE could claim success in pulling our troops out of Iraq. This act by a sitting U. S. Senator is treasonous and unlawful yet no one in the main stream media is calling him out on his despicable actions. No one outside the Presidential Administration can conduct foreign policy but Obama had the audacity to try. His actions remind me of Jimmy Carter's similar actions late in his failed Presidency in 1979 during the Iranian / U.S. Hostage crisis.

Barack Obama's close association with the racist hate-monger Reverend Jeremiah Wright; the acknowledged anti-American terrorist Bill Ayers who tried to blow up the Pentagon; the writings of the radical activist and America hater Saul Alinsky; and the indicted Chicago political influence peddler Tony Rezko, certainly bring his past, his judgment and his patriotism into question. Obama has too many skeletons in his closet to be trusted in ANY high ranking political position.

Barack Obama is a socialist and is only interested in more big government control of our lives through higher taxes. He will destroy our capitalist society if he is elected President in November. He is unprepared and must not be elected to the highest office in the land.

Tom Jeffers is a Bigfork

resident.