Will Obama Turn America into the Titantic?
For almost all of my 16 years in Congress I was a leader in the efforts against illegal narcotics. Because of my work as a House staffer and especially as a Senate staffer working with those issues, I was assigned to the oversight subcommittee that coordinates anti-drug strategy immediately upon joining the House.
Working with narcotics is very similar to working with any other illegal international activity: basically it is smuggling illegal contraband and people through our borders and ports.
Also the nexus of illegal drugs and other illegal activities is often very similar, if not overlapping or identical groups. Smuggling is smuggling. Those working the underground either coordinate or fight over turf.
When you work narcotics issues, you are generally working with nations other Members of Congress aren't very interested in: they are often more violent, more poor and not fun places to visit (though every nation has some sort of a problem or tie, such as Switzerland being the financial center through which drug and other terrorist money transits through).
So in addition to focusing on Colombia and Mexico, the Andean region, the Caribbean and Central America, I was involved in battling heroin flowing from Afghanistan from the beginning of my time in Congress (when no one cared about Afghanistan). After 9/11 Speaker Hastert made me an original member of the Homeland Security Committee to continue to coordinate which now became somewhat separated issues but still overlapping.
Because of all this, I met with CIA station chiefs all over the world. I visited not only embassies in at risk countries, but sat with even visa clearing front window employees to understand clearances, with analysts who tried to decipher risks, and much more. I was in the first and third group into Libya, visited Kohbar Towers just after the bombing, as well as other such terrorist sites with the first groups into Lebanon (prime minister blown up), London, and Beslan, Russia.
I have worked with and been guarded by, as a chairman, State Dept security, former CIA agents and other security personnel. And I know the differences.
All this is to say the following points:
I have been astounded at the pack of lies coming out of this Administration since the murder of the Libyan Ambassador. Far, far too many people have far too much information for the truth not to continue to pour out about the incompetence of our President and Secretary of State in both strategy and security specifics. Their naive belief that someone a few speeches and the President's personnel tenderness toward Arab Muslims was going to alter the fundamental hatred of anti-Jewish and anti-Christian extremists was absurd. Weakness, like always, brought on violence. They sensed fear, and struck and will again. Strength AVOIDS war: it does not bring it.
The ultimate insult here was the incredible lack of security on 9/11. Then to try and claim a video is the root cause. Are you kidding me? Even the video isn't about the video: the demand is that no one in the world ever "insult" the Prophet and they get to define "insult." In other words, you cannot have freedom and accommodate their views.
Furthermore, when an Administration apologizes and continues to deny the obvious, they become weaker and more silly, with the predictable result of spreading violence and turmoil leading to the potential of more attacks on our soil plus all of our allies. No wonder Israel is filling the need to hit Iran before they get nukes. The US President puts David Letterman and Hollywood above meeting with the leader of Israel. What are we coming to?
A SEAL writes a book to correct the record, and gets threatened, only to learn that the Commander-in-Chief already leaked more classified stuff than the SEAL did, only the President did it for political purposes. Now even the supposed disaster of the Presidential detail seeking prostitutes is being called into question as another possible cover-up. Even whether we sold arms to the KNOWN terrorists in BenGhazi.
At this point, almost anything is believable.
We have not seen anything like this since the attempts of the Communists and fellow travelers like FDR's VP Henry Wallace to penetrate our government. This must end or America is at risk.