Listening
to President Obama respond after a terrorist attack takes the lives of innocent
Americans is like being trapped in an echo chamber. The words all sound too
familiar.
This
is what he initially said after the Boston Marathon bombings. “We still do not
know who did this, or why, and people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we
have all the facts, but make no mistake: We will get to the bottom of this. And
we will find out who did this, we'll find out why they did this. Any responsible
individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice,"
The
day following the November 5, 2009, shootings that killed thirteen and wounded
many others at Fort Hood, Texas, the President held a press conference. He began
his remarks with a two-minute “shout out” to members of the Tribal Nations
Conference who were in attendance. He then proceeded to warn Americans against
“jumping to conclusions” regarding the motives of the shooter.
It
had been widely reported that Major Nidal Hasan had shouted “Allahu Akhbar” as
he shot his unarmed victims. The payback for the heroes and survivors of the
attack was its designation as “workplace violence” rather than terrorism, thus
making them victims again with lower priority medical care and financial
benefits. They were not in a beauty parlor at the mall; they were on a U.S. Army
military base!
So,
not “jumping to a conclusion” and promising justice begins to sound like
official statements that are typed on a page Obama keeps in the bottom drawer of
his desk, titled “Blah, Blah, Blah.”
In
the wake of the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attack that killed a U.S. ambassador
and three security personnel, Obama said “We’re going to find out exactly what
happened. Ultimately, though, any time there is a death of an American overseas,
I want to find out what happened, because my most important job as president is
keeping the American people safe. And we will get to the bottom of what
happened, and we’re going to make sure most importantly that those who carried
it out, that they are captured. My biggest priority right now is bringing those
folks to justice. And I think the American people have seen that’s a commitment
I always keep.”
And
then the White House launched a bizarre effort to get the public to believe the
attack was the result of a video no one had seen and that it was not the obvious
work of al Qaeda. The very date on which it occurred—September 11—made that
clear. The failure to provide adequate security to a U.S. ambassador operating
in a war zone and to come to his aid has largely been stonewalled by the White
House. In the words of Hillary Clinton who was Secretary of State at the time,
“What difference does it make?”
My
first response to the President’s initial statement about the Boston Bombings
was to notice that he did not use the words “terror” or “terrorism.” It took an
unidentified White House official to call the event an act of terrorism later in
the day.
Mary
Kate Cary, writing in the October 11, 2012 edition of US
News & World Report, had noticed this as well. Referring to his speech
in Cairo, Obama said he had come “to seek a new beginning between the United
States and Muslims around the world; one based on mutual interest and mutual
respect.” Ms. Cary, however, noticed that “President Obama never once used the
word ‘terrorism’, just as he didn’t in his address to the U.N. General Assembly”
the month before. “His reluctance to denounce terrorism by name over the last
four years is part of a pattern.”
“The
problem with using the word ‘terrorist’ is that it creates tension,” wrote Ms.
Cary. “Not only does it acknowledge that there are extremist elements in the
Arab world, but it reminds everyone that the United States is vulnerable to
attack. The White House doesn’t like either of those. Better to disavow hateful
videos and lone radicals, and say the system worked.”
I
don’t know whether Obama even cares if people believe him when he repeats his
empty admonitions and promises. He does his best to look serious when he tells
us not to jump to conclusions and to expect justice, but we are still waiting
for justice in the case of Major Hasan and still waiting for answers about what
the White House did or did not do during the Benghazi attack. We do know that,
after a good night’s sleep, Obama flew to Las Vegas the next day for some
fundraising.
I
think the remainder of his second term will include more militant Islamist
attacks on Americans. The enemy has concluded that Obama really doesn’t care. He
has a far greater agenda to wrap up, the “fundamental transformation” of
America.
By Alan Caruba
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