Friday, August 29, 2014

An Obama image or a Foley rescue?

James Wright Foley
Supposedly, the Obama administration defines it foreign policy mission statement as “don’t do stupid s**t”. Well, there certainly has been plenty of that going around so I would have to say it’s been an epic fail. Furthermore, when you make decisions based politics, it always comes back to haunt you. Case in point: after the beheading of American journalist James Wright Foley, the Obama administration decided to tell the world about a failed rescue attempt in Syria for Foley in the city of Al Raqqa. They divulged in depth operational details that should have never been made public — basically, they panicked and tried to save political face.
So here’s yet another symptom of epic fail from Obama and his JV team of dubious sycophants. As reported by Fox News and Breitbart from the original article in The Sunday Times by Toby Harden, “Pentagon sources said Foley and the others might well have been rescued but Obama, concerned about the ramifications of US troops being killed or captured in Syria, took too long to authorize the mission.” It’s claimed that Obama was concerned about his administration being Carterized had the mission failed.”
In others words, the most important decision criteria for mission execution was President Barack Hussein Obama’s image.
As the Sunday Times article states, “for President Barack Obama the decision to send in the Night Stalkers was an agonizing one. The audacious bin Laden raid in Pakistan had been a success but also preying on his mind was the failed 1980 Delta Force operation to rescue American hostages in Tehran. Sandstorms and mechanical troubles led the mission to be abandoned and eight American troops were killed when two aircraft collided. The debacle cast a shadow over Jimmy Carter’s presidency.”
“It was shortly after midnight on the Fourth of July when the specially modified Black Hawk helicopters fitted with radar-evading equipment swooped down over Ukayrishah, a small town next to the Euphrates River, close to the northern Syrian city of Raqqa. Flown by pilots from the US 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment — known as the “Night Stalkers” — the Black Hawks’ first job was to destroy a jihadist anti-aircraft battery three miles away. But their main role was to drop several dozen elite troops from Delta Force and Seal Team 6, America’s premier counter-terrorism units, into the heart of territory controlled by Isis, or the Islamic State. Their mission was to rescue an American held hostage — James Foley — whose eventual fate many witnessed last week.”
Anthony Shaffer is a former lieutenant-colonel in U.S. military intelligence who worked on covert operations and someone I know very well. He said, “I’m told it was almost a 30-day delay from when they said they wanted to go to when he finally gave the green light. They were ready to go in June to grab the guy [Foley] and they weren’t permitted.”
A bunch of you will couner that President Obama was being deliberative and after all, he did go after Osama bin Laden. But as portrayed in the film “Zero Dark Thirty,” you may just recall it took over 100 days for a decision to be made by the deliberative Obama. I’d guess the “go” decision wasn’t supported by Valerie Jarrett, but she was overridden by Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton — who knew her own husband had allowed bin Laden to escape.
However, it’s worth noting the eventual timing of the mission may have made for a nice July 4th weekend announcement for Obama had the mission succeeded — and you know the political animals in the Obama administration would have danced in the end zone.
Instead, as the Times reports, “Obama played golf on July 5th, as well as an additional six times in the month he is said to have spent agonizing over his decision, the delay of which may have cost journalist Foley his life.”
Imagine the tragic irony. Obama golfed away, supposedly agonizing over an operational decision and golfed away after the death of the journalist who could have been saved by a more timely decision — by a Commander-in-Chief, instead of a Golfer-in-Chief. Talk about a “sudden death” game.
There comes a time when we must all recognize this presidency is not about America. It is not about serving and protecting Americans. It is all about Obama. How many times do we have to learn the lesson of this narcissist before we admit the truth?