With the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching, have some Americans lost their fear of terrorism on our shores? Has the woeful economy-with unemployment at 9.1 percent and sky-high gas prices-trumped our concern over those out to kill us?
Could be. How else to explain what U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) said about Tea Party Republicans in the immediate aftermath of the surreal debate over raising the national debt ceiling: “We have negotiated with terrorists. This small group of terrorists has made it impossible for us to spend any money.” Huh?
And then, in agreement, gaffe-prone Vice President Joe Biden again put his foot in his mouth by describing Tea Party activists thusly: “They have acted like terrorists.” Huh?
Appropriately, Biden’s bonehead comment prompted a slew of negative letters-to-the-editor in big daily newspapers. Here are excerpts from two examples:
‘”Biden calls Tea Party members terrorists, but it is in fact the White House that was employing terrorist techniques by warning of a fictional doomsday when the government would shut down and no Social Security checks would be issued.”
“Biden’s statement confirms that he has no understanding of who Americans are. Nor does he understand what terrorism really is and how it affects the very few Americans he has been elected to serve-and who he so flippantly dismisses.”
Were loose-lipped elected officials such as Biden and Doyle unwittingly diminishing the reality of actual, physical terrorism against our country? Or are they simply so partisan and ideologically driven they fail to see the forest for the trees? Think about it.
The terrorist threat is so relevant that the demise of Osama bin Laden-planned for years-was a stone-cold kill mission. In a recent New Yorker magazine report, the 18 Navy SEALs involved said they were following orders to kill him, not to take him alive.
The unidentified spec-ops officer who did the deed May 2, shooting bin Laden point blank in the chest and above his left eye, said, “There was never any question of detaining or capturing him-it wasn’t a split-second decision. No one wanted detainees.” Uh-huh.
This clearly contradicts post-raid claims of Barack Hussein Obama’s administration. And after a temporary uptick in his approval ratings following bin Laden’s death, the president’s poll numbers have plummeted. For example, by a 50-42 percent margin, a Quinnipiac University poll of voters in the swing state of Florida-taken after the debt ceiling deal-feel the president should not get a second term.
The specter of actual terrorism is alive and well and living in America. Even a doofus such as the bumbling Biden should know better than to go around calling political opponents terrorists simply because he doesn’t agree with them.
Everyone should know by now that Obama does not consider terrorism against our country a top priority. For example, in his worldview, captured enemy combatants should be treated as criminals and not wartime combatants who want to kill Americans.
Why are terrorists’ rights more important than American lives? There’s no way 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should get a civilian trial in New York at $200 million a year, instead of by the military. No way Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the abortive Christmas Day suicide bomber, should be Mirandized and lawyered up like a common criminal.
Abdulmutallab was indicted by a Detroit grand jury on six counts, including attempted murder, for trying to bring down Northwest/Delta flight 253. However, he was not confined and vigorously interrogated as a terrorist, as he should have been.
For months, Obama refused to use the term “terror” or “terrorist” or to acknowledge the war on terror because it was coined by the George W. Bush administration. He clearly has little interest in counterterrorism and does not want to aggressively confront radical Islamic extremists bent on violent jihad against America, despite signing off on killing bin Laden.
Obama’s tardy reactions to the airline flame-out by the underwear bomber and terrorist Fort Hood massacre by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan are cases in point. He simply won’t admit Islamic religious fanatics hate us.
The fact that the 23-year-old underwear bomber is a Black Nigerian proves terrorists of color couldn’t care less about our Black president. They care less whether their victims are Black, Brown, white, red or yellow. Obama in the White House will not deter them.
Unlike Tea Party activists, such people are real terrorists. Unlike Tea Party activists, their aim isn’t simply to reduce taxes and make Obama a one-term president-their aim is to kill us. Why can’t Biden and Doyle understand? Perhaps they do but won’t admit it.
Finally, when Obama visited Ground Zero on May 5, why were few, if any, Black New York City firefighters permitted to meet with him? And why didn’t the president recognize retired FDNY Capt. James “Rocky” Robinson in his 9/11 tribute? Robinson, 60, one of the first to respond to the 1993 World Trade Center attack, transported injured responders back and forth from the hospital on Sept. 11.
Bottom line: Obama should muzzle the likes of Biden and Doyle. Along with trying to balance the budget, he should get on with protecting our country from real terrorists-not imaginary ones or political opponents. And that’s the name of that tune.