Shoot First, Don't Ask Questions Later

"And I -- you know, Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later. And as president, one of the things I've learned is you can't do that. That, you know, it's important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts. And that you've thought through the ramifications before you make 'em."
                                                                                               --President Obama

Well, well. President Obama was quick to join with his partisans in the media and the establishment
hand-wringers 10 days ago to decry a statement from Mitt Romney in which the governor dared to suggest that the Obama Administration was disastrously and pathetically apologizing for America in the face of terrorist murders.

With his common pomposity, Obama informed us that Romney didn't speak with all the "facts", where as he, foreign policy wise man and steady-handed president, would be far more judicious. Now it was never clear exactly how Romney's statement constituted a gaffe, other than that it was one of the first statements to truthfully describe the Administration's response to the Middle East riots. Of course, for the media, whatever Romney says or does is some form of a "gaffe."

But, oh, the irony. For the man who wanted "to make sure that the statements" given "are backed up by the facts" has spent these last days with his Administration spewing wild and absurd falsehoods about the nature of the attacks on our embassies and our citizens.

Whoops! It seems that the attacks were not the spontaneous combustion of a few deranged nuts, as the Obama Administration prolifically claimed, but planned terrorist acts of war that resulted in two separate battles in Libya, the first destroying our embassy and the second a firefight at a compromised "safe house" in Benghazi. Four Americans, including our heroic ambassador, are dead.

Yet, by the lights of Jay Carney, Susan Rice & company, for more than a week, the "facts" showed that these were the unplanned actions of a small mob, inflamed by a video, that got carried away. Then the "facts" changed--radically. According to the White House spokesman, the "facts" became "self-evident", like the truths of the Declaration of Independence. Suddenly,it was obvious that the murders were the result of planned terrorism.

But can you believe Mitt Romney! Shoot from the hip! Not ready for "prime time"!

Funny how certain "facts" about terrorism have never been of much interest to the president. As Steve Hayes aptly points out in the Weekly Standard, the denial of Islamic terrorism is a running theme of the Obama Administration. The president "shot first and aimed later" when he told the American people that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas "Underwear Bomber", was a lone wolf. Not so--he was an agent of Al Quada and an Islamic terrorist.

The Administration said the same of the man who tried to blow-up a car in Times Square in 2010, only to once more later admit that the would-be bomber was agent of the Taliban. They moved heaven and earth to cast doubt upon the motives of Major Hassan, the Allah-praising, Al-Quada-corresponding man who murdered 13 soldiers at Ft. Hood.

So, the truth is that Obama doesn't like the "facts" about Islamic terrorism and has routinely  and dangerously ignored them. The president and his acolytes, including Hillary Clinton, live in a bubble reality of preening moral vanity. For them, it is critical to appear at all times tolerant and open towards groups whom they imagine suffer some form of discrimination at the hands of their moral inferiors. This is the foundation of the morality of the Left--to show how good one is by fighting on the side of a group that prejudiced society loathes. In this bazaar world of moral equivalency, the murders of American citizens and officials should be condemned in the same breath and with the same force as insults to Islam.

Obama is a disastrous foreign policy president. It is apparent that he believed that the death of Osama Bin Laden would inoculate him against any criticism in this regard. He sadly and typically took perhaps the one substantive achievement of his tenure and reduced it to an arrow in the quiver of his relentless propagandists. He has used it as a smoke-screen to obscure his actual foreign "policy"--that is if one can divine a "policy" other than apology, retreat, rear-end kissing and sundry windbag empty denunciations of Russia or Syria. Consider that Obama is first man in history to announce the date for the end of a war in the midst of that war, a war to which he committed men to fight and die for a purpose in which he purports to believe.

Maybe next time Obama gives us a lecture on the facts, someone will bother to check the facts. But with Obama and the media, it's likely to be "Shoot first, don't ask questions later."

Where is the President?

As the Middle East burns, President Obama has only briefly interrupted his campaign and fundraising schedule to make perfunctory remarks regarding the crisis. Where is the president? Will we hear an address like this?

Good evening. I address you tonight during a period of tremendous unrest and violence across the Middle East. As you know, American embassies in a dozen countries have come under continuous assault. In Libya, a mob of Islamic extremists killed our ambassador, Navy SEALS and an American civilian. In Tunis, the mob ripped down our flag and replaced it with the black flag of Al Queda. In Cairo, words in praise of Osama Bin Laden were spray-painted onto our embassy.

Tonight, I speak both to you, my fellow citizens, and to those in the Middle East who would attack sovereign American property and threaten American lives.

As I speak, special teams of United States Marines are on their way to defend our installations in nations across the Middle East. I wish to make clear that the United States will not brook further violence to its property or its citizens. Those who would cause such harm should now know that they will not only reckon with the security forces of their own country, but with the Unites States Marines.

I have authorized the Marines to take whatever steps are necessary to protect and defend American territory and lives.

The Unites States has no wish to restrict the ability of any person to voice his opinion in protest of an offense to his religious beliefs, real or perceived. However, we will not tolerate rampaging mobs attacking our property and our citizens. In short, we do not care where, what or how you protest, so long as you do so in a way that does not threaten American territory or the lives of American citizens.

In addition, I wish to firmly state to the world that the United States will not permit the Iranian government to acquire even the capability to make a nuclear weapon. This country and its allies have been exceedingly patient with the regime in Tehran. Yet the regime has thwarted any and all good faith efforts to compromise on this grave matter.

As such, negotiations are at an impasse and they are finished. The United States will take whatever steps it deems necessary, at the time of its choosing, to protect its interests against a nuclear Iran. And this nation will stand with, and defend, its ally Israel against any Iranian aggression.

The people of the United States do not desire conflict with any nation. Rather, we wish to live in peace and to accord to the peoples of other nations the same precious God-given rights that we here enjoy--including the rights to free speech, public assembly and religious freedom. We do not wish to take any human life, and we respect the dignity of all persons created in the image and likeness of God. In the words so many Americans hold sacred, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."

Yet, it is also written "Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword." Those who wish to live by the sword should not mistake our desire for peace as a refusal to act in defense of our interests, our sovereign property and lives of our citizens. We will discharge our duty to our people and our allies without hesitation.

So let us stand united and resolved tonight, praying for peace, but warning those who would do us harm that they will suffer a grievous consequence for acts of violence.

God Bless you and our country.