34 Warships Protect the President: It's the Hypocrisy that Bothers Me

Smoke rising from the Taj Mahal hotel in November, 2008.

It's not that I don't want the first citizen protected from Islamic terrorists with the full force of American strength and military power, I do; but I am bothered by this administration's incredibly casual denials of the seriousness of the threats from Islamic terrorists to the rest of this great nation's citizens.

We have been told to believe that a Nissan Pathfinder was loaded with explosives and parked in front of a theater in Times Square by an opponent of health care. We have been told to believe that Army officers would have been showing prejudice to question an email conversation between a Muslim Army psychiatrist and Anwar Al-Awlaki, the "US-born cleric known to foment violence against the US over the Internet." We have been told to believe that it would have been a criminal act for sentries aboard the USS Cole to fire on an approaching "suicide" fishing boat loaded with explosives.

And, of course, we have been famously told that Americans who oppose abortion, gun restrictions, and high taxation are potential threats to American security, and that Americans opposed to illegal immigration are the "enemies."

Under threat of violating American principles, we are expected to conform to the belief that failure to welcome the building of a mega-mosque on a site partially destroyed by Islamic terrorists on 9/11 is plain, out-and-out "bigotry."

But when it comes to defending the first citizen and his family and friends, protection from the "potentially mentally deranged" lone nut-job is taken very seriously indeed.

In fact, security for the first citizen's visit to India requires a fleet of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, to patrol the sea lanes off Mumbai [Bombay]; an emergency evacuation plan; an advance contingent of 13 heavy-lift aircraft, three helicopters, 500 U.S. security personnel, high-tech interception and obstruction devices; the installation of floodlight illumination; sniffer dogs; and assorted rescue "gadgets." Of course, there will be the usual precautions against air-borne attacks, including against plots by palm trees to attack the first citizen with ripe coconuts.

You'd never guess that this man's administration isn't partial to sending absentee ballots to members of the American military and that he started his administration by trying to force combat-wounded warriors to pay for their own prosthetic limbs--until veterans' groups read him the riot act.

It is appropriate for the U.S. president to have sufficient security to make sure that his entourage's 800 luxury hotel rooms in Mumbai don't end up looking like they did in November 2008, when teams of Islamic terrorists from Pakistan lone nut-jobs:

stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, hospitals and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India's financial capital, killing people, taking Westerners hostage and leaving parts of the city under siege ...." 

Smoke rising from Pentagon, September 2001.

. . . leaving 173 people dead (a number of hostages were first tortured) and more than 300 wounded.

It would also be appropriate for the U.S. president to acknowledge with gratitude the sacrifices made by the patriots who put their lives (and money) on the line to provide him, his family, and his entourage with that security, and to bear in mind that when America's other citizens clamor for security, their desire stems not from racism, but from realism.


Heads-up from Another Black Conservative.
__________