By Seth Johnson
After admitting he had no strategy to confront ISIS -- the jihadist group he labeled as "JV" that waged a murderous campaign of expansion across Syria and Iraq to establish a caliphate in the Middle East -- President Obama is unveiling a plan on the eve of the eve of the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who guarded Obama and is a candidate for Congress from Maryland, believes the lack of a strategy is not an accident but an intentional political choice.
"It's not that they're not capable enough to go to the military and say, 'Hey, guys, give us some strategic options.' Those options have already been drawn up," he said.
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Bongino said the president "doesn't want a national security strategy because he's not interested in burning political capital on it, and that distracts him from a domestic agenda which has been his only priority from day one."
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Bongino, author of the New York Times bestseller, "My Life inside the Bubble," believes part of the reason for the president recoiling from leading abroad is that he has been embarrassed and unsuccessful on the international stage.
"He was humiliated on the 'reset' with Hillary, he was humiliated on the red line with Syria, he was humiliated on his negotiations with Iran over the nuclear program, he's been humiliated in North Korea, he's been humiliated in China with his new Pacific strategy," Bongino said.
Obama was widely criticized for returning to his golf game after making a brief statement about "justice" in response to the beheading of American journalist James Foley by ISIS. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that only 38 percent of Americans approve of the president's handling of international affairs, and 52 percent believe his presidency has been a failure.
Even Obama booster Chris Matthews of MSNBC reacted with fury to Obama's handling of the Foley beheading.
"I don't know why he used the word 'justice.' It's not appropriate here. This is an attack on our country, we have to react to it," Matthews said. "This is our country versus this group that's declared war on us. I don't know why the word's used, like we're going to go to the World Court with this?"
Bongino believes the nation needs strong leadership coming from the White House but Obama is not making that a priority.
"I don't know what other proof you need that the man is not actually interested in being the chief executive. He's interested in being the campaigner in chief, he's not interested in leadership," Bongino said.
While Obama may be distracted or more interested in other issues, Bongino, who along with his wife was working in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, in a building that collapsed, doesn't believe the terrorists are taking a vacation anytime soon.
"They are going to use this anniversary every year as a benchmark for terror. They know that every year, every couple of years, if they can pull something off they can almost keep the terror loop going in perpetuity," he said.
Bongino also pointed out that the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on the 9/11 anniversary was avoidable if Americans had only understood the enemy and not let down their guard.
"You can't completely ignore the politics of this and how to deter future action and fix the process," he said. "Benghazi happened on the 9/11 anniversary. If we had taken practical steps beforehand like acknowledging the known threat to our personnel on the ground, we would have likely prevented what happened."
Bongino said leaders need "to start speaking out against our failures since 9/11. "
"These terrorists are going to continue to try and hit us. We can't just say, 'We can't discuss these issues around 9/11 because there are sensitivities.' There are gonna be a lot more sensitivities if, God forbid, something happens again."
Hear Bongino when he spoke at Heritage Foundation: