Oh, how nice. The man who is president says he takes "full responsibility" for the fact that two innocent hostages were killed in a U.S. drone attack.
Perhaps Barack Obama thought that made him sound strong and in-charge, but in reality, those words mean nothing.
Will his "full responsibility" mean any retribution against him?
No.
Will he suffer any negative consequences for it?
No.
No more than Janet Reno suffered any consequences for taking "full responsibility" for what happened at Waco.
Words like that just give political cover for a politician involved in a government action that turned out badly. Those words are used to make it seem as though the politician is emotionally in tune with the negative aspect of what happened and so will suffer no negative consequences, legal or political, from the incident.
Quite frankly, it's the coward's way out of a problem, and Barack Obama is expert at that. He presents a façade of strength and resolve when in fact he's like a child pretending he's not afraid of lightning.
The shocking story of the fatal drone attack in Pakistan became public last week, but it occurred in January. You'll hear and read all the reasons why it took so long for it to be made public, and most of them will be part of the cover-up of a mission that was dubious at best as we find out further details.
Surprisingly, even the media were critical of the nature of Obama's statements. The Los Angeles Times said it was "an extraordinarily public admission of an intelligence failure."
There were four fatalities, we are told. Two were turncoats fighting for al-Qaida – Ahmed Farouq, a dual U.S.-Pakistani national, and American Adam Gadahn.
I doubt many Americans will have much sympathy for them.
The other two fatalities were humanitarian workers who were being held hostage by al-Qaida.
One was an American, Dr. Warren Weinstein, 73, who was a captive since 2011.
The second was an Italian, Giovanni Lo Porto, 37, held prisoner since 2012.
Typical of Obama, when he made the somber announcement of the attack, he offered condolences to the families of the dead men and in the same breath defended his decisions to sanction such attacks.
It was then he said he took "full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni. I profoundly regret what happened."
"Warren and Giovanni"?!
What were they? Golfing buddies?
How about referring to them by their titles: Dr. Warren Weinstein and Mr. Giovanni Lo Porto?
It's another example of the Obama administration not having any sense of decorum and protocol, not to mention common decency.
How insulting to refer to the two men, held hostage by blood-thirsty Islamic terrorists, by their first names when it is more than likely that before this, Obama had never even heard of them, much less met them, to be able to refer to them informally.
But then again, our informal president wanted to give the impression they were on a first-name basis.
It's disgusting but not the first time this has happened in this administration.
Think back to the memorial for Ambassador Christopher Stevens after the Benghazi attack in which he was brutally killed.
When Hillary Clinton spoke, she went on and on about "Chris" this and "Chris" that – again, trying to give the impression they were long-time buddies.
This phoniness is more than disgusting. It's embarrassing to this country when we have people in high office who resort to childish tactics in an attempt to gain the sympathy of the public – meaning, potential voters.
We've learned that the family of Dr. Weinstein is not only deeply grieved at his death, they're furious at what they say was a lack of assistance by the administration to his hostage situation. It's been reported that the family paid ransom to the terrorists, but it didn't gain them the release for Dr. Weinstein. It only prolonged their horror.
In a tape released by al-Qaida in 2013, Dr. Weinstein said he "felt totally abandoned and forgotten" by his government.
The family released a statement summing up their anger, saying the government assistance "… was inconsistent and disappointing."
They went on to say they "hope this will finally prompt the U.S. government to take its responsibility seriously and establish a coordinated and consistent approach to supporting hostages and their families."
This raises the question as to just how many Western hostages are being held. One of the news stories reported that when Mr. Lo Porto was kidnapped, a German national was also taken. He was since released.
Clearly, the terrorism will continue. The hostage taking will continue as will the random killing of innocents.
The other thing that will continue will be the drone strikes by our government. Obama continues to support his decision to use drones in this 21st-century war, and he added, "It's a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war generally and our fight against terrorists specifically, mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes, can occur."
Oh.
Thanks, Barack, old buddy, old boy.
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