Terrorist Attacks

Extremely disappointed in President Obama

President Obama is not standing by his fellow Americans nor the victims of 9/11.

Clearly, he lost no one in NYC, VA, or PA. If he did, he would not be backing this mosque in Manhattan.

If he had lost his wife, do you think he would be talking about freedom of religion? No.

I think he would be saying things like: “3000 lost their lives on that day, and they don’t get to practice any religion.” “Screw freedom of religion.”

The only facts that are transparently clear here is: The Cordoba Initiative is using our US Constitution as a crutch and it’s sickening and disrespectful to everyone.

They should all be kicked out of the USA. They don’t understand American values. They honestly do not ‘get’ what 9/11 meant to Americans. Dont’ tell me the story about muslims dying that day too. I am fully aware. But those muslims would NEVER want you to build this mosque so close to where they were murdered – by their gravesite! They would say it’s wrong and very disrespectful.

This does not take a lot of intelligence. This is common sense and human decency. All other legalities and politics you want to shove into this you can. And that is what the Cordoba Initiative has done – because they knew that would be the only way to get this building approved in Manhattan, at this location, for this type of place.

If President Obama lost his mentor and closest friend Ted Kennedy in the Pentagon on that Tuesday morning, I think he would be saying things like: “Our founding fathers couldn’t have imagined such an atrocity. This is not what they had in mind when they invoked Freedom of Religion into our US Constitution.”

I would think those would be his words. Not, the opposite.

This obviously didn’t hit home enough for Obama. It surprises me about NYC Mayor Bloomberg, but I know he is in too big a jam to do anything about this.

Lets put this in perspective and state facts:

Fact #1: All of us against this mosque by Ground 0 aren’t arguing freedom of religion. We aren’t saying don’t build a mosque and we aren’t saying we don’t want you praying this religion.

So for NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Barack Obama to back their arguments with the ‘freedom of religion’ justification is pointless and weak.

Fact #2: What we are all arguing is the location – 2 blocks from Ground 0

This desired center could, absolutely, be built somewhere else in Manhattan and still cater to Manhattan muslims conveniently. In fact, Governor Paterson stepped in with an offer to help – to find another building (a state owned building) – that would suffice, so this sensative issue could be resolved, and everyone would be happy. But Soho Properties said no.

Why?

Ya know, they never answer the question of ‘why’ they want/have to be there. They just always raise the opposing question of ‘why not’.

Well, answer ours first. I think the larger majority of people against this have the right to know. I think your Governer has the right to know.

Cordoba Initiative can achieve their same “agenda” (please, joke) 3 blocks further away, or 5 blocks further away from Ground 0- if that is what they really want to do. They know this is absolutely wrong and idiotic. Yet they still are adamant about doing it at this location. Again, I ask why.

Why not move your location -if you know what you are doing is causing sooo much uproar, pain, hatred, anger, creating potential problems and putting many in very sticky situations. Why wouldn’t you change locations – if your interests are as you say they are: creating togetherness and collaboration.

If you aren’t even willing to work with 1 government official to keep peace in your city before your center is built, how on earth do you think you will accomplish ‘collobaration and togetherness and peace’ once your building is complete with thousands of Americans?

Please, Cordoba Initiative and Soho Properties, do not insult Americans’ intelligence.  We are fully aware of your bs.

Rep. Peter King makes a great statement today. My sentiments exactly:

“President Obama is wrong,” said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.). “It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero. Unfortunately, the President caved into political correctness. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque, they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much,” King said in a statement. “The right and moral thing for President Obama to have done was to urge Muslim leaders to respect the families of those who died and move their mosque away from Ground Zero.”

So as I stated, Fact #2: The point at question here is the location. Everyone wants to bring up every other issue to divert the attention on the main one and sadly…no, pathetically, it’s working. Wag the Dog.

So, again, there is only one issue on the table here: Location. Move the location and there is no issue. There is no one protesting, there is no controversal topic anymore. It goes away in the news. No one is mad, no one is hurt. People don’t even give it a second thought. We all go on with our lives and the Cordoba Initiative builds whatever the heck they want to.

Fact #3: T his is about responsibility. You have that responsibility to your city and to your fellow Americans, as a person or company that wants to pursue business in that city with their fellow Americans.

And when what you are doing is causing significant problems and aggravation within your city, you stop. Responsibility and morality go hand in hand. Especially when we all know your desired ‘mission’ is never going to happen, and you know it too. Desiring a good thing or wanting to have an ideal environment is one thing, practicality in Manhattan, NYC in this situation, is another thing.

When you know what you are doing or building is causing such hatred, anomosity and pain to others, even before it’s completed, you live civilly within your community and you regard others, and you move your location. It is called common human decency. It’s called saving lives and not contributing towards deeper hatred, crimes and problems in your city.

I can’t imagine what Mayor Bloomberg is thinking. I want to chalk it off to a senior moment. It’s great he is all for ‘freedom of religion’. But I think he forgot to think about his position in office when he was so happy to give that statement in support of the mosque.  This will increase crime, violence, hatred. I see injuries and deaths, grafitti and constant protests in front of this building. What good does he see this doing for the city? His numbers will go down.

I forsee people attempting to destroy this building – arson or who knows (obviously not by me, but this too is common sense). Perhaps they will succeed –  and be willing to go to prison to stand up for what is right – doing so in honor of the victims of 9/11 – because their own elected officials and elected US President failed to stand up for them and for the majority of American citizens.

Does the Mayor and President not forsee the same things I do? Does government not know a key principle in business- where you troubleshoot with vision for problems? Tell them I offer business consulting services.

Does Mayor Michael Bloomberg realistically think Jews and Christians will walk into this place? Why would they need to? They can swim anywhere else or go to other performing art centers. NYC is filled with those! They certainly aren’t going there to pray!

Good Gosh? What are they thinking? They are trying to prevent political suicide, but if you ask me, they just committed it. They are sending the wrong message. As of 8/11/10, 70% of Americans were against it, CNN polling. Those numbers should tell them they need to stop supporting this mosque under the crutch of freedom of religion.

This is all a farse – this ‘colloboration and togetherness building’ the cordoba initiatitve says it will create once the center is done. They put a fancy name around a mosque and added a few amenitities in the building in hopes of creating a distraction and using it as grounds in it’s legal fight of ‘this is not just a mosque’.

I understand not all muslims are terrorists. What I am saying is, if you want to be a part of the community, and you are trying to educate others and send the message of peace and togetherness, then on such sensative issues, you listen to what is going on around what you are doing and you work with your govenor or whoever else is willing to help to allow you to achieve what you want, without causing such a roucus. You certainly do NOT conjure up or contribute to deapen the wounds of an unprecedented and historical criminal attack on the USA! Again, responsibility and morals…oh screw that -just human decency!

Fact #4: The very fact they are so wanting to pursue this despite all these things mentioned, shows alone, the character of people that comprise Soho Properties and The Cordoba Initiative. They show extreme lack of respect and almost a lack of care about 9/11. An even graver lack of respect, understanding and compassion to fellow Americans. It is almost as if they are inhumane. How could you even possibly think this is a good idea? No one in their right mind would.

And if your mission is such a good one, then why do you refuse to move your location? Why are you so against every non muslim american that is trying to help you get what you still want, yet not cause pain to other NYers or Americans? It doesn’t make sense. This to me, raises a lot of heightened questions of loyalty to the US and alterier motives.

The mere sentence that will be stated in the future: “there is one of the largest mosques in NYC 2 blocks from Ground 0″ is truly incomprehnesible to any intelligent and caring individual in the world. I have heard it even from my friends in Africa -a place that is predominately Muslim! Let’s not even forget the meaning behind the word Cordoba.

This is not about tolerance, this is not about ‘educating others about peaceful muslims’ this is not about togetherness/collaboration, this is not about freedom of religion. This is about an entirely different agenda that we have no idea the depths to that agenda. They won’t show who is funding this $100M project. Again, why not? They are required to actually, but  yet they want to fight this one too – or push it off as long as they can (time to doctor books).

They just want to fight and fight, cause anger, pain, sadness, cause problems, and breed more hatred. I don’t know – but to me, sounds like a group of people that study a religion that is known to have extreme versions in it. And it just so happens these groups of people are  in NYC, and ya know, want to adamantly build a huge mosque – just 2 blocks from Ground 0 – absolutely refusing to move their site location.

But even if you say that there is no other agenda, it’s all legit/upfront, etc. – their mission, standing alone, is absolutely unrealistic and them trying to achieve this mission will do much more harm than good.

Yet our government officials just close their eyes, make their statement and then walk away, not a care in the world about the problems that will (not might, but will) arise from this 15 story mosque/center being built by Ground 0. Because 9x out of 10, by the time this mosque/center is complete and they are ready to open their doors, these elected officials won’t be in office anymore, so it won’t be their problem.

So that leaves all us intelligent & logical people left to deal with this – and to presume nothing but pure cruelness and ill intent sits behind Soho Properties and Cordoba Initiatiave’s entire reason for creating this 15 story high mosque/center that overshadows Ground 0.

Simply because they have done the exact opposite of ‘building togetherness, collaboration and peace’ – before even opening their doors.

Shame on them. Shame on Obama.

Obama says he is “not commenting on the wisdom of the Islamic project” – or putting the mosque/center where they are – but Obama is missing the point. He doesn’t understand that is exactly what we are all mad about. In many eyes, by him backing this mosque, he is not opposing it – meaning he is accepting of it’s location. Otherwise, he would encourage freedom of religion but insist on a different location to keep peace among Americans.

Next month is the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 – I can’t not think of worse timing for the President’s very poor decision. He will have balls going to the Pentagon or NYC on September 11th 2010 and giving some speech about honoring those that died.  By him backing this mosque by Ground 0, he will dishonor them every day, so long as this building exists.

His decision showed disloyalty to NYers, it showed disgrace to Americans. This is one political move he made at the wrong time for what he thinks will be a gain. If it is, it will temporary at least. That’s a big ego at the expense of many lives.

This isn’t about freedom of religion, this IS about the wisdom of this project/mosque. What is he backing? Nothing that doesn’t already exist in print. We needed our President to do more, to stand up for Americans. To send the appropriate message of:

“you can practice your religion, and we can’t tell you where, but we will require you to live by the civil laws of America – and that is you don’t knowingly disrespect fellow Americans in such mass numbers and cause them pain and anger so blatently. That is a civil wrong. As the President of the US, I will not stand for that. Human decency comes before any Constitutional laws. Our Constitution was written hundreds of years ago. Our today’s world demands this Constitution be taken within reasonable mind, thought and sensitivity to our current surroundings and environment with which we live today when it comes to enforcing it. That is the only way America will continue to function and lead so well in a global capacity. That is the America, I, Barack Obama, as your President, demand for peace and justice.”

Or something like that.

If he can’t even do this – why do we need a president? All the laws exist already – we elect him to do more.

A Mosque at Ground Zero – NOT IN MY AMERICA!

If you are looking for a way to create an entire new level of absolute extreme hatred amongst the citizens of the USA against Muslim’s, then this is what you should build.

And if you are looking for a way to significantly insult Americans – NYers especially – and all those individuals that lost people in the towers – that now are referred to as Ground Zero, than this is what you should definitely build.

And if you are looking at a way to laugh at and mock- with the absolute cruelest undertone – the tragedy that occurred at this location on 9/11, then this is what you should build.

ABSOLUTELY NOT IN MY AMERICA!

Who is ready to join me in the largest petition that will circulate in the USA against this?

This is absolutely and unequivocally the largest amount of insult to injury any one person, group or business can do to NYers and to Americans!!!

I read this and enfuriation was all over me. And I wasn’t in NYC or DC on 9/11 and I didn’t loose anyone in this tragic event. I know people that did, but this isn’t even personal for me – so I can’t even imagine the hurt and outrage this is causing the people that lost loved ones that day or even reside in NYC.

If you think there is hatred in the world now against muslims – build this and you will see this hatred quantify overnight in mass numbers followed by enormous future killings and most likely worse atrocities.

I can not fathom the mindset of the backassward, ridiculous Cordoba Initiative leaders… that thought out of all the places in the USA  they should build a new mosque, the best place that came to mind was in NY, and it should definitely be in NYC, and better yet, not only in NYC, but at Ground Zero!!

Well, heck – why stop there? I mean, if you are going to build this – why not make part of it a mock Afghanistan terrorist training camp too? The 14th floor would be perfect for this – ya know – rooftop view, rooftop space, safe from flying bullets hitting people….etc.   It could truly be a ‘one-stop-shop where you meet all muslim (potential terrorists) needs’.

*Author’s note: I am fully aware not all muslim’s are terrorists, and I am not against all muslims – but the true fact is – they start by going to prayer at mosques -hint hint

Where is the Government when you (rarely, but) really need them?

How can this even be approved by any NYC building commissioner that has a heart and a conscious? How come the NYC commissioner, the NYC Mayor, the NY Governor and at this point, the President of the USA can not step in and say:

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!”

“NOT IN MY STATE!”  ”NOT IN MY CITY!”  ”NOT IN MY AMERICA”

This not just a piece of NY property.

This is exactly what today’s (Sunday, June 6 in Manhattan) protest organizer and conservative blogger Pamela Geller declared it: “a war memorial and a burial site”.

I don’t care what party you are – this is American Values backed protesting— not typical Democrat/Republican spats – and she is absolutely right!

This land is sacred and should only be earmarked for either a memorial dedicated to honoring those lost on 9/11 at this location, or a building of some type that doesn’t even remotely hint of anything religious.

At this point, McD’s would be better & more welcomed at Ground Zero than a mosque for muslims at Ground Zero!! (so long as this McD’s started serving healthier food GRIN

My gosh – this has to be a bad joke! Could there even be a hint of political agenda from the Govy for this?

This, the same time they want to put the exact muslim terrorists that outwardly boast they committed the 9/11 attacks on trial – right in NYC. Does this not add fuel to the fire to NYers, to Americans, to the victims of 9/11?  Are people/govy trying to turn one of the greatest cities of the USA into a mockery?

Background of 13 Story Center – To June 2010

This is a collaboration between the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative. The Cordoba Initiative aims to improve relations between the Muslims and the West.

Daisy Khan of the ASMA told CNN’s Joy Behar on June 6th – that it “is a center that has a place for prayer in it.” It also will have a swimming pool, cultural arts area, etc.

Talk about tiptoeing around the truth!!!!!

I don’t curse – but this is one time worthy: “BS!!!!”

Its a mosque. A mosque is a mosque is a mosque – whether you put a swimming pool next to it or not.

I am a former investigator and this is what we call a “1/2 lie”. Half of it is true and 1/2 of it is not. It’s the latter part we then go further investigating.

Wake Up Call

This is NOT the place (location)  you try to make your point ‘that all muslim’s are not terrorists.’ Do that on a friggin blog!

If they build this – I imagine it might be the last thing they ever build in America and in supporting allied countries. This is unbelievable poor taste – truly despicable actually!

The President of the United States should immediately step in. Obama should swiftly issue an Executive Order declaring:

“Ground Zero is an area that is sacred ground – a war memorial and burial site. All potential developers/builders that desire to build there must go through a much more rigorous process to have any structure approved. This will include answering to all local, state, and federal authorities, due to the sensitivity of the location both for what occurred there in September 2001, and with regards to NYC being a high terrorist threat city.  They also will be required to have a much longer wait time for approval – so as to allow adequate time for the accurate assessment of public acceptance of any potential building/structure. This ‘adequate assessment time’ will last for at least one year, if not longer, should their be a significant divide amongst citizens of any kind. The ideal structure will be productive to the city of and citizens of NYC, and not in ANY way be offensive to any one person or group, be it race, religion or sex.”

There – I wrote it for Obama – so someone in DC/VA reading this – can you please rush this to him so he can have signatures on it by end of tomorrow?!

In the meantime, all those involved with forwarding this structure being built, I highly suggest you all get body guards – I can only presume many (but not me) will be coming after you for years!

I just wonder how you can look at yourself in the mirror every day. The chaos you will cause and the blood that will shed because of this mosque ‘center’ you want to build so greedily and thoughtlessly will make your shiny mirror quite messy.

Obama’s Speech: “Buck stops with me”

I am finally happy with President Obama again.

He gave an incredible and powerful speech yesterday afternoon (1/7/10) on his assessment of the attempted Christmas 2009 airline bombing in Detroit, MI, after having read the two final reviews he requested Thursday from his national security team.

The Presidential Directives he issued to address the gaps that allowed this 23 year-old Nigeiran, Umar Abdulmatullab, to get on the Northwest aircraft with explosives were impressive as well.

The PD’s address airport security and screening, but more importantly, they address the systematic and human failures that occurred that prevented them from connecting and assessing the intelligence we already had that could have kept Umar from boarding the plane altogether (his name should have been on the no-fly list, etc.).

He also made it very clear that as long as he is President, the Al Qaeda terrorists will not be given any victory, big or small.

I believe this event was a wake up call.

I believe the folks in our government agencies will be humbled by this event and realize even with what they had been doing, the terrorists outsmarted us again.

Perhaps now they are at the point where they just won’t tolerate that (humiliation) anymore. They might even step up a bit and act as they did right after 9/11  - not slack one bit, make smarter decisions, and do things outside of what their job requires sometimes for the sake of our national security.

Ex: When a father comes in to an Embassy and turns on his son, reporting him to authorities, that the official listening does more than just enter the person’s name into the TIDE system. (This is his own father, not just a jealous friend). They pick up a phone and call everyone and anyone they can think of until someone answers and takes immediate action to find that extremist person. If at the least, all his Visas/Passports should have been immediately checked to make sure they were valid and current and with what countries. It would have been discovered his U.S. was overdue.

I think this also made the global population more viligiant again (like after 9/11) to pick up on spotty behavior and alert authorities – just as what happened at Newark, NJ airport last Wednesday, when someone reported a person not going through security and the airport shutting Terminal C down.

And for all this,  I do think we have less a chance of an attack happening on our US soil than we did before Christmas 2009.

Obama seemed a lot stronger yesterday than I have seen him in a while. Lately, he had had been buckling to the idiosyncrosies of the Republican and opposition people on many issues.

Perhaps this was a wake up call for him as well – to get back to being the strong leader he was when he first stepped into the Presidency, this month last year.

We Should Thank the Terrorists

An odd statement I know. But if you think about it, the terrorists -Al Qaeda specifically – tells us where we are weak in focus in stopping them.

In the beginning of December 2009, after a very long and intensive decision process with his National Security Team, President Obama let the American people know his final decision to tackle the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan was to send 30,000 more troops by the Spring 2010.

Not one peep about Yemen.

Now, Al Qaeda isn’t as large in numbers in Yemen in comparrison to the AfPak region, however, Al Qaeda recently (2008) attacked our embassy there. How come he didn’t consider beefing up troops there as well?

I mean if he is going to ponder troop numbers and his lofty and ideological plan to ‘disrupt, dismantle, and defeat’ Al Qaeda, you would think he would cover all countries where Al Qaeda has a decent size, and more importantly has recently (within 3 years or less) attacked a US establishment.

And it’s not even just the Embassy. Al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen have attacked Western hotels and restaurants in the past as well – as we have come to learn via his 1st Weekly Address speech of 2010 on http://www.whitehouse.gov.

Three weeks after Obama’s December announcement, he is celebrating the holidays with his family in Hawaii. He learns that on Christmas, a 23 year old Nigerian attempts to blow up a plane headed from Amsterdam to the U.S. (Detroit  - Northwest flight 253). That Nigerian got the bomb materials and the instructions of how to successfully do this in Yemen.

Now, all of a sudden, all attention is on Yemen and everyone is scrambling to beef up training, security and military there. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is backing the USA 100% with the same.

So, if it wasn’t for this attempted terrorist attack, we wouldn’t be doing a thing in Yemen. It wouldn’t even be in print. I would take a shot to say that I am sure it wasn’t even a discussion during all these long and intense sessions with his National Security Team.

I am aware that those discussions were focused on the AfPak region, but remember Obama was working his team off the theory of his overarching goal – to ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda’. He wanted a plan of how to do that best.  In that case, Yemen should have been on the table.

So, we should really thank the terrorists.

I would never really, obviously…I think you get my point.

It also furthers my constant point: since 9/11 that the US is always chasing it’s tail when it comes to Al Qaeda. I laugh very hard when Obama tells the global world he is out to ‘disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda’ when they are just always very ahead of us.

They out number us by so many, and that’s the ones we know of (which are never correct statistics exactly),  let a lone all the Al Qaeda trained individuals we don’t know about yet. Al Qaeda is in virtually every country in some aspect, if not by trained killers, then by people who fund it or help orchestrate the situation for funding (organized crime, drugs, etc). This is an infinite number that is unchaseable, as it grows each day.

They dictate what we (global governments) do. They dictate how we act. They hold a constant threat over us everywhere. And they are incorporated into almost every decision being made today on a global scale in all facets of government. Even Corporate America is influenced by terrorists. Almost every business since 9/11 now has a Homeland Security department or something akin.

Their power is 10x the size of our biggest global players combined (America, Canada, UK, Europe, Mexico, etc.)

With that said, how does President Obama really believe he can make a dent in this organization? I constantly ask this.

You are dealing with individuals whose mindset is pure hatred against America and western countries, where human lives mean nothing to them (they behead and kill like we kill a mosquito) and more importantly when they themselves are willing to die to kill us. Their religious belief almost begs them too – the virgins on the ‘other side’, their families protected, etc. (reference the Koran).

There is absolutely no way we can even come close to stopping them unless we become like them. Where we put all ethics, morals, aside, and say ‘no holds bar”. Where we stop protecting civilians and we just fight and fight dirty until we can’t fight anymore.

The way we fight right now is wimpy. Not because our military is wimpy. Our militaries are incredible! It’s because our leaders have the false belief we can fight an enemy that is both visible and hidden with grace and constitutional law, empty words of trying to scare them, and without giving up our steadfast values, ethics and principles.

This is why the terrorists still succeed. They know this. This is actually our weakness when it comes to them. It’s our strength in other situations, but not with Al Qaeda and our fight against them.

When we alter our course of destruction against them because there are too many civilians in that area, we loose chances to win.  The terrorists know this and they use the civilians as their advantage.

Ex: Count the number of airstrikes, attack plans, etc. over the past 8 years that could have wiped out hundreds of thousands of terrorists that didn’t happen because civilians were in the vicinity.

So Obama can do all the troop increasing he wants. Unless he changes the rules of engagement, Al Qaeda will not only stay strong, they will get stronger.

We are no where near disrupting them, let a lone dismantling and defeating them. This was clear on Christmas 2009.

Keep in mind, just 3 weeks prior to this attempted attack, Obama bellowed out this power phrase proudly and confidently – how 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan was the strongest answer he could come up with for his strategy of ‘disrupting, dismantling, and defeating Al Qaeda’.

Yet, their attack plan still went through. Yemen didn’t flinch. It didn’t even deter them enough for them not to try to implement this attack. Because they know America doesn’t know what they are really supposed to do in this fight against Al Qaeda.  They just proved that even more. So much for Obama’s powerful statement.

The global governments, US especially, are focusing on all the wrong things. All we simply have to do is change the way we fight. And then I surmise, we will really see significant results. But we all know that will never happen – that’s just my ideological thinking I guess.

Since I would not advocate killing innocent civilians, and Obama wouldn’t engage in this either, then there just needs to come to the point of common sense of this all and realize that we  will never be able to ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda.’

Moreover, we can’t do the 3 D’s simply because we rely on the terrorists to tell us where we need to go next! It’s sad, but true.

They point out where we aren’t strong enough to have stopped them from an attack already, as in all the attacks (and failed attacks) that have taken place since before 9/11 even.

We wait until they try (or do) attack us, then we all react to the situation. We are a passive nation. Amazing a superpower is so demeaned by a bunch of men who live in the mountains and have no education.

When you are constantly reacting, and really have no clue of how to handle this (the words just sound great),  you are certainly not in the position to state we will ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat’ anyone or anything.

If we aren’t waiting for the attempted attacks to guide us, then I guess we are waiting for the day when our US President or global governments think 100 Al Qaeda members in Yemen is 100 too many and we should have taken those 100 out 2 years ago when they bombed our embassy, or just earlier overall.

I am aware we had Bush W. as a president then, who did zilcho on terrroism but create a conglomerate mishap of an organization (DHS). But that is no excuse now.

When Obama came into office he could have done more when he reviewed all Al Qaeda attacks on US establishments in the past decade (this is presuming he did this knowing we had a president for 8 years who didn’t handle anything).

Interestingly enough, when Obama first stepped into office in January 2009, he sent more troops to Afghanistan. It’s a hot topic, he acted appropriately.

He should have sent more troops to Yemen too.

Why? Because of the 2008 embassy attack and the others the President mentioned.

Why? Indeed because of the October 2000 USS Cole bombing that was devised and executed in Yemen!

This is a country that should have never left our site as much as it did. It went to the wayside simply because numbers of Al Qaeda members we larger in the AfPak region.

If they really understood Al Qaeda (which it’s obvious they don’t), they would grasp that numbers don’t matter with a terrorist group like Al Qaeda. They don’t need hundreds to be powerful.

The United States benchmark for how we assess where Al Qaeda is strong and where we should take action is based on numbers. We constantly make the same mistake with that assessment qualifier.

So, Al Qaeda taught us again. Yemen has about 100 Al Qaeda terrorists. Apparantly that wasn’t justifiable enough for us to take stronger action – until now, when an attack almost happened, parts of which originated from Yemen.

The terrorists just keep teaching us lessons, and I state that we should thank them because it reveals our weaknesses.

America has this theory that they are so smart with ‘power phrases’ that have zero substance behind them.

In the meantime, the terrorists just keep dangling our weakness in our faces, keep laughing at us, keep plotting more, and show the world we are no less prepared today than we were in September 2001 – yet we have we spent billions of dollars on each year on this.

If it wasn’t for the bomb malfunctioning, and for the passengers jumping to take action (since when are passengers responsible for US security) then we would have a tragic situation on our hands.  The US got lucky.

So why should we thank the terrorists?

It made the U.S. wake the heck up and realize that Al Qaeda doesn’t have to be large in numbers to be successful. And it made the US and UK realize that Yemen is a stronger haven for a powerful Al Qaeda than what they have currently given focus and manpower on.

This is why I laugh when Obama says we will ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda’. That would require we are ahead of them already. But we aren’t.

We can’t ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda’ without them helping us. And Al Qaeda ‘helping us’ means they are always closer to being more successful than before.

And then the cycle continues….we react, send more troops….etc etc etc.