The Patriot Post® · Obama Welcomes Terrorists, Shuns Allies

If we have learned nothing else from the Barack Obama years, it is that he cannot be trusted. In his first days in office he insulted one of our strongest allies, England, when he returned a bust of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill (and in the first attempted assassination by boredom, he later sent to Queen Elizabeth an iPod containing a collection of his speeches). This was followed by truly dangerous actions, which put our allies in harm’s way, as with his decision to renege on our commitment to Poland and the Czech Republic to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe as a firewall against Russian aggression. Obama instead sent Hillary Clinton to Russia with a “reset” button for Putin, and we all know how disastrously that turned out.

Yet none have felt the consequences of Obama’s betrayal as harshly as have our allies whom he abandoned in Iraq and Afghanistan after making the decision to unilaterally withdraw U.S. forces against the recommendations of his senior theater commanders and top military advisers. Claiming he was leaving behind a “stable, sovereign, and self-reliant Iraq,” Obama left them to fend for themselves. In the vacuum created by the exit of American forces, we have witnessed the rise of the most brutal, murderous Islamist terror regime we’ve seen to date in the Islamic State. And in Afghanistan, the Taliban are back on the rise.

Few have put their lives in more danger in order to help the United States than have the English-speaking Afghans and Iraqis who have served as interpreters for the U.S. military stationed and fighting terrorists in those countries. In a part of the world where the languages, local dialects, and customs are drastically different from those of Western countries, having an interpreter who can communicate with locals, and quickly identify signs of danger, can literally mean life and death for our soldiers. As such, we have a moral obligation to protect them, but disgracefully, under Obama, they have been left to run or hide from the very terrorists they helped us try to defeat.

One of these interpreters, Naqeeb Jaan, risked his life to help the U.S. because he wanted to see the country he loves freed from the grip of the Taliban, which rules under a particularly harsh brand of Islamic law, where women suspected of adultery are half-buried in the ground and then stoned to death in front of a soccer stadium full of tens of thousands of spectators, and where thieves have their limbs severed and hung from the goal posts.

Jaan served as an interpreter for U.S. forces until December 2012, when his contract expired. His services were no longer needed, at least according to Obama, since American troops were being withdrawn from the area. He began his application in January 2014 for the Special Immigrant Visa that would allow him to come to the U.S., and it took 20 months to get approval. The process is so time-consuming and expensive that Jaan, and others like him, often cannot afford the air fare once they get approval. In the meantime, Jaan is on a Taliban hit list, with Taliban soldiers going door-to-door looking for those who helped U.S. forces. For their aid to American forces, the punishment is public execution.

What makes it all the more galling is that those who have aided the U.S. in our fight against terrorist forces are left to languish in fear for their lives, even as those who wish to kill us, like Tashfeen Malik, the female Islamic terrorist in the San Bernardino attack, are welcomed in with open arms in just weeks or a few months. You’ll recall that Malik entered the U.S. with minimal difficulty on a K-1 fiancé visa, and just a few months later she was murdering American citizens.

As it stands, there are 11,500 Afghans awaiting approval to come to the U.S. on a Special Immigrant Visa, hoping that they get approved and out of Afghanistan before the Taliban catches up to them and executes them. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has pressured Congress to approve tens of thousands of “refugees” (some of whom are terrorists) from nations like Syria, in which the Islamic State is operating. We already have proof that ISIL is embedding operatives with refugees as a way to get them inside our borders, where they can murder even more of us. And we know that the refugee crisis is one of Obama’s making.

According to a Washington Post report released this week, under Obama the U.S. is letting in four times as many suspected terrorists as it keeps out. Despite the Obama administration’s claims of a “very extensive screening process,” the Post report reveals that the State Department has revoked 9,500 visas from individuals believed to be terrorists or associated with terrorist organizations, continuing, “Nearly 10,000 people considered too dangerous to enter the United States because of suspected terrorist activity or association were mistakenly granted visas to lawfully enter the country.”

Even more terrifying is the fact that, under questioning from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Michele Thoren Bond, admitted that the Obama administration has no idea where these 9,500 potential terrorists are right now.

As if this level of incompetence, insanity and fecklessness was not enough, the Obama administration is furious with congressional efforts to tighten down on the Visa Waiver Program in order to make it more difficult for possible terrorists to reach U.S. soil. The proposal would create additional entry barriers for those who have travelled to countries with “prominent terrorist organizations,” which assuredly includes Iran, the world’s foremost sponsor of state terrorism.

The Obama administration warns that implementing such procedures would be a violation of the nuclear agreement Obama made with Iran — an agreement which Iran has still not signed. All the more galling then, to be lectured by Obama about Congress endangering an agreement which gives Iran $150 billion in additional funds with which they can fund terrorism, while Iran has repeatedly violated the agreement (and international law) by testing ballistic missiles (outrageously, Obama says these missile launches are not a violation of the agreement).

There is little doubt that many more Americans will die as a result of Obama’s ideologically driven agenda, especially considering that, no longer accountable to the voters; he has already shown he will double down on his disastrous policies.

The silver lining in these jet black storm clouds is that we have to survive just 13 more months of this horrible administration, and by electing a strong conservative to the presidency, America, as we did under Ronald Reagan, can finally stand resolute in destroying these dangers to Western civilization, rather than prostrating ourselves and asking what we did wrong every time a murderous psychopath beheads, shoots or bombs innocent civilians.