Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer.
- The Art of War, Sun Tzu, 512 BC

Apparently, President-Elect Obama in 2008 followed the age old advice of Sun Tzu, appointing Hillary Clinton, a former political enemy and potential future political enemy in 2012, to a job where he could keep keep a very close eye on her, and she would be so busy she wouldn’t even have time to contemplate running against Obama in 2012.

During the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fought bitterly, attacked each other, then when Obama was elected he appointed Hillary to be his Secretary of State, despite her complete lack of experience in foreign policy (unless we count sipping tea with first ladies of other nations), or running large government agencies like the State Department.

One of the most memorable attack ads of the 2008 primaries, is this ad by Hillary Clinton, asking who would we want taking that crisis call at 3 AM?

I recently blogged about ‘Amateur Hour’ at the White House comparing Hillary’s qualifications to every Secretary of State since at least World War II. She had no diplomatic experience, had never run a cabinet or served as a governor, served on a foreign relations committee in the senate, etc. Only Jimmy Carter’s second Secretary of State, Edmond Muskie, even came close to Hillary’s lack of qualifications, and he had served much longer in the U.S. Senate and had been governor of Maine.

The State Department has long known of the vulnerability of our embassies and consulates. Under Jimmy Carter, in 1979 our embassy in Tehran was overrun by violent protestors, and our staff held hostage for a humiliating 444 days until minutes before a new president, who appeared more resolute about facing Iran, was about to be sworn into office. I was stunned recently to learn that Jimmy Carter had covertly funded Ayatollah Khomeini and pressured the Shah’s military to accept the Shah’s departure when Jimmy Carter threw the Shah ‘under the bus. We should have known that those we support in overthrowing regimes aren’t always reliable in protecting our embassies and consulates afterwards. Though we had covertly funded Khomeini and paved the way for the Shah’s departure, Khomeini didn’t lift a finger to free our embassy in Tehran when it was overrun and our embassy held hostage for 444 days!

In 1979, our Pakistan embassy was burned down to the ground, as well as our embassy in Tripoli, Libya.

In 1983, or embassy in Beirut was bombed, killing 63, and our embassy in Kuwait was also bombed.

In 1998, during Bill Clinton’s presidency, Al Qaeda totally simultaneously destroyed with bombs two U.S. embassies in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. killing 223 and wounding 4,000. You’d think that day would be seared into the memory of Hillary Clinton, since she was first lady at the time.

Now fast forward to 2012. In Libya, despite the unstable environment and heavy Al Qaeda presence, amazingly Hillary Clinton declined to authorize marine contingents, and special teams of Navy Seals who had provided protection were prematurely withdrawn, over the strong objections of embassy security officials, who pointed to a series of alarming attacks on embassies, consulates, diplomats, and non-governmental agencies present in Libya. Instead, the State Department relied on militia units of dubious reliability provided by the new Libyan regime.

Within two hours of the start of the terror attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11, we already had intelligence the consulate was under attack by dozens of militants with heavy weapons such as rocket propelled grenades, mortars, assault rifles, etc. E-mails are starting to be revealed that showed just how much information was received at both the White House. From the Blaze:

When the attack began, the U.S. military also deployed an unarmed predator drone over the consulate, and remote operators watched as the horror of four Americans were slaughtered by terrorists with burning hatred in their eyes. According to various sources, as reported in the New York Post, the U.S. military had special forces deployed in Libya and nearby Italy, and heavily armored AC-130 gunships were available but shockingly inadequate response was mounted to rescue our embassy staff and their handful of guards as they desperately fought for their lives.

The administration sought for two weeks to convince us this wasn’t a terror attack, that a spontaneous demonstration over a offensive video escalated into a full fledged assault, until the overwhelming evidence confirmed this was a terror attack. Obama and Clinton even went to lengths to keep apologizing for the video, when the U.S. government had absolutely nothing to do with producing the video!

When did President Obama and Hillary Clinton find out it was a terror attack? It seems they were made aware by late afternoon, and a web site owned by terror group Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility. From The Blaze (summarizing other sources):

The first email, timed at 4:05 p.m. Washington time – or 10:05 p.m. Benghazi time, 20-30 minutes after the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission allegedly began – carried the subject line “U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack” and the notation “SBU”, meaning “Sensitive But Unclassified.”

The text said the State Department’s regional security office had reported that the diplomatic mission in Benghazi was “under attack. Embassy in Tripoli reports approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well.”

A second email, headed “Update 1: U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi” and timed 4:54 p.m.Washington time, said that the Embassy in Tripoli had reported that “the firing at the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi had stopped and the compound had been cleared.” It said a “response team” was at the site attempting to locate missing personnel.

A third email, also marked SBU and sent at 6:07 p.m. Washington time, carried the subject line: “Update 2: Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack.”

The message reported: “Embassy Tripoli reports the group claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli.”

Like swarms of angry hornets True Believer Hispanics, Chicanos and 70s-style radical La Raza Unida Party types or their children attack Republicans on the subject of immigration. And because these people are purists – Mirror, mirror on the wall who’s the purist “person of color” in the barrio? — these people viciously attack “vendidos” (sell-outs), “coconuts” (Brown on the outside, white on the inside) at every opportunity as if they are the only true Hispanics in the universe.

No observer of these people could label them representative of the Hispanic community under any circumstances. They are True Believer fanatics.

Of the 53 million-plus American Hispanics, of which 34 and-a-half-million are of the Mexican persuasion, these angry hornets are not a super-majority by any means. Proof: Probably 90% of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans voted for Obama. 50%-52% of Cuban Americans voted for Obama and probably 55% of Mexican Americans probably did.

Although the economy and the President’s economic failures are issues number one and two for the country and Hispanics, some are hung up on immigration and the Obama-friendly media ignores the fact that it is not in the top five issues Hispanics have.

So, let’s take a look at how the Democratic Party and Democrats have handled the issue.

1994: California’s anti-illegal entrant Proposition 187 made the ballot with Governor Pete Wilson’s help and the State Republican Party’s $300,000. Wilson campaigned for it. However, if every single Republican voted for Proposition 187 and Pete Wilson, he and it would have lost. Democrats voted for it and for him.

1994: President Bill Clinton imposes a new policy in and around El Paso (TX) and San Diego (CA) the two principal entry points on the border for the 10,000 or more daily illegal entrants. Border Patrol agents from all over the country are stationed fifty yards apart which drove potential illegal border crossers into the mountains and desert east of San Diego and around El Paso.

Result of Operation Gatekeeper: thousands of dead men, women and children at the rate of 400 to five hundred a year for the past 18 years and illegal entry spiked upwards especially into Arizona. They didn’t come across through San Diego and El Paso in the numbers they used to.

1994: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) launches the giant smear against American citizens born in the U.S. that hadn’t been an issue since 1898 when the Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution’s 14th Amendment for the first and only time. It concluded that – any child (excepting children of invading soldiers, children of diplomats on those born on foreign ships) born in the United States or its territories (jurisdiction) are American citizens.

Reid called them “anchor babies” which are defined as American citizen babies that lie in wait for 21 years so they can legalize their illegally present parents. That theory is wrong and naturalization statistics from Immigration and Customs (ICE) prove it. The number of parents sponsored by these babies is miniscule. Reid wants to kill the 14th Amendment.

1996: Democrats in the House and Senate (Where Democrats were a majority) voted to restrict benefits for LEGAL immigrants and criminalize illegal entry upon returning to the United States after being deported by making re-entry a felony.

2001: Dream Act legalizing youngsters brought here as children is introduced by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch. Democrats oppose, President Bush supports. Lost in the 9/11 tragedy.

2006: President Bush proposes Comprehensive Immigration Reform that includes Dream Act, guest workers and legalization (amnesty some call it). Democrats actively oppose it; does not pass in the Democrat U.S. Senate.

2007: Democrats take over the House and Senate. Comprehensive Immigration reform is brought up in the Senate under Harry Reid who engineers labor union-sponsored poison pill amendments that Republicans won’t vote for; Senator Barack Hussein Obama votes for poison pill amendments that kill the bill.

2009: President Obama never proposes immigration reform from the day he is sworn in until today.

2010: Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) reintroduces a sweeping Dream Act without Republican sponsorship. Obama does nothing to support it; it loses when five Democrat Senators vote against it even as enough Republicans vote for it to pass it.

2012: With Hispanic votes in mind, President Obama issues executive order lifting prosecution/deportation from young people brought here as children who meet certain criteria.

No one knows if the Obama pseudo-amnesty will or can survive court challenges. Nor does anyone know if ICE (Immigration) will round-up all the applicants and their families and deport them by cattle car; no one knows. We do know that Democrat polices have resulted in dead bodies.

“Operation Gatekeeper, 15 years later” NBC San Diego, Sept 30, 2009—

“(Activists) estimate that as many as 5,600 people have died while crossing the border through rugged mountain and desert areas of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas since the (Clinton) operation was launched Oct. 1, 1994.” Add another four years of bodies.
Editors note: As with all postings on this blog which appear with a byline, the posting represents the author’s opinion and not the official position of Cafe Con Leche Republicans.

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Raoul Lowery Contreras (1941) was born in Mexico, raised in the USA. Former U.S. Marine, athlete, Dean’s List at San Diego State. Professional political consultant and California Republican Party official(1963-65)…Television news commentator, radio talk show host…published Op-Ed writer (1988 to present)…author of 12 books (as of 1-05-12). His books are available on Amazon.com.