LEADERS, REPUTATIONS and ENDORSEMENT!

 Leaders act. Pretenders talk. Heroes run to the fire and cowards walk.

Republican, Four Star General, former Secretary of State, and former National Security Adviser Colin Powell is a proven leader. He endorsed the sitting President on October 25, 2012; this the second time in four years.

As a private citizen this great man has rolled the dice on transparent Presidential failure and scandal given the recent 9/11 Benghazi tragedy and has thus placed his sterling public service reputation on the line in the crap shoot that the re-election efforts of Barack Hussein Obama has become.

National security facts about a test of Obama leadership on September 11, 2012 and the resounding failure it became are now pointing at a clear and profound failure at an hour Americans under attack begged for support from their government…and men died as a result.

It begs one to wonder if this trusted former public servant is seeing the same information that ordinary citizens can see.

Or is it this simple? Is this a case of  “Fool me once shame on you…” with Mr. Powell doubling down by siding with the “transformational figure” he endorsed in 2008?

For the Obama campaign, trailing in virtually all national polls, this is a huge endorsement to bolster the myth that Obama is a Commander in Chief we must re-elect for superior American national security, but there is no upside for Mr. Powell.

His reputation has reached a zenith and can only suffer by making an endorsement for scandalous Presidential actions.

 PRESIDENTIAL COVER UP and SELF DECEPTION?

 Leaders like Colin Powell are too smart to be self-deceiving. They don’t cut and run, nor do they leave their men behind. Prudent, deliberate, but also audacious, a leader like Mr. Powell can see a map, the strategic, political, and national security landscapes of reality and nuance and make action happen to protect American lives and interests.

So why is Powell buying a calculated political posture — the film lie — vs facts from the ground that began to come in as the attacks took place on 9/11?

Back Story – September 12, 2012 

Four men are dead, US property is destroyed in Libya, the Middle East is in turmoil with embassies under assault.

We are led to believe the President awoke to terrible news of the Benghazi tragedy as he gives a succinct, no questions asked, pronouncement in the Rose Garden with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the morning after the terrible attacks.

Promising the American people to get to the bottom of the tragedy, he then leaves Washington DC and parties at fundraisers in Las Vegas, Nevada as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

His White House Press Secretary starts the process of promoting a fabricated tale that “spontaneous crowds grew in protest to an obscure anti-Muslim film.”

From that day through the next fourteen a story of an amateur film maker (now sitting in a California jail cell) creating a video spawning “spontaneous” riots, was pushed by the Obama Administration as the probable cause of this horrible event.

The Real Story

By 9:40 pm on 9/11 two Navy SEALS were literally calling 911 to Washington from the CIA annex one kilometer away from where two men were already dead—an Ambassador and embassy staffer, Sean Smith. This was a fight, and self-defense was not an option — it was an absolute necessity.

We have learned from FOX News today that emails from the Libyan Embassy along with other corroborating evidence (live video streaming from overhead drones) was sent within 2 hours of the Benghazi attacks to 400 officials in the US government. Also learned is the fact that President Obama met in Oval Office with the Vice President and Secretary of Defense while knowing that courageous fighting men at the CIA annex were calling to their government for back up and rescue.

Today we have learned the two SEALS, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods died because of incompetence at the White House command level after receiving three repeated denials — during the attacks — to their requests for permission to go to the aid of Ambassador Stevens and others at the consulate compound one kilometer away.

In light of what we know today about:

• The terrorist attack on our consular offices and the CIA annex one kilometer away in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11…
• The breaking information regarding 9/11 emails sent from Tripoli to more than 400 US officials updating them on the attacks in real time and…
• That evidence that franchise Al Qaeda elements were organizing terrorist attacks as shown in real time on video from drones on station…
• The indisputable facts that the President, Vice President and Secretary of Defense met in the White House Oval Office at 5:00 pm EST while the fighting raged…
• The fact that Seals Doherty and Woods were denied permission three times to rescue the Ambassador, Sean Smith and others as fighting loomed a mere kilometer away…
• The  fact that SEALS Woods and Doherty disobeyed orders to “stand down” and honored their oaths to “leave no man behind”…
• The reality that four hours later those same men had identified their attackers, a mortar crew zeroing in on them, and were denied air assets to save them and fellow Americans after attempting to rescue Ambassador Stevens…
• The fact that both men died 8 hours after the fiasco began waiting for someone in Washington DC to be courageous as they were and take action with rapid response forces…
• The deliberate promotion by the White House from September 12th through October 25th that ”the film made the Libyans do it” in spontaneous uncoordinated attacks…
• Then the apologizing to the UN, using television pop culture show appearances and sending surrogates to the media (Susan Rice) to create the same illusion for one month–

All this and more lend to an apparent cover-up of incompetence at the highest levels in an attempt to bolster fading support for Obama’s re-election bid.

So why does one of the most trustworthy men in America, the honorable Colin Powell, endorse the man behind the actions of failure and deception — or the buck doesn’t stop here?

Can Colin Powell really believe he can endorse a man and not his actions?

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” the Chinese aphorism goes.

James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling author of inspirational fiction and non-fiction, editor and owner of Jerusalem Reports, and frequent contributor to Red State and other conservative sites. His personal website includes biographical and other information regarding his work. He can also be found on FACEBOOK and Twitter.