More precisely, President Barack Obama, can you hear US now? So ask the terrorists.

President Obama ran part of his first campaign shouting that we, America, needed to develop friendships around the world, and he was the man who could talk to anybody and forge those friendships.

What will it take to show Barack Obama and his followers that under his tutelage, the United States of America looks weaker than ever, and the picture is that we are not going to stand up for ourselves as long as he has the title of president and commander-in-chief?

We are now into five long, dangerous years of Barack Obama, and matters are simply worsening.  There is more anti-American sentiment than ever.  And what does America do?  We just keep giving billions and billions of dollars in money, equipment, arms and intelligence to our haters. Worse, 46 cents of every dollar we hand over is borrowed and increases our debt – taxpayers’ debt.

As for the general welfare of our country including the safety of our citizens, I will assert that it is significantly more important to be respected as a strong nation than to be “liked.”

Obama and his camp have failed miserably. Much of the Middle East is literally on fire and is monetarily collapsing while we here are told to remain mute and obey polices that are taking this once-great country down those same paths to ruin.

Acts of terrorism targeting Americans abound.

Just to review a bit, there was the bombing destruction of Pan Am Flight 103, aka the Lockerbie bombing, in December 1988 over Scotland. In all, 270 people died including 11 on the ground; 189 of the dead were Americans.

The bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen when it stopped to refuel: 17 American sailors died and 39 more were injured.  Al-Qaeda proudly claimed ownership, while a U.S. judge found the government of Sudan played a major role. This event followed a foiled attempt by al-Qaeda in January 2000 to bomb a Navy destroyer, The Sullivans, also in Yemen.

There was the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. The damage was miniscule compared to the destruction al-Qaeda had as a goal.  Thousands of people were injured and six died. I would offer that in that event, our government failed us once again.

Readers may recall the “wall” that stood between the FBI and the CIA.  Under the Clinton administration’s Attorney General Janet Reno and her deputy, Jamie Gorelick, the two agencies were forbidden to share information. The CIA cannot operate within the boundaries of the U.S. and the FBI by itself is ill-equipped to carry out investigations of worldwide magnitude such as investigating the scope of a massive network leading to terrorist acts.

While Reno and Gorelick are not specifically named, in her 1995-96 essay entitled, “The World Trade Center Bomb: Who is Ramzi Yousef? And Why It Matters,” Laurie Mylroie gives poignant facts about that bombing and the parties involved. Mylroie has a PhD from Harvard and is a specialist on the Middle East who has travelled in that region extensively. She studied Arabic in Cairo, and along with many other credentials, she has testified before congressional committees including the 9-11 Commission.

Is that “wall” still in place?  I don’t know, but I recollect that it was still there when 9-11 occurred. If George W. Bush failed to tear down that wall, let’s hope someone does so very soon for the safety of the our nation.

The stupid shoe-bomber is alive and well and only because of his own buffoonery. Thank God. He would have taken a lot of innocent lives with him.

September 2012 was the Benghazi attack by Libyan terrorists that slaughtered four Americans on sovereign soil and appears to remain uninvestigated. If it has been investigated, then the results are a secret or they are being covered up. What a travesty.

Now, we have Boston.

On Monday, President Obama called Boston’s massacre a tragedy and said, “We still do not know who did this or why. And people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts. But make no mistake – we will get to the bottom of this. And we will find out who did this; we’ll find out why they did this. Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice.”

Tuesday, after being much criticized for not calling out terrorism, Obama said, “The FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism” and “anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror.”

After all of this, the president keeps dancing with words as if he is prefacing with an apology or issuing a caveat for having the word pass his lips. In spite of what is in his face, this president cannot definitively call acts such as this as pure, unadulterated “terrorism.”

The mainstream media are so busy tripping over themselves and each other, the public cannot possibly have any clarity. The suckers run with rumors, and one after the other parrots the bad info for public digestion. Then we learn its all a falsehood.

As of this writing, the public does not know for sure who planned and carried out Monday’s destruction, but rest assured, irrespective of the perpetrators’ heritage or ethnicity, they are indeed terrorists.

In response to President Obama’s rhetoric of “bring to justice,” a lot of us are wondering just what justice that will be, considering the soft-pillow handling and downright bungling of so many situations by this administration and Obama’s appointed Attorney General Eric Holder.

Matters like civilian trials for known terrorists, “Fast and Furious” and Benghazi are all too fresh in our minds to believe that this administration will ever hear the terrorists.

Betty Arenson has lived in the SCV since 1968 and describes herself as a conservative who’s concerned about progressives’ politics and their impacts on the country, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She says she is unashamed to own a gun or a Bible, couldn’t care less about the color of the president’s skin, and demands that he uphold his oath to protect and follow the Constitution of the United States in its entirety. Her commentary publishes Fridays.