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OPINION

War on Terror is not over

By Greg Dick

There's an old saying that goes "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride" and after President Obama's State of the Union address, there must be a lot of newly minted equestrians out there.

In one speech, the president was able to characterize something that would cost at the very least $60 billion as free. He took credit for an economic recovery he did more to hinder than help after he signed two pieces of subpar legislation - the ACA and Dodd-Frank - into law. He also declared the war on terror over. While the first two are curious to say the least, the last is downright absurd and completely divorced from reality. Just two weeks before the president turned the page himself, members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula put Paris on edge and executed cartoonists, police officers and innocent civilians in cold blood.

At the time of the address Boko Haram was in control of 20,000 square miles of territory and expanding. Since 2011 they have killed tens of thousands and displaced many more, despite all of the hashtag activism the Obama's have directed their way.

And in the days immediately after Obama declared this war over, the Yemeni government fell to a group of terrorists backed by the Iranians.

Which is why I am so glad that the president is hell bent on emptying the cells of Guantanamo just to return terrorists to Yemen and is determined to make a nuclear deal with his pals the mullahs at any and all costs. Just kidding; any idiot could see that's a bad idea - well maybe not the President and the sycophants he calls speechwriters, but everyone else.

If you think I am being harsh, here's your trigger warning -- it gets worse. In fact, I probably haven't gone far enough. This is an administration who responded to the attacks in Paris by skipping the unity rally and instead sent James Taylor with John Kerry to sing "you've got a friend." It's a stunt that might work when you're doing a PBS telethon, but it hardly puts the fear of god in the terrorist who carried out those attacks. It's also the same administration who thinks talking with YouTube stars like GloZell, a lady who eats cereal out of a bathtub, instead of the Israeli Prime Minister is the right thing to do.

Thankfully, the U.S. Congress is a little more connected to reality. It's not every day you get to say nice things about an institution with a 15 percent approval rating but Congress has shown that it understands you can't wish an enemy away because it's better for your approval rating. You take the fight to them and you stand by your allies.

That's why I am glad Benjamin Netanyahu will be speaking to a joint session of Congress. Someone has to stand at the House dais and lay things out in stark terms about the war on terror, if it's not going to be the president it might as well be Bibi.

Plus, I am glad at least one branch is willing to stand with Israel because Israel needs to know it still has friends in the American government.

It's sad the United States commitment to Israel even needs to be reaffirmed, but after everything that has happened on the president's watch it has to be done. For more than a year, this administration and unnamed officials within it have chosen to threaten Israel and call Netanyahu a coward while they whisper sweet nothings in the ears of the Iranians.

So who cares if Congress' invitation is a breach of protocol. A nuclear Iran is a breach of protocol.

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It's good that Netanyahu has a friend in Congress because if the recent events from around the world teach us anything, it's that the war on terror is far from finished.

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