Time to Get Real

“Lives depend on it,” said incoming Senate Majority Whip John Barasso.

He wants Mike Waltz appointed as national security advisor.

Barasso wants serious people swiftly sworn into office on January 20—as we all should.

Because reality returned at 0315 on New Year’s Day.

Not fireworks and champagne, but a determined attack on American life by one man who plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street, then opened fire on cops and civilians. Pipe bombs were found a few blocks away, rigged for remote detonation.

The attack by Shamsud-Din Jabbar in New Orleans killed at least 14 people and injured dozens. Another image of death and terror seared into the Nation’s memory.

We may not have all the facts but we know this: Regular police officers took fire and killed the attacker.

Real people faced evil and stopped it, demonstrating courage under fire like countless local cops and agents in the field, like so many thousands of combat veterans in Iraq and Afghanistan. For people who wear the uniform, who train their mind and body to fight back when others flee, an entire life of preparation boils down to a few seconds.

Few of Biden’s senior-most national security officials could possibly understand. Consider their qualifications:

These are Biden’s national security leaders. 

Contrast them with former terrorism prosecutor Patel, and Gabbard, Hegseth, and Waltz, all former Army officers who have actively defended the United States.

National security leadership is as much a product of experience as education. Firsthand knowledge of violence and its consequences should be a prerequisite for the job. Haines, Sullivan, Wray, and many others boast blue-chip resumes and good social networks but have skipped their apprenticeships to violence, declining to put themselves in harm’s way as soldiers, intelligence officers, special agents, or cops.

Left-wing allies in the media condemn Trump’s national security picks as “lacking qualifications,” but fail to scrutinize the records of Biden’s people, who are well-qualified for the classroom or board room, not the arena.

Time to end the Obama-Biden practice of putting under-qualified people in charge of our national security. We need real leaders who are strong and decisive, just like the men and women who patrol our streets.   

Citizen Soldier believes in life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.