In an exclusive interview with Accuracy in Media, Retired Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson says that President Obama is very “dangerous to our military, and to the national security of this nation.” He says that Obama’s refuses to “acknowledge the fact that we’re fighting a very extreme element of Islam.” And he cites the National Security Strategy Policy of the United States, which is President Obama’s national security policy, in which “he does not, one time, use the words jihad, Islam, Muslim, extremism, fundamentalism, terrorism—in fact, quite the opposite: He identifies the greatest national security threat to America being global warming.”
Patterson’s new book is Conduct Unbecoming: How Barack Obama is Destroying the Military and Endangering Our Security. So who is Retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Buzz Patterson? He is a bestselling author, and more importantly, from 1996 to 1998, Colonel Patterson was the Senior Military Aide to President Bill Clinton. During that period he was the man responsible for the President’s Emergency Satchel, also known as the “Nuclear Football.” It is the black bag with the nation’s nuclear capability that is supposed to be with the president at all times. In this interview Patterson points out, however, that isn’t always the case. Colonel Patterson was also operational commander for all military units assigned to the White House, including Air Force One, Marine One, Camp David, White House Transportation Agency and White House Mess.
In the interview we cover a wide range of topics, including his 20 years of active duty as an Air Force pilot who saw combat duty in global hot spots like Grenada, Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia. He talks about how he was chosen for the job with President Clinton, and how he came to view him in light of a number of incidents involving Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and others. This is not how Bill Clinton wants to be remembered, but it was the subject of Patterson’s first book, Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America’s National Security.
We discussed President Obama’s Rules of Engagement for the troops in Afghanistan, and his efforts to close down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. Patterson is very critical of the media for their fawning coverage of Obama. He says they were “completely in the tank” for Obama. “I mean, they got him elected and they’re going to protect his Presidency completely.”
We discussed Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s foreign policy and the threats that it poses to our national security. Patterson offers his views on Obama’s radical influences in his past, and how in some cases they are still present in his life at the White House.
Below, in italics, are a number of excerpts from the interview with Col. Patterson. But I urge you to take the time to read or listen to the entire interview, which can be found here.
