On Thursday’s episode of “The Michael Knowles Show,” Knowles addresses the U.S. military’s response to the Iranian-backed terrorists trying to take control of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Video and partial transcript below:
The year started off in a pretty auspicious way, it was actually a pretty good start to the year. Why? There was an attack on a U.S. embassy — that’s not a good start — [but the] good start was the response. It shows you the difference between the 2020s — between right now — and the Obama administration. Maybe there’s a difference in these two decades?
On New Year’s Eve, Iran-backed terrorists tried to attack the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. This was a replay of the Benghazi attack on September 11, [2012]. You remember that during Obama administration, in Libya, there was attack on the U.S. Embassy, four Americans killed, including the ambassador — it was an absolute disaster. When the militants started to attack, nobody responded, there was no reaction from the political leadership in Washington, they just let the consulate be attacked over there and unfortunately, these Americans died.
Then there was a cover-up afterward: Barack Obama sent his national security adviser on national television to lie about the attack. They said that it was a spontaneous uprising caused by a YouTube video that virtually nobody had seen. Of course, it wasn’t that. It was a terrorist-plotted, -planned, and -executed attack. It led to years of investigations. Hillary Clinton famously testified about it and said [paraphrasing], “Who cares? What difference at this point does it make if they were terrorists or YouTube video demonstrators? Who cares? It’s no big deal.” Of course, it does matter.
This attack in Baghdad failed because of decisive leadership. So what happened is hundreds of terrorists, of militiamen and their supporters, showed up to this embassy in Baghdad. They broke into the compound, they destroyed a reception area, they smashed windows, smashed up the whole building, put graffiti all over the walls. This was to protest U.S. airstrikes against an Iran-backed militia that ended up killing 25 terrorists.
So now they’re protesting this, there is going to be a response because the United States is fighting with Iran through these proxies. Now, why didn’t it turn into this disaster of Benghazi? It didn’t turn [into it] because the U.S. responded immediately, and yesterday, the militiamen, the terrorists, withdrew — they withdrew after two days of clashes with American security forces because the minute the attack began, the United States sent 100 Marines, the United States sent in 750 paratroopers to the region, they deployed troops out there, and they said you are not taking our embassy. Of course, eventually after that show force, the terrorists withdrew.
President Trump was asked about this on New Year’s Eve at Mar-a-Lago. So he’s there in his tuxedo — looking great by the way — and Melania is standing there looking significantly better, just like the picture of elegance and grace, and they’re being asked about this attack. Trump has one clear message for the terrorists, for the international community and for the American people. He says this will not be another Benghazi.
TRUMP: I think it’s been handled very well. The Marines came in, we had some great warriors come in and do a fantastic job, and they were there instantaneously. As soon as we heard. I used the word immediately, they came immediately and it’s in great shape. As you know, this will not be a Benghazi — Benghazi should never have happened — this will never, ever be a Benghazi. But we have some of our greatest warriors there. They got in there very quickly, as soon as we saw, there was a potential for problem, they got in and there was no problem whatsoever. I also want to thank the Iraqi government. They really stepped up. I spoke to the prime minister today, I thanked him, but they stepped up very nicely.
This story tells you two important things. It shows you, for one, the absolute corruption of the media, which was basically taking the side of the terrorists and sort of lamenting the fact that this wasn’t turning into Benghazi. That’s the first part. The second thing it shows you is the importance of political leadership. It shows you something that I predict will possibly define this decade, which is the importance of taking control of your own political destiny. The ability of us to use our will, to use our decision-making powers, to come in and take control of our political destiny. We are not simply leaving ourselves up to circumstance, we have the ability to shape our political future.
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