Cowardice

When 56 members of the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they knew the gravity of their action. They knew the dangers to which they were exposing themselves and their families. They knew they were marked men.

Nevertheless, in the final words of the declaration, they proclaimed to their British enemies, themselves and the world: “… We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

An extraordinary act of courage. 

To pledge their lives for liberty …

The year is 2015, 239 years later. 

Now contrast the epochal courage of our Founding Fathers with what can only be called the cowardice of the president of the United States and 42 U.S. Democratic senators.

In a blatant act of arrogance and defiance of traditional American principles and practices, our president more than two years ago began courting and negotiating with the worst terrorists on the planet. The very people who for more than 40 years have been at war with America and Israel with the relentless, patient determination to wipe out us and all that we stand for. 

Look at the record: the Israeli Olympic team in Munich; the Americans taken hostage for 444 days in Tehran; the deaths of 241 U.S. Marines and Armed Forces in 1983 in Beirut; the execution of wheelchair-bound American Jew, Leon Klinghoffer, in 1985 on a cruise ship; the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center; the murders of nearly 3,000 innocents in the 2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. And on and on and on.

Despite all this and the Iranian leaders’ continued chants of “Death to America,” our president took it upon himself, with no backing of the American people, to begin negotiating what is widely regarded as the most significant foreign-policy measure in a generation. 

He knew all along what he was doing. And he knew full well his intentions and capitulating to the enemy could never and would never be approved as a formal treaty as required by the Constitution. So he took a dishonorable means to his end, flicking his nose at what our Founders so carefully created to avoid a too-powerful, monarchical chief executive

This is courage? This is honor?

And when he had his deal, what did he do? He arrogantly skipped over his own country’s consideration and took it first to the United Nations. He held back the side deals that should have been disclosed. He then methodically cajoled the political lambs in the Senate — 42 Democratic senators — to give him the backing to uphold a veto and overturn a majority’s rejection of his deal with the terrorists.

These senators saw how their constituents reacted to this extraordinary giveaway to the terrorists. They knew the people who elected them and whom they represent were overwhelmingly opposed to this agreement. And they knew that the means the president used to achieve his ends were political maneuverings, not befitting of a nation whose traditions are rooted in open debate and the democratic process.

And what did they do? 

The Senate Democrats filibustered; they held together like sheep with more political maneuvering to avoid a vote. They did not have the courage to put their names and their honor in the records, showing their support for an agreement that the American people so overwhelmingly reject.

What did they do? A minority of the U.S. Senate allowed an agreement to go forward that gives the world’s leading terrorist state access to $150 billion to fund terrorism; access to international arms markets; and access to ballistic missile technology. They tout a 10-year delay in Iran developing a nuclear weapon, but that is a proposition no American has any evidence or reason to believe will occur.

As we observed this spectacle unfolding, we couldn’t help but wonder what these Democratic senators would say to the families who lost loved ones at the hands of the Iranian terrorists, to the families whose sons and daughters had the courage to pledge and give their lives and sacred honor to their country. How would they look them in the eyes and explain their actions — preventing a vote and public debate and giving the president an agreement with terrorists that the American people so roundly reject?

They wouldn’t have the courage to face them. They betrayed American ideals and our nation’s democratic principles with the height of cowardice. Disgraceful cowards — the lot of them.