Oliver North: A question Joe Biden won’t answer

Here in America’s southwestern desert, young Americans are training to fly Reapers, Predators and other remotely piloted aircraft, or RPAs, capable of attacking our enemies half a world away.

Our Fox News’ “War Stories” team is here at Holloman Air Force Base documenting how these remarkable high-tech weapons are changing the face of battle in the long war against radical Islamists. One thing that hasn’t changed is how incredibly wrong liberal Democrats are about this fight.

Since the attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound passenger flight on Christmas Day, the Obama administration has attempted to deflect criticism for its inept handling of counterterrorism. President Obama, the leadoff hitter, tried to convince us that the Nigerian underpants bomber was an “isolated case,” that closing Gitmo and sending jihadists to Yemen is proper and that holding show trials in Manhattan for the likes of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is “the right thing to do.”

White House “terror czar” John Brennan was up next. Brennan, apparently convinced that the best defense is a truly offensive offense, accused administration detractors of aiding and abetting the enemy. “Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda,” he wrote.

Now the O-Team has rolled out its ace rhetorical warrior — its big gun — Vice President Joe Biden. The veep has been making the rounds on the “talking head” TV shows — and blasting away in every direction — with considerably less accuracy than we have come to expect from a Hellfire missile launched from a Predator.

During a conversation on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Biden was asked about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s critique of the Obama administration’s handling of terrorism. The veep blustered, “I don’t know where Dick Cheney has been. … What is he talking about?” He accused his predecessor of rewriting history.

In true shoot-from-the-lip fashion, he also made it personal: “I don’t think … Cheney listens. The president of the United States said in the State of the Union, ‘We’re at war with al-Qaida.’ He stated this.” Biden went on to catalog the administration’s “successes” in pursuing al-Qaida since taking office, claiming, “We’re pursuing that war with a vigor like it’s never been seen before.”

Referring to al-Qaida, Biden continued: “We’ve eliminated 12 of their top 20 people. We have taken out 100 of their associates. … We’ve sent them underground. They are, in fact, not able to do anything remotely like they were in the past. They are on the run.”

The “their,” “them” and “they” Biden speaks of are, of course, al-Qaida — many of whose members have indeed been “eliminated” by RPAs like the ones that I’ve seen in action in Iraq and Afghanistan and that I’m standing next to here in the New Mexico desert.

Biden could have pointed out that these remarkable aerial weapons platforms were purchased by the much-maligned Bush-Cheney administration. But why bother with the facts?

There’s another problem with Biden’s answer: He wasn’t asked about al-Qaida. The question David Gregory posed was, “What about the general proposition that the president, according to former Vice President Cheney, doesn’t consider America to be at war and is essentially soft on terrorism?” It’s a question Biden apparently doesn’t want to answer.

Examiner columnist Oliver North is the host of “War Stories” on Fox News Channel and is syndicated nationally by Creators Syndicate.

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