Attempted Hostage Rescue Failed, So Obama Doesn't Care About Hostages

Following the murder of reporter James Foley by ISIS militants on Monday, the Obama administration revealed Wednesday that earlier this summer, it had sent Delta Team commandos to attempt a rescue mission in Syria, but that the hostages had already been moved. So it looks like Obama still wants to bring captive Americans home, even before we've sufficiently investigated whether they're worth saving. 

In the failed rescue mission, special forces soldiers fought ISIS fighters but discovered that the hostages were not in the expected location. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden later told reporters that the administration hadn't intended to reveal the existence of the mission, but that an anticipated media report left them little choice. Another administration official, counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco, said that President Obama had approved the mission because the government "had what we believed was sufficient intelligence, and when the opportunity presented itself, the president authorized the Department of Defense to move aggressively to recover our citizens.”

On Fox News, the always effervescent Charles Krauthammer criticized the revelation of the attempted rescue as "a political reaction to a horrific event,” suggesting that Obama was merely trying to blunt the impact of James Foley's killing by saying that at least he had tried to rescue the hostages. Krauthammer also said that it could be interpreted as a message to ISIS that "we tried but didn't succeed, but we're coming after you" but that the "bad guys" already knew anyway. The real solution, according to Krauthammer, isn't rescue attempts, but airstrikes, so he was very happy to see the airstrikes against ISIS continue. But he worried that there wouldn't be enough of them, because there can never be enough airstrikes for Charles Krauthammer.

Still left unanswered is whether the administration consulted with Fox News to determine if the hostages were good enough Americans to be worth rescuing. Considering that several of them were reporters for the lamestream media, it would appear that they may not have been worth the trouble and should have been left to die, but perhaps, in a sort of Schrödinger's Hostage paradox, the worthiness of a particular captive's return can only be determined after the captive has actually been rescued. Needless to say, if hostages dies, then Obama is weak and should have done more to bring them back. If someone is recued, then the examination of whether it was worth it can go forward. And obviously, if a rescue mission fails, even without any loss of U.S. forces, then Barack Obama is Jimmy Carter .

James Foley's parents spoke yesterday, tearfully remembering their son as "a courageous fearless journalist," and Yr Wonkette would like to thank Bill O'Reilly for his generosity in not making a judgment as to whether either of them looked like a Muslim.

[ NYT / Fox Nation / HuffPo ]