Today, Ten Years After...

By Semperpapa

And no justice for the fallen of the USS Cole. And how many people actually remember the day when a peaceful port-o-call for the US Navy ship in the Yemeni harbor of Aden turned into a day of horror for the families of many US Sailors.
17 of them never made it home to their families in an act of war that the Clinton administration refused to respond to appropriately.

Here are their names:

Electronics Technician 1st Class Richard CostelowMess
Management Specialist Lakina Francis
Information Systems Technician Tim Guana
Signalman Seaman Recruit Cherone Gunn
Seaman James McDaniels
Engineman 2nd Class Mark Nieto
Electronics Warfare Technician 3rd Class Ronald Owens
Seaman Recruit Lakiba Parker
Engineman Fireman Joshua Parlett
Fireman Apprentice Patrick Roy
Electronics Warfare Technician Kevin Rux
Petty Officer 3rd Class Ron Santiago
Operations Special 2nd Class Timothy Sanders
Fireman Gary Swenchonis JrEnsign Andrew Triplett
Seaman Apprentice Craig Wibberly
Hull Maintenance Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Clodfelter.

And as the tenth anniversary comes and goes, the justice the families of the Fallen are entitled to remains elusive, especially after the Obama decision to stop trials of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.
President Obama had the charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri withdrawn shortly after taking office in January 2009.
Obama had used Guantanamo holding facility as a central issue of his radical campaign and the executive order for the closure of the Cuban prison was the very first official act of the newly seated President.

Guantanamo was to close within a year, but the campaign promise was not to materialize, as Obama quickly realize the difficulties involved in that operation.
AG Eric Holder attempted to help his boss by declaring that he was moving Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s trial to New York for a civilian judgment, action that was so unpopular that Obama put it on the backburner.
So while the whole Guantanamo related issues were swept under the proverbial rug, so was the case of al-Nashiri, against whom the Pentagon had tried to have the charges re-instituted, unsuccessfully, again negating the victims of the USS Cole terror attack and their families the rendition of justice they deserved.

President Obama can do all the flowery speeches and photo-ops with members of the Military as his golf game will allow, but all the empty words and all the contrived photo poses will not change the actions of a Commander-in-Chief who has no real feeling for that part of his job.

Actions always speak louder than words.
Just my thoughts!