Robert “Buzz” Patterson former senior military advisor to President Clinton had strong words for his former boss and President Obama at a Sept. 11 lecture hosted by the College Republicans.
But first the retired Lt. Colonel praised the school-wide effort to erect 3000 flags in Alumni Park.
“For 20 years I had a flag on the front of my uniform when I showed up to work every day and for 20 years I never took that flag for granted he said. To say that Pepperdine’s flags are touching would be a vast understatement Pepperdine is remembering this generation’s Pearl Harbor.”
Patterson who served 20 years on active duty in the U.S. Air Force performing combat operations in Bosnia Haiti Rwanda Grenada and Somalia in addition to advising to President Bill Clinton from 1996 to1998 said he sought to commemorate the lives lost on 9/11 and warn of the weaknesses in the current presidential administration that he said could jeopardize America’s safety and independence.
Patterson said that he knew exactly why the Sept. 11 attacks happened and what the U.S. could have done to prevent them. Because activities Al Qaeda appeared in daily White House briefings he said the administration had knowlege of terrorism plots five years prior to 9/11.
“I really was not in absolute shock when the planes went into the buildings he said. There were eight or 10 times during the Clinton administration when we had the chance to catch bin Laden and the president never took the initiative to see to it because he was afraid of the political ramifications if he failed.”
Patterson also disclosed that the Clinton Administration always knew where bin Laden was because they were tracking his cell phone. When the media caught wind of this insider information they immediately lost the signal.
Patterson described his time in Clinton’s administration as “the most eye-opening and most disgusting experience” of his life and Bill Clinton as “the second worst president in history after Jimmy Carter” and “an accident waiting to happen.”
He supported his claim about President Clinton with a brief story from his two years in the White House.
“The President carries a credit-card size document with all the nuclear codes in case of an attack Patterson said. Well Clinton lost that piece of paper and was more concerned about the press finding out about him displacing the codes than he was about the fact that he couldn’t launch a nuclear attack for a long time. That to me was very indicative of his priorities: his own image over the security of this country.”
Patterson retired from the Air Force 10 days prior to the attacks had extremely close friends who died in the Pentagon attacks and saw his comrades go to war shortly thereafter.
Since that time he has compaigned to increase the country’s readiness. He highlighted his visit to an orphanage staffed by U.S. soldiers in a war-torn area of Baghdad.
“The moment we walked in the kids knew who had come and you could see the joy on their faces» he said. “The soldiers walked over to the baby they adopted and I couldn’t believe that guys who were killing terrorists as their job could also have the capacity for so much compassion.”
Patterson had no qualms about coming across as a die-hard conservative but attributed it to his desire to see this country protected.
“The Democrats truly believe there is no evil. Having seen the horrors of war I can tell you that there definitely is evil in world. Terrorists understand the concepts of strength and might and even bin Laden has called this country a paper tiger. I truly do hope that we are in Iraq forever. Whether or not Bush intended it or not the fact we went into Iraq is perfect. We have our foot in door in the Middle East. Saddam raped Iraq and took every bit of income for himself he said.
The event addressing matters of security and decomcracy today was met with enthusiam. Students, including members of College Republicans, said they enjoyed hearing insight from a prominent figure in politics.
It’s refreshing to see someone who really does have his priorities straight said senior Zac Parsons, vice president of College Republicans.