8 questions with ‘Conduct Unbecoming’ author Buzz Patterson

Robert “Buzz” Patterson is the author of the new book, “Conduct Unbecoming: How Barack Obama is Destroying the Military and Endangering Our Security,” to be released on Sept. 7.

During his 20 years on active duty, the former lieutenant colonel participated in combat operations in Grenada, Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, and Bosnia, and as senior military aide to President Bill Clinton, was responsible for the “Nuclear Football.” Since retiring from the Air Force in 2001, Patterson has authored two New York Times bestsellers, “Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America’s National Security” and “Reckless Disregard: How Liberal Democrats Undercut Our Military, Endanger Our Soldiers, and Jeopardize Our Security.”

Patterson recently agreed to answer eight questions from The Daily Caller about his new book:

1)    Why did you decide to write this book?

I wrote my first book, “Dereliction of Duty,” detailing my experiences working as a military aide at the side of President Bill Clinton as a warning from a commissioned military officer to his nation. I was an eyewitness to the contempt the Clintons had for the military, his indifference to national security issues except insofar as they served his own political and personal purposes and his failures to accept his responsibilities as our commander in chief. As I outlined in “Dereliction of Duty,” I lay the blame for the attacks of September 11, 2001 fully at the feet of Bill Clinton, and I felt an obligation to tell that story.

Now, I see history repeating itself in the presidency of Barack Obama. Only this time the misconduct and the dereliction of duty of Obama and his administration could lead to far worse devastation than we suffered in the wake of Clinton and 9/11. I wrote my new book  – “Conduct Unbecoming: How Barack Obama is Destroying the Military and Endangering Our Security” – because I’ve seen this all before only this time it’s worse, much worse. Our nation and our military deserve so much more, so much better.  I believe Obama’s foreign policy record so far and his agenda for the future are extremely deleterious to our national security, and need to be reversed in the elections of November 2010 and 2012.

2)   Did you expect President Obama to do better on national security matters than you believe he has to date?

I certainly hoped he would be better then he has been to date. From my perspective as a military analyst, it seems that a unifying theme of Democrat Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, is a consistent underestimating of foreign policy dangers. Obama appears to believe that by the sheer force of his own personality and his serial apologies for the behavior of his predecessor he can encourage our enemies to drop their hostility towards us. So far, that doesn’t seem to be working and he seems to be failing miserably. In fact, if anything, his performance to date seems to have only increased our enemies’ contempt for us as is seen in the dismissive reactions of Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.