President Obama should have sent in the United States military to free the American swimmers detained in Brazil.
Four American swimmers were involved in a minor scandal that quickly turned into an international incident after they claimed they were robbed at gun point while at the games in Rio, Brazil. (RELATED: American Swimmer Ryan Lochte Admits Parts Of His Robbery Story Aren’t True [VIDEO])
Details of what actually happened are still not clear, but the facts that are known make it clear that swimmers are not evil masterminds. The four swimmers, led by superstar Ryan Lochte, were drunk and disorderly at a gas station. This led to individuals at the station drawing weapons and demanding money from the swimmers. The Brazil police say this wasn’t robbery. However, the very definition of robbery, at least in the civilized world, is demanding something while holding a gun on somebody.
This is not excusing their actions or the minor amounts of damage. It’s simply stating what happened to them made it a much more serious situation than some drunk athletes urinating at a gas station.
The final straw for President Obama should have been the moment two of the swimmers with Lochte were pulled off a plane while trying to leave the country. The athletes were detained, their passports were seized and it quickly became an international incident. The Brazilian government had authorized the extortion and illegal detention of American athletes.
President Obama failed when he didn’t quickly mobilize military assets in the region to rescue the swimmers, who were essentially held hostage until paying for their freedom.
Navy SEAL (Credit: Shutterstock)
Our Commander-in-Chief should have sent in the Navy SEALs, Delta Force, Army Rangers, Marine Recon, the Air Force and anything else necessary to smoke any Brazilian government employees holding American citizens. (RELATED: BREAKING: Ryan Lochte Apologized And Explained What Actually Happened In Rio)
Brazil doesn’t have a competent military by any standard, which means that even perhaps the threat of force could have had those men on planes headed for America by dinner time. Instead, Obama let another country parade our athletes around like a victory prize. It didn’t matter that the facts clearly showed they were held at gunpoint and money was taken from them.
The message Obama has sent the world is now that there will be no retaliation for pulling Americans off of flights and refusing to let them leave until they pay a ransom. This is an unacceptable standard. The United States military had the ability to fly into Pakistan and wipe Osama Bin Laden off of the face of the Earth, so there’s no reason why rescuing two swimmers being held hostage would be a problem.
The whole fiasco is embarrassing and disappointing for America, but not because of the drunken actions of the athletes. It’s embarrassing because they were held at gunpoint for money, and then two of them were held for essentially a ransom payment.
Dear President Obama: next time send in our guys with orders to kill anybody who gets in their way and our people will be home in time for lunch with a few cold beers.