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Glenn's Show Prep

Cowardice: Father of murdered Navy SEAL reacts to news calls for help were denied three times

October 26, 2012
Wilson

Writer

Charles Woods was on with Glenn last night on TV and again on radio this morning to talk about the incredibly shocking interactions he had with the President, the Vice President, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Woods goes over those stunning details and also reacts to the breaking news that the administration denied his sons calls for help 3 times. How did he react?

"We have a report in just now that there is a source that has confirmed that there were at least two requests for help sent to the CIA when the attack in Libya commenced. Both of the requests were denied. The two SEALs that went in to help the ambassador went in against orders. They died four hours after the attack began. They report now that two SEALs who were at the CIA annex one mile down the road had a position that they could have coordinated artillery or mortar support but they were told in no uncertain terms to stand down," Glenn told Woods on radio.

Rather than react to the breaking news with outrage and anger, Woods simply called the order an act of "cowardice" that did not represent the strength and character of America.

"That is cowardice by the people that issued that order. And our country is not a country of cowards. Our country is the greatest nation on Earth. And what we need to do is we need to raise up a generation of American heroes just like Ty who is an American hero. But in order to do that, we need to raise up a generation that has not just physical strength but moral strength. We do not need another generation of liars who lack more strength."

"I was just going to say to you, Charles, you have so much restraint and you are a far better man than I am," Glenn said.

"Glenn, I totally respect what you're doing. You're doing this every day. And like I said yesterday, I have to make sure that I have total forgiveness towards everyone. Like I said yesterday after the president spoke, the representative from Libya came up to me and said he was sorry. Afterward I sought him out and I said total forgiveness. I may be coming across a little bit strong, but I sincerely from my heart, I want to have total forgiveness towards everyone, but I also want to see justice and I also want to see the people who were involved change the direction of their lives for the better. I want the best for them as well."

"I hope to be able to shake your hand someday. You are a remarkable man," Glenn said.

Full interview transcript from radio below:

GLENN: Last night, last night I spoke to a man on television who is a remarkable, remarkable man, Charles Woods, father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods. Tyrone was killed in Benghazi. Charles is a guy who lives in Kona, Hawaii and has just, has remarkable peace and was not planning on speaking out at all about his son's death in Benghazi, nor saying things about what he experienced on the tarmac as his son's body was coming off of the plane in the flag‑draped coffin. But when he heard that the memos ‑‑ that the White House knew at 5:00 in the afternoon that the Secretary of Defense was in the Oval Office at 5:00 in the afternoon, the president was there, that Hillary Clinton also had these cables that have been released and that CBS has reported and verified that there was a drone in the air. If there wasn't a drone, because now Geraldo Rivera's saying there wasn't a drone, if there wasn't a drone, then that has ‑‑ you have to ask a question: Why wasn't there one? This was a seven‑hour battle. Why was there not a drone? We had people that were stationed and ready to go in Spain and in Sicily. You could have had people to help these guys within the hour.

At 4:00 the White House gets the first notice, at 5:00 another notice. Goes all the way, the last notice is about mortar fire at 11:57 p.m. The White House didn't ‑‑ what, they didn't go downstairs in the situation room? Really? The Secretary of Defense, this is going on, an embassy or a CIA safe house is under attack on September 11th and the Secretary of Defense doesn't have access, the president doesn't have access, they don't go downstairs? Really? We have asked the White House. They haven't responded. They won't tell us where the president was during the attack. We know that he was in the Oval Office at 5:00 with the Secretary of Defense. We know that. Other than that, they won't tell us what the White House did, what the White House knew, they won't tell us where the president was.

We have after this interview last night with Charles Woods, we reached out to Joe Biden's office; no comment. We reached out to the State Department for a comment; no comment. This story is huge, but ABC and CBS and NBC and MSNBC and CNN, they're not going to play this story. They are not going to cover this story. And it is really important that the word gets out because this goes to honor. As you will hear from Charles, he's on hold now as we go to him, I want you to listen to who this man is. I have not been struck by anything that smelled at all like politics. He was not going to speak out... until he started reading the cables.

Charles Woods from Hawaii, how are you, sir?

Woods: Yes. Good morning, Glenn. It's good to speak with you.

GLENN: First of all, how has your night been?

Woods: Oh, it's fine. The one thing I really wanted to emphasize, Glenn, is this is not about politics. Allow this ‑‑ to allow this would be political would be to dishonor my son's death. This is about honor, this is about integrity, and this is about justice.

GLENN: Okay. So you weren't planning on saying anything at all about your son's death and ‑‑

Woods: No. Actually, Glenn, my immediate family had made the decision that we were not going to make any public statements, but as I mentioned yesterday, this week, the past few days it did become public knowledge that within minutes of the first bullet being fired that the White House actually did know in realtime that my son and the other heroes that were defending American lives would be slaughtered and immediate air support was denied. And now it has come out that people in the White House, they knew the capabilities. They knew you that there were C‑130s that were ready to respond immediately. They knew that in less than an hour, the perimeters could have been secured and the American lives, including my son, could have been spared. But, you know, they heartlessly, for seven hours, watched my son and the other American heroes there fight numerically superior forces and they basically watched him die. They knew he was going to die if they did not send immediate air support, and they took the cowardly action: They chose not to do that.

GLENN: So Charles ‑‑

Woods: Then ‑‑

GLENN: Charles, I want to bring you to ‑‑ we'll talk some more about the president and Joe Biden, but I want to bring you to Hillary Clinton because I think this is critical in the timeline of the story. The president said during the debates when Mitt Romney said, "Where were you guys?" And you said that this was a video. And the president came and said, "No, no, no, I did not say it was a video. I said on September 11th that this was a terrorist attack," but ‑‑ and so now the whole media is spinning that, yes, that's really what he said, and everybody's trying to cover for this president. But you say when you were on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force base to receive your son's body, Hillary Clinton came up and spoke to you.

Woods: No. Actually, Glenn, this was not on the tarmac before the president spoke at the hangar that was televised. There was a building, very nice, fairly large room where there were couches in four different areas of that room, and each one of the four families was being represented, was comforting each other in each one of these four pods. And so it was not on the tarmac. It was actually in a building.

GLENN: Okay. And she came up to you and she said what?

Woods: Basically Hillary, she came up to me and, you know, she looked quite frankly very worn out. She came up to shake my hand. I shook her hand and I put my arm around her shoulder and, you know, she did express sympathy, "I'm sorry for what happened to your son" and then she, I guess to comfort me, said, "We will make sure that the person who made this film is arrested and prosecuted."

GLENN: This flies in the face now of everything that they said because now they're saying that they ‑‑ no, they knew that it was attack. Again, this verifies the story that they are now trying to cover that they were blaming it on this video. Did any of them talk to you at all about a terrorist attack, or was it just this film, and is this the only thing that they said about it?

Woods: You know, Glenn, I really don't want to cast aspersions about any particular individual, okay? There were people in the White House who were morally not strong, who watched my son valiantly fight against superior forces for seven hours. There were people in the White House who made the decision to deny their cries for help. I don't want to suggest any particular people. Those people, they know who they are. And they need to have the moral courage to stand up.

GLENN: Can I ‑‑

Woods: So that they can change their lives. Well, Glenn, I did not want to pinpoint any particular person.

GLENN: Okay.

Woods: There are people that did not have the moral strength. They know who they are. My son showed courage. Now it is time for those people to stand up and to make a change in their lives for the better. I don't want to pinpoint any particular person. I do not want this to become political.

GLENN: I understand that and I'm ‑‑ what I'm trying to do, Charles, is just ask for the facts on ‑‑ because this is not political. This ‑‑ to me this is so important because Libya shows that we have changed as a country the way we treat our military. We always go in and get the last man. We always risk all to save. That's who we are as Americans and they are ‑‑

Woods: That's exactly right. And when Ty went into the Navy SEALs, that is what he went in for was to save life, not to take life. When he first went in, he went in to become a medic. Each team, each Navy SEAL team has a number of individuals. Each one of them has a different set of skills. His skill set was to become as skillful as an emergency room doctor. That's why for two years he was with the ambulance service in San Diego with the San Diego fire department, not dressed as a SEAL but dressed as one of them so that he could do that because that is always the policy of the SEALs and every other military operation that they never abandon their men in the field. They never leave anyone behind. That's the way our military works. That's because our military has a high code of ethics.

GLENN: Okay. Can you tell me about what the vice presidents ‑‑ I got yelled at by my wife last night.

Woods: You know, Glenn, what was said was said, and I really don't want to make any more statements. That was ‑‑

GLENN: Okay.

Woods: ‑‑ what was said.

GLENN: But do you stand by ‑‑ I want to make sure that you do stand by what you told me last night.

Woods: Oh, 100%.

GLENN: Okay.

Woods: What I said was quotes, was word for word. I do not speak that way.

GLENN: All right.

Woods: I did not speak those words.

GLENN: Okay. All right. Well, Charles, I thank you so much for your courage to stand up and I hope you don't mind that I said this morning ‑‑

Woods: No, I really ‑‑ Glenn, I appreciate very much what you're doing, and this is such an important issue, I don't want it to be forgotten. I don't want it to be swept under the rug. But all I want to do is I want to honor my son and I also want to give those people who did not have moral strength, the opportunity to voluntarily stand up and show the moral strength now that they should have shown while they were watching for seven hours my son fight while they were allowing my son to be murdered, when they showed a lack of moral courage to send in and respond to the cries for help.

GLENN: We have ‑‑ we have a report in just now that there is a source that has confirmed that there were at least two requests for help sent to the CIA when the attack in Libya commenced. Both of the requests were denied. The two SEALs that went in to help the ambassador went in against orders. They died four hours after the attack began. They report now that two SEALs who were at the CIA annex one mile down the road had a position that they could have coordinated artillery or mortar support but they were told in no uncertain terms to stand down.

STU: Jeez.

Woods: That is cowardice by the people that issued that order. And our country is not a country of cowards. Our country is the greatest nation on Earth. And what we need to do is we need to raise up a generation of American heroes just like Ty who is an American hero. But in order to do that, we need to raise up a generation that has not just physical strength but moral strength. We do not need another generation of liars who lack more strength.

GLENN: Charles ‑‑

Woods: And I hope my words are not too strong for you, Glenn.

GLENN: I was just saying you have ‑‑ I was just going to say to you, Charles, you have so much restraint and you are a far better man than I am. If the rules ‑‑

Woods: No, Glenn, I totally respect what you're doing. You're doing this every day. And like I said yesterday, I have to make sure that I have total forgiveness towards everyone. Like I said yesterday after the president spoke, the representative from Libya came up to me and said he was sorry. Afterward I sought him out and I said total forgiveness. I may be coming across a little bit strong, but I sincerely from my heart, I want to have total forgiveness towards everyone, but I also want to see justice and I also want to see the people who were involved change the direction of their lives for the better. I want the best for them as well.

GLENN: Charles, God bless you.

Woods: Thank you very much, Glenn.

GLENN: I hope to be able to shake your hand someday. You are a remarkable man.

Woods: Thank you very much, Glenn.

GLENN: God bless you. Thank you. I have to tell you something. I think this guy is... I mean ‑‑

STU: Amazing. Amazing.

GLENN: I mean, amazing. Amazing. Listen to that. His son, I just was handed this report in the middle that said they were told to stand down. They were told to do nothing and they were like, we cannot let people just die, our own people just die. And they went in and they had to have known. There's no help coming. They had to have known they were going to go in and fight. And I tell him that, and listen to that man. You can't tell me that's about politics.

STU: No.

GLENN: That is about honor. This is what this race is about. Because that's who we are. You just have to find the honor again. We have to reach higher than what we've reached for. Please, this story is not being told yet anywhere. Please get this story out to everyone you know. Take it. It will be posted up on TheBlaze. Last night's episode was already posted. This will be posted. Take it. Facebook it. Tweet it. Put it everywhere you know, as many places as you can. Send it to everyone you know. This is critical. Because this is really what it's all about and it shows they're lying. In a very dangerous and very callous way.

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.