By Dr. Jim Ferguson
Recently, I heard several of my friends say they were going on a News diet. I admit I’ve felt similarly and left the fight periodically for R&R.  I find myself cycling between the resignation of living in a conquered land and the stewardship of educating myself and returning to battle the enemy that now occupies our country.  I can’t slink off to a monastic life because I’ve been too blessed, and the Master said to whom much is given, much is expected.

In medicine there is a perspective called The Captain of the Ship.  This comes from the navy where the Captain on a ship is responsible for everything, even the decisions of others he’s appointed or who function in his name.  Similarly, a surgeon is responsible for his helpers in the operating room, and I am responsible for my staff and the patients in my office.  In fact, if an unattended person falls off my examination table and is injured, that is malpractice and I’m responsible.

So what are we to think about the newest revelations of Benghazi, the political machinations of the IRS or the surveillance of AP (Associated Press) phone records by the Justice Department?  This trifecta of disasters cannot be excused or easily rectified.  Attorney General Eric Holder is President Obama’s appointee and the Chief Law officer of the country.  Should he be allowed to recuse himself and blame his subordinate for the AP wire taps?  Harry Truman famously said, “The buck stops here.”  Now a news outlet asks of the President, “The buck stops…where?”  Mr. President, you are responsible for the actions of your appointees, just as I am for my staff.

Our country is founded on English law rather than Roman law which allows for Caesars and Kings.  Our Republic is founded on the rule of law and therefore when this law is flouted or broken, we citizens cry out for and expect justice.  It’s different when the King determines what is just and is the law.

I first came across the term oligarchy when it was used in post Soviet Russia.  The term refers to power that is concentrated in the hands of a few and at the discretion of the leader.  In America the President and his like-minded appointees, as well as the agencies of the Government, are all supposedly under the rule of law.  And now we learn that the rule of law has been violated and some expect us to merely accept excuses.

Forty years ago a bungled burglary of Democrat Party offices at the Watergate complex precipitated a scandal that eventually led to Nixon’s resignation.  Interestingly, Nixon’s crime was trying to cover up the break-in rather than ordering it.  What are we to think of the Benghazi debacle where mismanagement led to the deaths of Americans and talking points generated at the highest levels of the CIA, the State Department and spouted by the White House misled citizens?  Hillary Clinton cravenly asked, “What does it matter?”   Mrs. Clinton, it matters that Americans died in a now conceded terrorist attack and we citizens were misled by our Government and its agents.

David Axelrod, Obama’s former presidential adviser, and other shills in the mainstream media say the government is “too vast” for Obama to know its details.  Is this not a principle reason for the grass roots TEA Party movement which was a reaction to a Government grown too big and out of control?   I suspect Obama did not make decisions during the Benghazi attack.  But, he was missing for seven hours during the attack, and we know the situation room at the White House was never used as it was during the killing of Osama.

Every President has an agenda and logically appoints those who have his views and whom he trusts to carry out his agenda.  Obama’s views and his agenda understandably percolate down through his ministers and their agencies and down to government workers.  The dictates may be specific or subtle and may cause a worker to try and please the boss at all cost.  Anyone who’s worked in an office has observed this influence of the boss.  The President is responsible for those he puts in high places and those who carry out his agenda.  He may claim ignorance of a worker, but he remains responsible for their actions.

Five hundred years before Homer wrote his epic poem the Iliad, a battle raged in 1250 BC with life and death consequences.  As Moses was leading the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt, the city-state of Troy (in modern day Turkey) was under siege by ancient Greeks, including Achilles.  We all know the story of the Trojan Horse.  The Trojans thought the giant Horse was a gift from the Greeks to honor their brave resistance.  However, the Horse was full of Greeks and after the Trojans pulled it into the city the Greeks crept out opened the gates of the city and killed the sleeping Trojan warriors.  The enslaved Trojan women watched their city burned to the ground as their children were slaughtered.

For a long time there was doubt whether Troy was just a Homeric legend.  Then in 1868 Heinrich Schliemann found the ancient city and the myth became history.  I have stood on the excavated ruins of Troy and looked out over the surrounding plain where heroic Trojans stalemated the besieging Greeks for ten years.

There is a parallel to this story because history repeats itself primarily because humans forget its lessons.  Rush Limbaugh once said of Obama, “I hope he fails.”  What he actually said was he hoped the policies of liberal-democrat-progressives like Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi failed to save America.  I also hope Americans will awaken before it’s too late to defeat these modern-day invaders spilling out of America’s Trojan Horse.

These last two weeks have rekindled some hope in this warrior who soon expects another IRS audit.