People attending the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC, this weekend had much to say about President Obama's handling of the current crisis in the Middle East.
As the bodies of four Americans killed in Libya arrived in Maryland last Friday, Islamic protestors burned American flags and held demonstrations in regions ranging from Asia to Africa.
Republican lawmakers like Steve King (R-IA) are increasingly restless with President Barack Obama and where he stands in regards to the growing influence of extremist Muslims, and he wants answers about last week's attacks.
"I want to see those embassies reinforced, and I want to hear the timeline on everything that happened," King insists. "I'd like to know what we had in place tactically to defend those embassies ... who we were counting on and what kind of intel [intelligence] we had that may indicate that we should've been a lot better prepared."
The congressman says it is critical to hear from President Obama a definitive plan that communicates how he intends to address the leaders throughout the Middle East.
"We want to see a strong response on the part of our commander in chief. We want to send a very clear and sharp message across the world that this is sovereign U.S. territory," King contends. "Each of these embassies that [has] been under assault -- we can't tolerate them being invaded, occupied … even temporarily, and we can't tolerate them pulling down our American flag and desecrating it, and especially can't tolerate them sending up the flag pole a black al-Qaeda flag."
Karen and Billy Vaughn, the parents of a Navy SEAL Team Six member, spoke out during the Values Voter Summit, telling OneNewsNow their son was killed in a helicopter crash after bin Laden's death. He and his team members became targets after they were outed by White House. (Listen to audio report)
The Vaughns lost their son Aaron when Taliban militants shot down his helicopter three months after the bin Laden raid. Since his death, his parents have been advocating for men and women in the military who they maintain are operating under restrictive rules of engagement.
Karen Vaughn does not believe most Americans are aware of the conditions under which the military are deploying.
"What it's doing is it's getting our young men and women killed one after another after another, and it's completely unacceptable," she asserts. "And while we can do nothing to bring our son back, we can certainly do something to try to stop this from happening to another family."
Billy Vaughn says the current administration has tied the hands of the military and has neglected to give them a clear mission.
"They're not allowing them to fight. They're constantly apologizing for our military," the father laments. "They're constantly apologizing to the enemy, and it seems either ignorantly or on purpose they're trying to destroy the morale of the American warrior, much as they are the morale of the American citizen."
The Vaughns have found favor with the likes of Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX), Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Joel Ahrends, chairman of Veterans for Strong America, in their effort to raise their concerns for the nation's military.
Several Gold Star Families held a press conference on Capitol Hill last Friday to bring attention to the restrictive rules of engagement they say are crippling and killing military men and women. Rep. Gohmert stated that the press conference was scheduled weeks ago, but the discussion became timelier with the outbreaks of violence in Libya and other parts of the Middle East.
Obama plans to stay on the campaign trail this week, but if the situation escalates, officials say the president's travel plans could quickly change.