The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 345: NEW STORY—Enough!

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

When you've had it up to here with terrorism, who you gonna call?

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Pick up a bottle at noblespirates.com. K-N-O-B-E-L-Spirits.com. Soon may the noble men come to bring a bottle for everyone. One day when the waitin is done, we'll take a drink and go. I got a story to tell every word of it true, except for the parts I made up for you, just some history that has been reworded Into a mystery called the way I heard it. Let's think about what we just heard there, Chuck.

I've got a story to tell. Every word of it true. Uh-huh. Except for the part I made up for you. Just some history that's been reworded into a mystery called The Way I Heard it. Right. You know what?

I mean, forgive me as I throw my shoulder out of joint patting my on the back, but it pleases me to be able to say exactly what I mean to say with the little musicality injected into it. I know it's four-part barbershop harmony. It probably annoys a bunch of you, but that's what these little stories are, man. They are rooted in truth, as I've said many times on this podcast. I have no wish to deceive or confuse or misinform anyone. Ruted in truth, but basically true-ish. Well, look, I wasn't in the room. Right.

I wasn't there when many of these events happened. But I can stitch things together in a way that I think is reasonable. And I simply wanted a title combined with a song that worked ever so gently as a disclaimer and a promise of something delightful to come, which I hope you'll agree. The story you're about to hear is it's called Enough. And it's a rumination change. Chuck on that moment that we all experience, sometimes in the course of our mundane day-to-day lives and sometimes in the face of extraordinary, apocryphal, life-changing events.

But who among us has not gotten to that place in their respective day where they just said, you know, I've had enough. I've had it up to hear. I've had it. I've had it. I've had it. The hero in the story you're about to hear is a hero of mine. He had enough.

And his friends had had enough. And what they did when they had it right up to here. Well, that's worth sharing. This is the way I heard it. A U.S. merchant ship was missing. 21 crewmen were being held hostage. And now the Libyan consulate had been attacked by Muslim terrorists. The president was a patient.

man, but his patience was running out. There was a sharp knock on the door. The President looked up from his desk as two men entered the Oval Office. Mr. President, said the Secretary, you need to see this right away. The Secretary of State placed the intelligence report on the president's desk. The Commander-in-Chief read the first sentence and said, is this confirmed? Are we sure? It is, said the Secretary of State. We found them. They're dug in. They're but vulnerable. We'll need O'Bannon and his team, and we'll need to move fast. The Attorney General objected strenuously. Mr. President, what the Secretary is proposing is completely unconstitutional.

The President looked at his Attorney General with a mix of curiosity and exasperation. What would you have me do, he said? Keep negotiating? Ask them nicely to please stop kidnapping and killing our people. But, sir, said the AG, the terrorists are now on foreign soil. You have no congressional approval. This would be an act of war. Now it was the Secretary of State, who objected, no less strenuously. We're already at war, at war with an enemy who doesn't have the decency to declare it. And then to the president, he added, sir, you are absolutely within your rights. The terrorists have made their bed. It's time they were made to lie in it. No, said the Attorney General. No, he's a president. Not a dictator.

It's the Congress who must decide. Have you not read the Constitution? I have read it, said the Secretary of State, several times, in fact. As his Attorney General and his Secretary of State continued to bicker, the president considered the portrait of George Washington hanging on the wall across the room. Congress had offered him a crown once upon a time. The chance to be a king after his final term as president, and Washington had refused.

How then would the father of our country fight state-sponsored terrorism today? How would he engage with Islamic extremists who had no code, followed no rules, and attacked our people overseas? Gentlemen, enough. James, are you absolutely certain of their location? The Secretary of State nodded. Yes, sir. They're dug in on the coast.

It's a fortress. Like I said, well defended, but vulnerable. O'Bannon's been briefed. His team is ready. Just sign the order, and we'll put them down once and for all. But, sir, said the AG, what about the Congress? Levi, the president said. You're a good man.

and a fine Attorney General, but you're dismissed. But, sir, you can let yourself out, the President said. The Attorney General huffed and left the Oval Office, slamming the door so hard it caused the portrait of Washington to shudder on the wall. The President glanced again at the face of George Washington and saw what he always saw, staring back at him. Resolve. Turning back to his Secretary of State, he asked,

One more question. James, how confident is O'Bannon? Supremely confident, sir. And how large is his team? Eight men, sir. All Navy. So few, said the President. All hand-picked, said the Secretary.

All trained for land and sea operations. They are the best of the best. The President considered the situation one more time. a U.S. merchant ship was missing. 21 crewmen were held hostage, and the Libyan consulate had been brazenly attacked. Enough. Do it, James.

Send in O'Bannon. Do it fast. Do it right. And keep it quiet. And with that, the President of the United States launched one of the most famous, top-secret operations in naval history. It was a controversial decision, but when the dust settled, the president's actions were deemed constitutional, just as his secretary of state had predicted. And his secretary of state would know. He had not only read the Constitution several times. He had written it.

Not too long after his president had written the Declaration of Independence. few people today remember Levi Lincoln, the Attorney General who opposed the mission, but you might recall President Thomas Jefferson and his Secretary of State, James Madison, the first elected officials who decided to stop negotiating with terrorists and start fighting back, which is precisely what they did with a little help from an intrepid lieutenant named Presley, O'Bannon and the small team of elite fighters under his command. Eight hand-picked warriors who prevailed in their first engagement on foreign soil, leading an assault force across a sprawling African desert to the shores of Tripoli,

where they breached the walls of a mighty fortress and killed a gang of state-sponsored terrorists, called the Barbary Pirates. So began America's endless war. on terror, with a covert action made possible by a small group of highly trained men who took an oath to fight for right and freedom and to keep their honor clean, the same group that still at it today, the few, the proud, the Marines. Anyway, that's the way I heard it. When you leave a review, which we hope that you'll do, tell us who you will tell us who you are and before you go won't you leave fast stop the ocean moves us whether that's

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