Richard Whalen

Is there not anything that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will say or do to win the Democratic presidential nomination?

To bolster her foreign policy credentials, Hillary has recalled on several occasions that as First Lady visiting Tuzla, Bosnia in 1996, accompanied by daughter Chelsea, she risked her life under sniper fire. In a speech on Monday, March 17, she said: “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead, we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base,” reports the New York Post.

Dramatic, eh?

Except it never happened. As 1996 CBS-TV footage shows, Clinton was met on the tarmac by a welcoming crowd that included an eight-year old who read her a poem titled “Peace” and then Clinton walked to her limousine. This child, Emina Bicakcic, now 20 and studying to become a doctor, is one of several Bosnians who have just come forward to express surprise and dismay over Clinton’s remarks, reports the New York Post. She said that she did not fear any threat of violence and added “she [Hillary] was really listening; she was drinking in every word of my poem.”

Another Bosnian, Sema Markovic, 22, said she has long respected Hillary as a strong leader but “it is an ugly thing for a politician to tell lies. We had problems for years, and I don’t like when someone lies about them. It makes us look bad.” Also, former acting President Ejup Ganic, who was present during Hillary’s visit, declared: “No one was firing. There were no shots fired.”

The U.S. military, who were responsible for Hillary’s safety, are shaken and angry at her tale of phony sniper bullets whizzing. Retired Major General Walter Stewart, who was assigned to European Headquarters at the time of Clinton’s visit, declares: “Believe me, heads would have rolled all over if the military had put the then-First Lady at unacceptable risk.”

A former Army analyst, quoted in the New York Post says: “If getting shot by sniper fire qualifies you to be president then there are thousands of guys in the military right now who are way more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be our next president.”

Clinton’s lame response to all this: “I have written about it in my book and talked about it on many other occasions and last week, you know, for the first time in 12 or so years, I misspoke.” Her effort to stonewall only makes her fraudulent tale more objectionable. America is in too much trouble in too many places to risk a serial liar in the Oval Office.