Joe Biden has been commander in chief for almost 100 days, yet he continues to ignore one of the most urgent controversies involving the U.S. military and America's standing abroad.
More than six months have passed since American service members were involved in an incident at a gentlemen's club in Gdansk, Poland. Stars and Stripes reports that a U.S. Army helicopter unit's September 2020 trip to visit World War II sites ultimately "devolved into a drunken escapade at an off-limits strip club, leading to the suspected drugging of a battalion executive officer who went missing and wasn't found until the next day."
The details of the foreign attack on our troops, which took place in the early morning hours at Club Obsession, are harrowing. Maj. Matthew Conner, the officer who went missing and was later discovered at a random hotel, described the ordeal he suffered in an interview with Army investigators. For example, he "repeatedly had his credit card swiped" while receiving multiple lap dances from strippers at the club, who also "bit his nipples to keep him awake."
If Maj. Conner and his colleagues did anything wrong, it was not doing enough research before embarking on their after-hours excursion. Club Obsession, located in the Gdansk city center, is a notorious haven for criminal activity where unsuspecting tourists are routinely drugged and robbed. Conner, who told investigators he believed his champagne was spiked, wound up with a bill of at least $13,000.
There is even a Facebook group dedicated to warning tourists from visiting the club, which was raided by police in 2017. The Google review page for Club Obsession contains numerous accounts of being drugged, robbed, or even pepper sprayed. It certainly sounds like a shady place.
Hunter Biden's father, of all people, should be able to address this controversy with the empathy it requires. Patronizing a gentlemen's club is not a crime, nor should it be. One can only imagine how much money (and dignity) Hunter might have lost at Club Obsession during one of his legendary crack binges. Would he have even made it out alive?
President Biden should make clear that Conner and his fellow members of the "No Mercy" 1st Battalion are heroes who were unfairly victimized by foreign aggressors. Rather than face disciplinary action, as recommended by Army investigators, Conner should be awarded a Purple Heart for the injuries he sustained that fateful night, which left him "so severely impaired by the incident that he canceled all of his flights for the next week because he 'just did not feel right' and it took days for him to feel normal again."
Conner's commanding officer, Lt. Col. Matthew Fix, opted to retire after receiving a formal reprimand. He should be reinstated at once. Club Obsession should immediately be shuttered and replaced with a classier strip club—an Archibald's, for example. Biden should demand an apology from Polish leaders for allowing such a brazen attack on our troops to take place. Anything less would be an unacceptable display of weakness that would leave our service members vulnerable to future attacks.
It is moments like this when former president Donald Trump's decisiveness and strength of character are most sorely missed. In a functioning global hegemony, this incident would be a bite in the nipple, capable of rousing even the most cognitively impaired septuagenarian commander in chief. If Biden refuses to do the right thing, he will have forfeited his claim to the presidency and his authority over the armed forces.
The clock is ticking.