On December 8, 2011, Iran displayed to the world what they claimed was an American RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone captured by Iranian forces.  The story of how it was captured, as told by Iran, seems fanciful.  The story told by U.S. officials is not much better.  Questions about the loss are many.  How could this happen?  Was it equipment failure?  Operator error?  Old-fashioned incompetence?  Did Obama wimp out, or was it a purposeful surrender of advanced U.S. technology and intelligence data?

Iran claims that it hijacked the drone by confusing its GPS coordinates and instructing it to land safely inside Iranian territory.  UAVs like the RQ-170 Sentinel are constructed with classified materials and covered with advanced stealth coatings.  The B-2 Bomber has a 172-foot wingspan and a radar cross-section about the size of a dragonfly or hummingbird.  The Sentinel is estimated to be less than half the size of the B-2.  Finding it -- much less controlling its encrypted GPS systems -- would be an ambitious task for any hi-tech nation.  Much less Iran. 

Yet Iran does have it -- and all the secrets it contains.  Most likely, targeting data and reconnaissance intel regarding Iran's nuclear and military facilities.  Information desperately needed by Israel.  And information that the Iranians now have.

President Barack Obama was presented with three options to make sure that the Sentinel did not fall into Iranian hands.  Strangely, he rejected all three. 

So says former Secretary of Defense and Vice President Dick Cheney.  According to Cheney, Obama could have ordered an air strike on the drone or had it recovered/destroyed by ground forces.  What Cheney didn't say is that U.S. drones, like many classified military systems, contain self-destruct mechanisms that can be remotely activated.  Obama's decision?  Do nothing.    

It's no secret that Barack Obama is, at best, a reluctant ally of Israel.  His personal animosity toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is well-known and was famously observed, both in a weird presidential photo op and, most recently, in a hot mic incident with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.  Obama's policies and behavior toward Israel have raised concern in the Jewish community, prompting Obama to shore up the Jewish vote by pledging continued U.S. support for Israel.  According to Obama, "[n]o U.S. administration has done more in support of Israel's security than ours.  None.  Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.  It is a fact[.]" 

But the record is clear.  The world has watched as the "Arab Spring" has erupted throughout North Africa and the Middle East.  Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Turkey are all seeing the rise and influence of Islamist movements.  The Obama administration supports these as democratic uprisings.  In truth, we are witnessing the rise of tyranny by popular vote.  Sharia law.  Theocratic rule under the unforgiving hand of Muslim fundamentalists.  As political Islam marches on, Israel is becoming increasingly isolated.  And vulnerable.

Iran's leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, vows to wipe Israel off the map.  He denies the Holocaust.  And is a fervent believer in the Muslim end-times prophecy of the 12^th Imam.  The Islamic messiah who will usher in a new era of worldwide Muslim rule.  Ahmadinejad believes that global chaos will hasten the coming of the Imam.  So Iran has no incentive for peace.  No inclination to recognize Israel.  On the contrary, Iran believes that it has a religious duty to wage war against the Great Satan (the U.S.) and the Little Satan (Israel).  Whether that comes as a ballistic missile fired at Tel Aviv, an electromagnetic pulse weapon that destroys U.S. infrastructure, terrorists armed with dirty bombs, or detonation of a 25-megaton city-killer in NY, LA, or Chicago.  Once acquired, Iran will use its nuclear weapon(s).

The world cannot allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.  With its very existence threatened and no viable diplomatic course of action, it appears that Israel will have to act to destroy Iran's nuclear capability.  To do so, Israel needs logistical and intelligence support from the U.S. and permission to cross Iraqi airspace. 

Barack Obama, with declining poll numbers and facing a tough re-election fight in 2012, cannot afford to lose Jewish voters.  Americans overwhelmingly stand with the nation of Israel.  Obama has to be seen supporting the Jewish state, at least on the surface.

Stories have leaked through British government officials that Israel may attack Iran as early as Christmas.  The U.S. may provide logistical support.  As of December 7, the USS John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group has joined the U.S. Fifth Fleet in theatre along with the amphibious assault ship Bataan.  In Iraq, the last American troops have left the country, leaving Iraqi airspace open to Israel's jets.  It appears that the U.S. is indeed standing with Israel.  But the loss of the Sentinel drone raises some very disturbing questions.

Why did Barack Obama make no attempts to destroy or recover the U.S. drone?  The loss of intelligence alone is considered huge.  But the technology contained in the drone is also used in America's most advanced fighters.  The F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.  Surely, Russia and China will get a good look at the Sentinel, courtesy of Iran. 

Why would Obama not do everything possible to protect that technology?  Wouldn't Presidents Reagan, Bush #41, Clinton, or Bush #43 have done so?  Reports say that Obama was worried that destruction or recovery of the drone would be seen as an act of war.  Iran already sees the mere use of the drone as an act of war.  Is Obama that incompetent?  Or is it something worse?

It leaves one unthinkable question that must be asked.  Did Barack Obama, commander in chief, purposefully allow the Sentinel drone to be captured by Iran?  If so, why?

If reports are correct, the Iranians now possess critical intel that Israel would use in any attack.  This could create enormous problems for Israel, increasing the chance for unacceptable losses or, even worse, a failed attack.  

Israel is rightly concerned about Iran.  But, they are also concerned about Barack Obama and the lack of support within the U.S. administration for an airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities.  Would Obama go so far as to sacrifice secret U.S. technology in order to betray the nation of Israel and thwart an Israeli attack?  

There are approximately 125,000,000 Evangelical Christians living in the United States today.  Bible-believers.  And staunch supporters of Israel.  They know their Bibles.  And the promise that God made to Abram, later called Abraham, father of Israel. 

Now the LORD said to Abram,

"Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."  (Genesis 12: 1-3 NASB)

Many Christians and Jews believe these words.  And believe them to come directly from the heart and mind of God.

If Barack Obama has betrayed Israel, it could mean something much more challenging than a simple election-year political issue. 

If the Bible is true, Obama may be taking on someone far greater than Benjamin Netanyahu. 

And far less tolerant. 

Jay Clarke is a businessman, writer, and lifelong conservative from Southern California.  Write him at americanheirs@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter @AmericanHeirs, or visit his blog at http://americanheirs.wordpress.com.