To our European readers: don’t believe the American MSM’s minimizing of the abandonment of our foreign service personnel on September 11th- 12th in Libya last year. The current administration, its staff and our foreign intelligence personnel all share full responsibility for this debacle.
The hearings were made possible only because of the refusal of the families of those who died in Benghazi to accept the government’s evasions and downright hubris in regard to questions raised by the public and by the Congress.
Who can ever forget Secretary Hillary Clinton’s angry appearance where she rhetorically demanded, “What difference does it make?” — the implication being that the situation was over, they had done their own investigations and that should be the end of it. Her comment has entered the lexicon now — the perfectly snarky response to another’s questions.
Another quote that arose from the same lengthy and repeated aversions was the Press Secretary’s dismissive response to questions about Benghazi. Mr. Carney waved it away — “That was so long ago.”
The hearing today is merely the opening salvo in the long war against an administration that promised transparency when it began in 2009, yet has proceeded to stonewall, obfuscate, and lie about its decisions, appointments, and legislations. The numerous prevarications on which ObamaCare is based are enough to fill a thick book, one even more impenetrable than that legislation itself.
Benghazi was a seriously mortal and grave mistake. As the country learns that the President went to bed with instructions not to be disturbed — he needed his rest for a speech the following day — and that he literally slept through the murder of the staff serving him in Benghazi, I suspect his standing will with voters will continue to erode. Does he care? Probably not a great deal. After all, he got what he came for and once he’s finished a job which seems to bore him no end, I suspect the Obamas will rush for the exit and on to their new life in Hawaii.
This is an open thread. You may post what you like, including comments on the Queen’s speech. It would be poetic justice if she were still on the throne when our Great Pretender has begun his eternal golf game.
As I sat watching the men give their testimony, I felt hope that there are still good and decent men and women in government service.
When Bill Clinton made his famous remark “I did not have sex with that woman” I can actually remember where I was and what I was doing… What I immediately thought was “you lying sack of …. ”
I feel the same way about Benghazi. I think it was from your link that I watched the Mo video and said to myself NO WAY. The Dems needed to get their man over the line at all costs. They did and it cost us big time. Whoever brewed up this sludge needs their head examined.
Some have said this was about gun running to Syria via Turkey, some have said this was a buy back of the weapons unleashed when Khadafi went down, and now we are told it was because HRC wanted to make a “good will” jesture by advertising our unprotected presence in Benghazi. None of it makes sense.
Stand by for “thediplomad.blogspot.com” to weigh in. A life long foreign service officer, recently retired, that knows how these things work.
There is something terribly wrong here but the worms are coming out of the woodwork at this point so I don’t think it will be very long until we know what actually was going on. Such a shame and a national disgrace that people needed to be injured and murdered to find out what Obama’s foreign policy is really about (nothing).
The only upside IMO is that Hillary is being tarnished as an incompetant and a lier. Good luck in 2016, ha!
Sir Alex Ferguson announced his retirement today. (In other news, the queen made a speech …)
I’m sure if the Yanks asked nicely they could get Sir Alex to come over and whip the country into shape on a short term contract, once they give Barry his P45.
I know what you’re going to say, he’s not a native born American citizen, but since when did that matter eh …
Seriously when you look at the stature of someone like Sir Alex and then check out the Yanks over the other side of the pond, the best they can come up with is Barry Soetoro or whatever his name really is …
Seems like a bad dream, doesn’t it? Oh wait, it is bad but not a dream…
I don’t know who Mr. Ferguson is but I would probably go for him over Mr. Soetoro.
Let’s all get fat on food stamps! We can call our friends on our Obamaphones! Let’s meet up at KFC. They take EBT cards!
The Man Himself.
The Best Manager Ever.
“AhcumfaeGovan”
Red Clydeside and Manchesterism personified.
I remember when most of the rest of the world was telling us Yanks that our stature in the world had grown immeasurably in 2008 because we finally elected a wise and principled leader who wouldn’t bluster around like that Texas cowboy and who knew what a library is. Seems that for a while Barry Soetoro was more highly regarded in most of Europe than he ever was over here. And some of us were saying, “If y’all like him so much, please please take him!”
I have to disagree with the label of a mistake, be it grave or not. We are giving them too much credit by assuming that they are merely bumbling idiots.
IF this was a mistake, it would be akin to discovering an accidental fire in the kitchen, trying to put it out with gasoline, deciding to refrain from calling the Fire Department, then insisting that your neighbors also put their phones away.
Somebody saw this attack as an opportunity and was not going to let is slip through his/her fingers. Hillary may have wanted a reason to prohibit free speech in the US, or there could have been another motive, but having a compliant media covering their backs, they opted to ground all available champing at the bit troops and their assets. I noted yesterday that I was reminded of Uriah the Hittite’s murder.
Do you mean because of the convolutions of the story, or the long-term consequences of hidden dirty deeds? There are surely circles within circles here; I doubt we’ll know the real stories (s) until the central cast is dead.
It smells, though. It cries to the heavens for justice just as Uriah and Bathsheba’s fates did, not to mention the long term fate of the kingdom, balanced as it was on one man’s lust, ambition, and deceit…however, in the modern version those sins are spread more broadly among the dramatis personae.
Oh wait. The tale of Petraeus’ fall from grace, perhaps partly engineered by Obama, bears some similarity. The difference, though, is the lack of remorse among any of these people beyond the ones who were forced to watch their comrades perish.
The Obama Tales will eventually be gathered into one volume with a matching biblical story to illustrate the crime in each. I’ll leave it to to others to find a fitting title. It definitely won’t be “Dreams From My Father Redux”…
Mostly from the wealth of evidence that our assets could have been deployed to do something but were not and that people were left defenseless. I do though also think that there is a factor that these people were left to be murdered in order to gain something that was inherently wrong.
On sep 12 2012 there were massive protests throught the islamic influinced countries of the world. All islamic outrage was directed at the “horrible vidio” that was on you tube.But on sept 11 2012 there were no outrage directed at this vidio that had been on the internet for about a year. In fact, that I know of, on sept 11, 2012 the only orcastratd protests of any kind were demanding the return of the blind shiek from from the U.S. . That was what the Cirro demonstration was all about on the 9-11. I would like to know who started this wild eyed rage of mohamadans against this vidio on 9-12. Could it possibly have been Obama, who was the first to blame the vidio.
The other guys never quite know what the mighty and all powerful Oz might do.
So the ISAF has had fantastic results when high speed fighter-bomber jets buzz the scene of infantry fighting. No-one wants to stick around to see PGM tattooing their heads.
Which brings us to Benghazigate. It’s now apparent that we had jets within buzzing range — that were never sent for even psychological effects.
In as much as Libya had/ has no air defenses — and Benghazi is on the coast — there is no logical reason to not buzz the complex — without further consultation with anyone.
Considering our status as the number one benefactor of the Libyans — the idea that they’d object is too absurd for adult consideration.
America has airbases nearby: Crete and Italy.
As for the President and Sec Def — it is on the official (Pink House) record that they were meeting that very day and hour at the Pink House. It was a previously scheduled meeting. Suddenly, this fact has fallen back off the table, A G A I N.
The President and Sec Def were witnesses in REAL TIME to the Benghazi fiasco.
Buraq tucked himself into bed — to save his energies for Las Vegas — the next day’s trip.
It must have been a scene straight from “Clear and Present Danger” –> “…Make it go away.”
Doug Ross has a comprehensive timeline of what happened at Benghazi going back to March last year.
Special Operations Speaks has also been all over this for a long time. They have an awful lot of links for those that want to get up to speed.
As far as I’m concerned, though Steyn says it best: