Sunday, October 21, 2012

BENGHAZI

    It seems there is more coming out about the terrorist attack against our Consulate in Benghazi, Libya than President Barack Hussein Obama and his men are letting on. All too often the foreign media reports what the domestic mainstream media refuses to do. In this case, from England the Daily Mail reports on the fact that officials from the Departments of State and Defense were well aware in real time that there was a problem, yet opted to do nothing. 
    The Obama Administration has received criticism of its handling of the Benghazi incident, and has lost most credibility in the matter. First they attributed the attack to protests against an anti Islamic film, Innocence of Muslims. The Libyan government, however, asserted that it was, in fact a terrorist attack. The administration eventually came around, grudgingly, to this point of view. Better late than never...
    Congressional hearings have been held on the security failures of Benghazi. And, incredibly, Vice President Joe Biden claimed the administration didn't know! Then he attempted to blame the intelligence community. Then, on October 10, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the smartest woman in the world, publicly took responsibility for the failures. This was a clearly orchestrated political maneuver to divert responsibility from the administration, and a gamble on its part in pissing off the Clintons. Sen. John McCain asserted that the buck stops with the president and that the American people deserve answers.
    McCain is right. Obama's Democratic predecessor as president, Harry S. Truman, had a sign on his desk reading "The Buck Stops Here". President Truman, in his farewell address in 1953, explained, "The President--whoever he is--has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That's his job." Indeed, Obama himself invoked Truman back in July to criticize Mitt Romney! So we know he knows about it. Hell, even Jimmy Carter took responsibility for the failed attempted rescue of the hostages in Iran! 
    Bottom line: Libya is an overwhelmingly Muslim country in overwhelmingly Muslim North Africa. It recently overthrew the longtime dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi, and it would appear that the new regime is at least nominally pro-American. Still, the region remains volatile, with the U. S. Embassy in Tripoli reporting many incidents for over a year leading up to the attack. Knowing this, the Obama Administration should have made diplomatic security a high priority, but it did not. After all, there was an election to win.

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