Embarrassment in recent US diplomacy history, but the event itself is not a scandal. The right has gone bonkers over the Benghazi fiasco over the last year with TV ads of Hillary Clinton; “What does it, at this point, matter!”, media pundits picking it a part, and countless congressional hearings. I get it, this is embarrassing to the president and I think we should take full advantage of it, but not in the way it is being done.
We know the British pulled out because of terrorist, or whatever the official term is, activity and attacks. We know it was ridiculous for security to be so light, mainly because of the recent terrorist activity, and the security should have been US marines instead of contractors. Libya, after all, was still a war zone with a weak to no real central government, security forces or police. Ambassador Stevens should have been more prudent in his decisions, but this is all hindsight and does us no good.
The idea that a stand down order was given would be great political fodder, but there is zero evidence of such an order. The idea that a military dispatch from Italy could have saved the day is a fantasy, it would have been physically and mathematically impossible to muster the proper strength of soldiers and to get them there in time. Those who were there fought bravely and perished with great honor in fulfilling their duty, which is a nice platitude, but does the families no good. We should be angry that there was such a breakdown in security and intelligence, but until there is a smoking gun that it could have been prevented or troops were in route and recalled the GOP scandal isn’t valid.
This is not to say that there isn’t a ‘scandal’ to be had here, there is, of sorts. In the interview Obama gave to Bill O’Reilly he made a statement about that night. The president stated that he was concerned whether or not everyone was safe in Benghazi, what the status of events were and whether or not this was part of a larger coordinated terrorist attack. Let us not forget, this was on the 9/11 anniversary and there was major activity at the Egyptian embassy as well. I believe, for what that is worth, the North African activity alone warranted heightened situational awareness by our government throughout the day.
Even though we now know that they knew it was a terror attack, through all the congressional hearings, right from the start and the president admitted it to O’Reilly it raises an important question. Why did the president continue on to Las Vegas, when this was all happening, for a fundraiser? An ambassador was killed, he admits they knew it was terrorists from the beginning, but he still left for a fundraiser knowing the Egyptian embassy was also under siege. Keep in mind that just a few months before the whole area was on fire, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Tunisia and more so it was not like the area was a safe zone at all.
However, Obama felt the need to go to the fundraiser and no one, not even the great Bill O’Reilly pushed him on this. In hindsight it is for this reason, I think, that they pushed the movie angle and downplayed the terror angle. Of course, the GOP smelling blood in the water decided to fish for a big scandal when the scandal was right in front of them all along. Sure, it is not as juicy as a stand down order, but my Lord, he now admits they knew it was terrorist activity and he left for Vegas, classy. Also, remember they now claim he said that it was terrorists the very next day in the Rose Garden, he didn’t, but that’s a different story, and still no one pressed on why he left for Vegas.
While not an impeachable offense, the GOP needs to stop that talk too, but don’t you think positioning it that way, commander in chief ditches dead ambassador for Vegas fundraiser, who have done some damage on election day? I doubt it would have swung the election, but it could have tightened it up a bit. Not every scandal needs to be a home run or he’s a crook scandal, but showing major lapses in judgment or poor decision making skills can make a bigger impact than many think.
Romney wasn’t going to win, let’s be clear about that, but it would be nice to finally see some critical thinking about Obama. The fact of the matter is the media has never given Obama a hard time over anything. Keep in mind Obama’s DOJ are the same guys who indicted Jay Rosen, tapped his, his parents and his office phone lines. They went after the AP over the leaks and just scrapped a plan to look for ‘bias’ in media newsrooms and what has the press gone after Obama about? Their photographers have had very little access to him… that’s it, can you believe that? Obama is indicting reporters, subpoenaing phone records and they complain because their photographers aren’t getting enough access. You can’t make this stuff up… BENGHAZI!
My Friends, Benghazi is The Biggest…
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