M2RB:
BENGHAZI BLUNDER: OBAMA UNWORTHY COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
By: The Editorial Board of the Las Vegas Review Journal
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in a well-planned military assault on their diplomatic mission in Benghazi seven weeks ago, the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. So why are details surfacing, piecemeal, only now?
The Obama administration sat by doing nothing for seven hours that
night, ignoring calls to dispatch help from our bases in Italy, less
than two hours away. It has spent the past seven weeks stretching the
story out, engaging in misdirection and deception involving supposed
indigenous outrage over an obscure anti-Muslim video, confident that
with the aid of a docile press corps this infamous climax to four years
of misguided foreign policy can be swept under the rug, at least until
after Tuesday’s election.
Charles Woods, father of former Navy SEAL and Henderson resident
Tyrone Woods, 41, says his son died slumped over his machine gun after
he and fellow ex-SEAL Glen Doherty – not the two locals who were the
only bodyguards Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama
administration would authorize – held off the enemy for seven hours.
The Obama administration was warned. They received an embassy cable June 25 expressing concern over rising Islamic extremism in Benghazi, noting the black flag of al-Qaida “has been spotted several times flying over government buildings and training facilities.” The Obama administration removed a well-armed, 16-member security detail from Libya in August, The Wall Street Journal reported last month, replacing it with a couple of locals. Mr. Stevens sent a cable Aug. 2 requesting 11 additional body guards, noting “Host nation security support is lacking and cannot be depended on,” reports Peter Ferrara at Forbes.com. But these requests were denied, officials testified before the House Oversight Committee earlier this month.
Based on documents released by the committee, on the day of the
attack the Pentagon dispatched a drone with a video camera so everyone
in Washington could see what was happening in real time. The drone
documented no crowds protesting any video. But around 4 p.m. Washington
received an email from the Benghazi mission saying it was under a
military-style attack. The White House, the Pentagon, the State
Department and the CIA were able to watch the live video feed. An email
sent later that day reported “Ansar al-Sharia claims responsibility for
Benghazi attack.”
Not only did the White House do nothing, there are now reports that a
counterterrorism team ready to launch a rescue mission was ordered to
stand down.
The official explanation for the inadequate security? This
administration didn’t want to “offend the sensibilities” of the new
radical Islamic regime which American and British arms had so recently
helped install in Libya.
The official explanation for why Obama administration officials
watched the attack unfold for seven hours, refusing repeated requests to
send the air support and relief forces that sat less than two hours
away in Italy? Silence.
Fortunately, the MSM's wall of silence has not worked as they had wished. 51% of Americans disapprove of how Obama has handled Benghazi. 57% of Independents. 44% of Americans believe Obama and his administration have "misled" the country. Only 47% do not believe that Obama has "misled" the country at this point. Those are bad numbers. Pollsters will tell you that the word "misled" is a difficult one and only the very fringers usually believe that....like Truthers.
An open discussion of these issues, of course, would lead to difficult questions about the wisdom of underwriting and celebrating the so-called Arab Spring revolts in the first place. While the removal of tyrants can be laudable, the results show a disturbing pattern of merely installing new tyrannies – theocracies of medieval mullahs who immediately start savaging the rights of women (including the basic right to education) and who are openly hostile to American interests.
When Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney promptly criticized
the security failures in Benghazi, the White House and its lapdog media
jumped all over him for another “gaffe,” for speaking out too promptly
and too strongly. Prompt and strong action from the White House on Sept.
11 might have saved American lives, as well as America’s reputation as a
nation not to be messed with. Weakness and dithering and flying to Las
Vegas the next day for celebrity fund-raising parties are somehow
better?
This administration is an embarrassment on foreign policy and incompetent at best on the economy – though a more careful analysis shows what can only be a perverse and willful attempt to destroy our prosperity. Back in January 2008, Barack Obama told the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle that under his cap-and-trade plan, “If somebody wants to build a coal-fired power plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them.” He added, “Under my plan … electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” It was also in 2008 that Mr. Obama’s future Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, famously said it would be necessary to “figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe” – $9 a gallon.
Yet the president now claims he’s in favor of oil development and
pipelines, taking credit for increased oil production on private lands
where he’s powerless to block it, after he halted the Keystone XL
Pipeline and oversaw a 50 percent reduction in oil leases on public
lands.
These behaviors go far beyond “spin.” They amount to a pack of lies.
To return to office a narcissistic amateur who seeks to ride this
nation’s economy and international esteem to oblivion, like Slim Pickens
riding the nuclear bomb to its target at the end of the movie “Dr.
Strangelove,” would be disastrous.
Candidate Obama said if he couldn’t fix the economy in four years, his would be a one-term presidency.
Mitt Romney is moral, capable and responsible man. Just this once,
it’s time to hold Barack Obama to his word. Maybe we can all do
something about that, come Tuesday.
M2RB:
We never leave one of ours behind...
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