Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
The Benghazi Timeline That Condemns
One of the most damning revelations in yesterday’s Benghazi Report from Rep. Trey Gowdy’s investigative committee is the news that there was a two-hour White House meeting — while Americans were still being attacked and Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were still alive — where the main topic of discussion was the completely irrelevant anti-Muslim YouTube video, rather than the rescue of their besieged compatriots. All the while, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s order with President Obama’s urgent command to save lives went unanswered and unheeded. No generals in the chain of command were brought up on dereliction of duty charges or court-martialed for disobeying a standing order. Why?
Is it because the commander-in-chief is lying and had his generals stand down and watch, in real time, as Americans continued to be attacked and two more were killed? Does there really need to be a question mark at the end of that last sentence?
It’s difficult for me to comment in any comprehensive fashion because I am just so utterly disgusted.
Will Donald Trump be tenacious and skilled enough to keep this — as well as Hillary Clinton’s violations of secrecy laws — front-and-center throughout the campaign, or will he be distracted by non-essential, non-critical topics? If elected, will he bring Clinton to justice or just promise to do so before backing off?
The final findings of the Benghazi committee are a gift to Trump and his campaign, if only they will use it.
Good points. We’ll see.
I will be watching this closely with interest.
Son #1 was in town this past weekend and we had a long discussion about many things relating to the election and also the military.
I brought up Benghazi. And he said, and I quote, “Mom, you know that no one gives a sh**.”
I wish he wasn’t right, but I’ve brought up Benghazi to many Hilarie supporters in my life. And he’s right. They don’t give a sh**.
I hope this breaks through. But I’m not hopeful.
(edited: But I’m not OPTIMISTIC.) I’m very, very hopeful.
Word. Thank you for this post, and believe me, I am your twin in disgust at this treachery. Have been for some time. There’s more to come, and it does not get better.
I don’t understand Roskam and the GOP’s line here. Did the report need to be voted out by the full committee? Is that why we get this fanciful version with shade thrown at the military, none at Hillary, and praise for Barack S. Patton?
Are they poking for howls of “Bull!”?
There are a lot of us that feel this way Brian.
What an utter disgrace.
New things I learned:
There actually were forces that could get there in time. (I knew this already, but reading a report that says it from the Government is new.)
They were spun up (a “get ready to go” order).
They were told to go – they didn’t – so (speculation) there must have been a “stand down” order as well.
The State Department was more interested in the feelings of foreigners than with rescuing lives – (No surprise here… Remember how they had to be shamed into approving Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations when we started the war with Libya?)
Anyone who has worked in these matters knew that it was White House/NSC/Sec State direction to stand down. There had to have been a discussion. It’s proof that was missing and Obama is quite good at not leaving his finger prints on anything.
We’re not “no one,” though. We’re really not.
I think Americans do care about this. From the start – the bombing of Libya, through the terrible security planning, through the stand down during the attack, through the lies about causation being a “reprehensible internet video that we had nothing to do with”, through the Candy Crowley-mediated Presidential debate where she apparently waived the “transcript” and doubled as a fact-checker, all the way through to the the screeching “what difference, at this point point, does it make”. It is malfeasance and misfeasance on a grand scale, no matter how spun, and recognizable as such by almost all Americans.
Americans care about it, but we have been separated into warring camps, and those in the other camp are willing to look the other way. They are “afraid of what a Republican President would do”. And that is where I lose the thread. I live in the Bay Area and talk to the other side all the time, and this is what I hear from thoughtful (relatively) liberals. This is our world.
Some people do care, but they are not those on the political Left. One thing that conservatives/republicans/libertarians need to do a better job of is demonstrating just what an uncaring lot the ‘progressives’ really are. They don’t care about the lives of Americans killed in Benghazi. They don’t care about the generations of inner-city kids sacrificed to the Moloch that ‘public education’ has become. They don’t care about the manufacturing and mining jobs that would be destroyed by their energy policies…and on, and on, and on. It is time to call their bluff on what caring and empathetic people they claim to be.
It may be true that no one really cares about Benghazi directly, but it has an indirect impact. An overwhelming number of people have concluded that the political class isn’t trustworthy, and only cares about their own image. They came to that conclusion subconsciously, not by any specific A=B logic, but because these Benghazi-like instances of lying and spin and media manipulation have been compiling for years.
As poorly as it reflects on Hillary, this is truly a reflection of Obama.
You may never find any smoking gun (and liberal sycophants are trying desperately to push the idea that there’s really nothing here), but that’s only if you force people to look for the wrong kind of evidence. This episode is not about anyone deliberately pushing a negative button, but about a bunch of political hacks who didn’t press a positive button because they were worried about the “optics.”
Sooner or later, that lying catches up to you.
Factual but very charitable assessment.
He leaves out the fact that Rhodes et al in that two-hour meeting were already discussing the political impact and the need for message control (lying) long before any troops were authorized to move.
He leaves out the fact that the FAST team was on the runway for hours, changing in and out of uniform which delay could only have been the result of interference by Hillary’s people and their concerns.
And he does not bring up the issue of where the hell was Obama after he gave the order (the right order, to his credit) and was POTUS’ absence the cause of the leadership vaccuum (goatf*ck) that ensued.
Issue is not whether they care but whether they can silence everybody else. I’ll ‘move on’ when she stops lying and unreservedly apologizes to the families of the fallen for (a) placing them needlessly in danger for which she is solely responsible and (b) using them and the coffins of their loved ones as stage props to sell a politically convenient lie. I don’t care if they care. But if they tell me Benghazi is ‘over’ they will hear it all. Again.
The video is just a quick timeline encapsulating the events that transpired. Americans have every opportunity to wade into the 800 page report linked in the OP to explore all the other fail points and deceptions that are evident. For myself, I quickly dashed off the post last night after viewing the video and scanning some of the summary information in the report. There is much to be angry and disgusted about.
Sadly, we will never know the real truth of what happened. The Feds have misused their power of classification to hide their tracks until after we are all dead. If no information was gleaned by the committee that could lead directly to a criminal indictment, then it’s certain that Clinton will not ever be held to account, ever. Besides, she’s too busy for crap like this while she is out celebrating that it’s now easier to kill babies.
My disgust with our mendacious and evil government is now complete, so I’m even more anxious and ready to toss the Trump bomb into the fetid swamp that is DC. Wouldn’t have guessed I’d write those words a year ago.
Thanks for this post, despite its grim nature.
I made my avatar and vowed to keep it until some justice was done for those four, so we wouldn’t just forget about it like we do so many outrages (Gosnell, Pigford, Learner, etc.). We move on to the new outrage of the week, and the last one becomes “no one gives a s*** any more”.
I thought Benghazi was finally an outrage so clear that it would stick, that it would never be able to be danced and spun, Clinton style.
But the years keep going by. I am still smoldering with disgust and outrage; I’m sure most on this site are.
I can’t tell you how much I want to finally be able to take that avatar down and put my ugly mug back up there once again. Maybe soon?
If you listen to Pat Cadell and Doug Schoen, you know that there is plenty of outrage in the country and has been for awhile. When Democrat pollsters like those two say at least for the past year that they’ve never seen so much anger in the voters, you know you have lots of company. It’s the lefty press which deserves our ire and contempt. Oh, and Congress, etc, etc., but we do have company.
I give a S**t, and this women can NEVER be president
This.
I mis wrote here: I should have said … “I’m not optimistic”.
There are several reasons IMO for what my son said. I know my left-leaning mother was in denial about Benghazi. The reality was too much for her to live with; it was easier to believe the narrative being peddled.
There are others on the left who will simply file it under “witch hunt”. The list of Hilarie’s malfeasance is so long that it’s almost unbelievable; easier to believe there are many just out to get her.
The last is a trickier and I hope I can explain it accurately. “Caring about the troops” is almost universal. Left, Right, in between. But it’s been the experience of my son, and mine also, that for some “caring” is better described as pitying. In reality the only “troops” they care about is a vet who’s homeless, suffering from PTSD, unemployed, etc. A victim.
-contd
-contd
Logically everyone we are talking about who lost their lives or were injured at Benghazi are victims.
But they’re not the kind of victims that qualify for victim status as they were able bodied and fought back.
My lefty friends and acquaintances are almost appalled when they inquire after my sons and I report that they’re doing fine and love their jobs.
I’m not doing a good job describing this.
Don’t mean to deflect the discussion, but if it isn’t Clinton, it will have to be Trump. Staying home, leaving that space blank, voting third pary won’t beat Clinton. Only voting Trump will do that. Think it over NeverTrumpers.
Trump has the opportunity now to impress those not inclined to vote for him by attacking Clinton on this and keeping it front and center and pointing out her lies – particularly her lies to the families of Ambassador Stevens, Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods and Sean Smith and her lies about denying what she told them. As well as attacking her on the specifics of her secrecy law violations in the email scandal.
If Trump can show that he’s been successful in a prolonged attack by severely eroding Clinton’s support in the polls and causing disarray in Democrat ranks then he also may be successful in garnering more votes from Republicans on Election Day. But Trump and his surrogates need to do this by sticking to the facts known and revealed in the report and show the “fog of war” narrative/excuse to be the crock that it is. It’s a matter of skilled debate oratory when up against Clinton and her surrogates and media lap dogs. A half-hearted effort by Trump will spell trouble for him. He better choose a really smart fighter as a VP for his ticket if he’s to get this job done. And he may want to name an Attorney General nominee for his team who publicly vows to bring Clinton and the Clinton crime organization to justice.
For 40 years, with a few exceptions, I have voted for the candidate I thought would do the least damage to my Liberty, not just for President but at every level. This year in the presidential race I’m not convinced I have that option. I am reduced to deciding how, exactly, I want to see Liberty damaged as I’m convinced both Rodham and Gomorrah will be destructive to Liberty perhaps in different ways. I do hope I’m dead wrong about Mr. Trump but haven’t seen any reason to change my opinion.
Just to be clear, does this mean that you are entirely indifferent to who wins then?
What you describe is perfectly clear,and also accurate. You did fine.
It wasn’t the ‘fog of war’ that was the inhibiting factor, it was the ‘fog of politics.’
Exactly.