Wednesday, May 21, 2014

For a “phony” scandal, Benghazi seems pretty compelling

Victor Davis Hanson very carefully lays out the known facts (surprisingly few, due to administration stonewalling), and concludes that there’s nothing phony about the scandal at all:
Until these questions are answered, we are left with the strong possibility that the lethal attacks might have been deterred with adequate security, or even neutralized in mediis rebus: that high administration officials subsequently and deliberately misled the public, the U.N., our allies, and the relatives of the dead; that the president of the United States did not consider the attacks a crisis, or at least a crisis that could offer political opportunities, and subsequently and knowingly lied about the causes of the attack; that the U.S. government deliberately jailed a U.S. legal resident for reasons other than those alleged; that a U.S. election was influenced by administration deception; that the U.S. government was engaged in covert actions that might have been connected to the violence or were themselves ill conceived; that top intelligence officials did not tell the truth; and that almost immediately top administration handlers chose to construct a fantasy in lieu of reporting the facts about the death of four Americans.
At this stage, my disgust is no longer even directed primarily at the Obama administration; lying, corrupt, narcissistic, cowardly douche bags will do what lying, corrupt, narcissistic, cowardly douche bags always do. No, I am far more troubled by the extent to which the manipulative, mendacious hyper-partisan poison of this administration has been so shamelessly embraced by what appears to be the entire Democratic Party and its so-called “progressive” allies in the media. I am equally troubled by a citizenry huge numbers of which can’t be bothered to focus their attention and reasoning abilities (if any) for more than ten minutes on the cumulative effects of the present government’s lawlessness, perfidy and incompetence. I am not optimistic about America’s ability to survive the plague of big government, crony capitalism, proliferating “victim” groups, ideological indoctrination cloaked as “education”, and cultural fragmentation. I believe, in the words of the song, that we are facing “long hard times to come”.

Yet I shall be of good cheer, and will take as many of the bastards down with me as I can before finally climbing the gallows, from which platform, to borrow from H.L. Mencken, “my last word will be a hoot at socialism”.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Deborah.... The list should include the abandonment of American citizens imprisoned abroad. Sgt Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban in 2009. Pastor Saeed Abedini has been imprisoned in Iran's worst prison since the summer of 2012. Then there is the case of Meriam Ibrahim who Paco wrote about recently. She is the wife of American Daniel Wani sentenced to 100 lashes and death. Her crime: being Christian. She is eight months pregnant. Her 20 month American son is imprisioned with her. The latest entry to the list is Andrew Tahmooressi, the 25 year old Marine combat vet imprisoned in Mexico.

Hillary expressed the administration's motto perfectly, "At this point, what does it matter?"

bruce said...

Isn't it great to have a free press which is right on this, day after day competitively analyzing and drawing out all the faults and sins of the government, as they're supposed to?

Oh wait

JeffS said...

I'd give the commies and socialists The Finger, Paco. But that's my style.

SwampWoman said...

If it was really a phony scandal, the democrats wouldn't be busily screeching in horror and hiding paperwork and witnesses. They'd just shrug and say "yeah, whatever".

missred said...

Well said.

Anonymous said...

Heh. I approve this message, glad you said it.

But you now have to keep your head down, because this message is exactly what the NSA &c. are looking for: subversives.

(You didn't think they were looking for external threats anymore, did you?)

Welcome to the USG USA NSA CIA BLM &c. "Watch List"!

Paco said...

I defy their alphabet soup of snoops.

Steve In Tulsa said...

Why was General Ham relieved of his command just a few hours after the attack started when he announced he was on his way to save those men or retrieve their bodies?