Contempt for Your Intelligence: The Administration’s Benghazi Response
Did it occur to them that the chances of the entire Middle East watching that stupid movie at the same time, and getting “inflamed” at the same time — coincidentally on 9/11, when the clip has been up for months — are the same as the chances of throwing a coin in the air and it turning into a fluffy duck on the way down? Do they not expect us to think about that? They keep repeating that this is a very bad movie, as though the incantation means they have the right to be upset.
Please. This completely misses the point.
The point is not if they have a right to be upset, if the movie upset them, or if they are little barbarous monstrosities from another century, but whether American citizens have a right of free speech, and whether their government will protect them and defend them in the face of foreign threats.
No one is asking for chest-beating, but you know, armoring our embassies a day ahead of 9/11 would be a good idea. Warning against traveling to al-Qaeda-infested areas would be a good idea. And if all that fails, it would be a good idea to level with the American public and to tell them the truth.
For instance, Hillary should stop with the nonsense already: sure, they were carrying Ambassador Stevens’ body to the hospital. Please. We have seen dead bodies carried in celebration through Arab streets. We know what that looks like. People carrying bodies to the hospital don’t stop to take pictures. That’s the behavior of barbarians flaunting their crimes, sure that they just intimidated the Great Satan.
Since when do people taking the wounded to the hospital drag them so that the poor victims leave bloody scrapes on columns? Yes, there are pictures of this. Yes, you’ll have to look at British papers, because our unspeakable media thinks we’re infants.
And that’s the other part of it. Jay Carney, who would be much improved by a jester’s hat, has informed us that this is “obviously” not connected to the administration’s policies. Pleeease. How is that “obvious”? Whether or not you believe in the infantile notion that extending a hand in peace will get peace everlasting, the rest of the world — not just diplomatically — has never believed so. Ask Neville Chamberlain how well the extended hand to Hitler went.
The truth is that there will always be peoples, nations, and individuals who view it as right and just that they rule over and control the rest of us. This really shouldn’t be very hard for our government to understand if they’ve studied any history at all.
This is not kindergarten or an illustrated children’s book. There is no benevolent person smiling when cats and dogs lie down together. The Arab world in particular has a long history of striking out at those they think weak. Because they have a history of continuous inter-tribal warfare and because their religion is notably absent any admonition to respect enemies, they can’t understand someone being able to eradicate them and not doing so. When someone starts talking peace, they either assume we want a respite in order to destroy them later, or that we’re weaker and therefore safe to attack. This isn’t hard to find out if you study history. The culture of the region was like that before Islam. Look at what the Romans say about the Carthaginians.
But they want us to believe the ridiculous, patronizing speech in Cairo, bowing to the Saudi king, and distancing ourselves from Israel have made it impossible for the Arab countries to attack us?
Please! Can you mugs in the administration read some history now and then?
Ignore the movies and the documentaries. By and large they were made by twits like you. Go to the primary sources and read about what motivates nations to war. It might shock you to find out this was going on before colonialism and neo-colonialism, and that humans were fighting in areas of the world where no one could be considered white, for thousands of years before America was a glimmer in George Washington’s eye.
“While being unfathomably stupid, they believe we are the idiots.”
This is because for “their” whole lives these Progressive “leaders” have been told over and over that “they” are special and better than everyone else. From Mommy all the way up to the Ivy League professors the song was the same……and this is what happens when “they” believe those stories are true.
we are the idiots; the proof, we elected obama. why should they, or we, think otherwise?
The rest is commentary.
Please. Not we. They’re forgetting the young and inexperienced whom they have rapidly secured. There was also of course the uncounted — we’ll never know how many — dead and never-existed voters.
So for them to assume everyone is an idiot is a bit of a stretch.
Bingo.
Obama is more into scapegoats than even Hitler was.
We will know by November 07, 2012. If O’bumbler and the Clown posse live to steal for 4 more years, then America IS populated with idiots.
IN which case, the Idiots will get their just deserts. The rest of us will be dragged down with them. That really sucks but it is what it is.
Rule 308; No mercy asked, none given.
I don’t know, maybe. I’ve learned on thing working in gov’t for years: Never, never admit you did something wrong. Always spin, find excuses, or blame someone/something else. Never take responsibility for anything bad.
Never understood why gov’t people would even avoid taking responsibility for trivial problems, but it’s part of the culture. I guess the aversion to risk (and being open to liability in courts) is so ingrained people do it as a reflex. I’ve heard that pathological liars tend to come from abusive backgrounds, maybe it’s the same thing here – being in politics is so de-humanizing now everyone involved are too damaged to be trusted to tell the truth.
Outside politics, I’ve always been amazed at habitual liars who would lie when there was no penalty for the truth. I always called it “lying for lying’s sake”. But I never understood it.
Climb a tree to lie when you can stand on the ground and tell the truth. I call it the Anthony-Weiner-Doctrine. Or self compelled self destructive behavior.
Never understood why gov’t people would even avoid taking responsibility for trivial problems, but it’s part of the culture.
I’ve heard that academic squabbles are so heated because the stakes are so small. That could be the same reason for what you saw within government. It isn’t like anyone working for the government ever suffers any serious career repercussions when they screw up. At worst, they’ll be allowed early retirement.
You are on to something. I think it was C. S. Lewis who said that children lie because it is the only real defense they have against adults. A lie is an act of fear.
We ARE the idiots, because we are about to re-elect this President.
!! WOW !!
AMEN!!
Wouldn’t the fact that Barack Obama is president be prima facie proof that we (collectively) possess a room-temperature IQ?
I think so.
In Celcius.
Well said.
Brilliant! This is everything I’ve been saying but said so, so much more coherently. This is a column to be passed around for months to come.
What bothers me most is if the administration really believes its own lies. If they really do think that this whole mess can be blamed on a video, then they are ignoring the rampant Islamist movement that is sweeping the Middle East. That state of denial led to 1979 and our embassy being taken in Iran. It also led to Iran turning into an Islamic fundamentalist state, a price we are still paying for today. And it all happened because Jimmy Carter didn’t want to believe that the Islamists and fundamentalists that overthrew the Shah hated the United States just as much as the Shah. And we are still paying for that ignorance today, with Iran about to get a nuclear weapon.
So is the current administration just as naive and stupid as the Carter administration, or is the current administration just lying to us because it doesn’t want to admit that its policy towards Egypt and Libya was a dismal failure? I submit to you, dear reader, that either reason should scare you right down to your toes. If we haven’t learned anything about the Middle East since the Carter administration, then we’re in deep, deep, trouble.
The administration does not believe in their lies, they believe in their lies’ effectiveness. There’s a huge difference.
With all due respect Ken I beg to differ, but not completely, fools are generally confused with reality and take the easier fiction route and between ideology and the reality of life. For these types you can lead them to reality but you can’t make them think. Case in point, today’s MSM.
“You know, I actually believe my own bullshit,” Obama told the author of Renegade: The Making of a President, Richard Wolffe.
They drink their own koolaid. I don’t get it, either.
There is a big headline on Yahoo News that says,”Romney Changes Plan as Trouble Mounts” as if nothing happened last week. Just another week in the campaign. It’s like, “Poor Romney really struggling- no way he can pull it out.” I have NEVER seen the press, almost as a whole, deliberately sweep something SO BIG under the rug. If this were Bush the press would be FOAMING AT THE MOUTH. What happened at that embassy? Why are they making this absurd “it was spontaneous” argument? Why isn’t ANYONE directly confronting their twisted logic on this? Continuing to blame this video?????? I pray to God that Romney has some advisors with cojones that will tell him to RIP INTO Obama on this at the debates. If he goes all wishy washy on this he’s done. The American people MUST be forced to see how HORRIBLY Obama handled this last week. This has enraged me more than I can remember and I swear I’m not one of those that went berzerk everytime Obama did anything. This is bad.
Details they don’t want us to know:
1)Vengeance for drone killings (including collateral murders of women and children) by the US may have been one of the motivations.
2)It appears that the Ambassador–who seems to have been a charming and uber-competant gentleman–was gay and his body received “special attention” both before and after he died.
Fans of irony will note that on September 11, 2012 the NY Times editorial page had yet one more column claiming the CIA was desperately trying to warn Bush about the impending attacks and he, Cheney & Rumsfeld did nothing to connect the dots. This time around the media is actively telling us there are no dots except the two or three they have already connected for us.
I wonder and worry about what might happen in Middle East countries when Sony releases the Obama promotional film on the killing of Bin Laden. Seems many will erupt into riots worse than those we are now witnessing. The hapless State Department had best beef up security at all our embassies using our own forces who care much more about protecting Americans than do Obama and Hillary.
Wow. Interesting thought indeed. Blithering idiots.
I don’t know who has shown more contempt for voters, this administration or the American media. Listening to all of them this last week has been way too reminiscent of listening to Baghdad Bob.
Well, in synopsis:
1. They believe that they’re smart and we’re stupid.
2. They think that we believe their BS.
3. Many of them believe their own BS. The latter is, in part, a consequence of the cognitive dissonance hypothesis.
Now this has happened before:
“This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine…. We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.” — Neville Chamberlain
Speech at Heston Airport (30 September 1938), quoted in The Times (1 October 1938) Oxford Book of Modern Quotes(pdf)
This level of self-deception may become very dangerous, particularly if Winston Churchill isn’t waiting in the wings to fix things.
BTW…I had a personal experience similar to the author’s regarding Mr. Carter’s hostage rescue attempt, when I was living and working in France. I’ll save it for another post, hoping I don’t need it.
Bingo. The Romney team has been calling O “weak” on foreign policy. That is not the word they should use. They should use the word CAPITULATION over and over again.
Are your reading this Romney guys??? CAPITULATION is your word.
I meant APPEASEMENT. Sorry, red face. But anyway, try APPEASEMENT and see how it goes. Might just be the ticket.
We are weak on foreign policy because our domestic policy is weak. If Bush had gotten the ANWAR drilling started in his first term we would have been able to tie the Keystone Pipeline to that and would be enjoying an uninterruptable supply of oil instead of sending $100 a barrel to finance Wahabbist hatred. We wouldn’t have our hands tied by defense sequesters, either; a strong foreign policy starts with a strong domestic economy.
Everything you wrote, Ms. Hoyt, rings true.
However, please don’t hold your breath waiting for this Administration to take any of your sage advice. Remember, He is the One.
Does anyone else feel the urge to ask “The one what?”
I mean, every reader of fantasy knows there are such characters as “The One who shall come and destroy the kingdom” or “The One followed by madness” or…
I think this answers the “which one” question – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNO58WdUptU – watch his right hand at the five second mark.
Sarah, medically speaking, Obama as “the one” is a clear case of Premature Enumeration. He is still, and will always be, a Zero.
Well written and well said, Ms. Hoyt. Thank you.
Well, to be fair, the Administration did admit that it had “no operable intelligence”.
Obama’s Middle East problem isn’t hard to understand. When you treat decent people with respect they give you respect in return; when you treat scum and bullies with respect they smell fear and attack you. Obama sees the Islamists as decent people because they say all of the things that Obama says, they both hate freedom and they both hate real choices.
His problem, that he doesn’t recognize, is that he’s not a decent person… just take a look at his relationship with the press: the MSM treats Obama with respect and deference and he has nothing but contempt for them. He looks at the Islamists and says “they’re just like me” and he’s right, neither Obama nor the Islamists belong to the set {decent people}.
“No operable intelligence” — beam me up Scotty, there is no intelligent life down here.
“A senior Obama administration official told Fox News on Monday that comments by the Libyan president suggesting that the Benghazi attack was planned in advance are not consistent with “the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence community,” which has been investigating the incident.
“He doesn’t have the information we have,” the U.S. official said of Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif. “He doesn’t have the (data) collection potential that we have.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/17/political-concerns-could-factor-in-administration-version-libya-events-analysts/
Cheers
Well said. As another commenter said, on NOvember 7 we’ll see if the majority of voters actually are idiots or not.
Its ‘Red Pill or Blue Pill’ time.
Bravo! You wrote exactly what I’ve been thinking and in the same tone. Thank you!
The Arab Street, they eat hummus and they seethe. Other than put some lines in the embassy guide books, do we care about either? They are both quaint.
I hope that we are not overreacting to this. It is barely possible that Ambassador Stevens was informed of all this in advance, he went in with his standard Libyan security detail knowing the risk or choosing to disregard it as unlikely, or in any case all part of his duties. In which case it is stil an affront to the US, and the Obambus regime is still embarrassingly uninformed, dishonest, and cowardly about it all – but then the event itself, at least, has to be written off as just one of those things. As we will recommend to those we target with a few Predator visits in response.
We’re not overreacting, and we won’t be, until we don’t need them for energy. Advanced civilizations don’t exist without energy.
My suggestion would be to drill our own oil and let them drink their own.
Ms. Hoyt, I’m waiting for a candidate with the stones to say his Middle East Policy is “Let them eat sand.”
Well said.
The saddest part is seeing the administration throwing individual Americans (and the First Amendment) under the bus in order to appease the “Arab street” and deflect blame away from itself. “The Obama government is innocent! We love Islam! It’s those dirty, disgusting filmmakers who hurt Islam! Don’t worry – we’ll punish them for you!”
It’s enough to make you puke.
if it only makes you want to puke, you’re lucky. I’m reaching Hulk-levels of anger. I keep expecting to go giant and green.
Everyone needs to remember. There are four legs of liberalism. Each or a combination are the root of all their actions.
1. Greed 2. jealousy 3. hypocrisy 4. An amusing belief in their own intellectual acuity .
Another excellent article, Sarah!
But Hillary can’t stop lying to the public about Ambassador Stevens’ death; her girlfriend, Huma Weiner, won’t let her. Mrs. Weiner, I suspect, is the real head of the State Department, these days. I also suspect they’re going to run her, and not Hillary, as president, come 2016—assuming we still have elections by then.
I hear that Obama has holed himself up in the White House, and is refusing to discuss the matter. Maybe he thinks if he ignores it, it will all just go away—or Huma will do something about it.
How’s that Hope ‘n Change/Arab Spring working out for everybody?
Actually, the administration seems only too eager to get rid of that pesky First Amendment. Remember the Aurora shootings? There was a lot of talk around then about too much violence in movies, and how must tone comic books, and comic book movies, down. Apparently, no one really went for that, so now they’re trying to blame the current war in the Middle-East on a 15 minute video. If we just make the bad video go away, and punish everyone involved, things will be swell!
Actually, Josh, #21, in more sensible times, the murder, and public humiliation of an ambassador would be a cause for war. It would not be written off as “Quaint”, or “Just one of those things.”
A country that can’t protect its citizens, and its representatives, is finished.
The Arab Street seethes, eats hummus—and rapes and murders our Ambassador, and is attacking our embassies all over the Middle East and demanding our country start enforcing blasphemy laws in accordance with Sharia.
These are not small issues.
Ah, well, it’s all of no consequence, and, really rather boring! Let’s not overeact now. Hey, is it time for “Here Comes Honey Boo-boo!” yet? Ooooooh, lookeee, a Kardashian sibling is going to talk about her butt-tuck!
Yeah, let’s get back to “important” issues, right, Josh?
(By the way—seeing as there were around 400 people in the mob that attacked the embassy, and they were armed with mortars, and pretty sophisticated weaponry which somebody must have given them, and somebody pretty high up tipped them off to where the embassy safe houses were—who they gonna send the drones after, Josh? ‘Cuz it looks to me like they’d have to take out a loooooooot of people! Oh, never mind! Honey Boo-Boo’s on! Look, she’s got a hula-hoope! Hahahahahaha, funnneeeeee!)
Great article…
This is the Obama presidency….It’s not my fault, it’s the film. Some questions
All we hear from the media and the administration is that this movie caused all the riots. I wonder why no one is doing any investigative reporting to find out who supplied the Arabic subtitles to the movie and which state run media outlets published the movie. It seems to be an important fact that is missing in the narrative. Also, why allow J. Carney to say it is all due to the movie while ignoring the “Obama there are a million Osamas” signs and shouting
Those are all very good questions, dko.
I doubt the media, or the administration, is going to answer them.
Loved your article, just bloody great.
I could feel the passion as I read and agree with everything except the media withholding information because they think we are children. They will do anything to protect this administration.
Congrats Ms Hoyt on on a most cogent rant ! Having lived and worked in the ME for a time I’m convinced I know far more about the Arab mindset and politics than all of the current USDOS and the White House combined ! Life in the “ivory tower’” – where envy and ambition’s knives are concealed in the velveteen of “utter civility” – means they haven’t confronted and worked with those intent upon killing them on their own turf. Such a confrontation would have “superior types ” evacuating their bowels and bladder at the first sight of local mayhem. >MW
The Ansar Al-Sharia guys who attacked and killed in a pre-planned military operation is a Muslim Brotherhood / Al Qaeda Aligned Movement and they have all spent time honing their skills in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. When the Libyan Civil War broke out in early 2011 they returned in mass. Now, many of these same AAS guys also happen to be from the Eastern Libya Tribes and pretended to be Anti-Ghaddafi “Rebels” who Obama / Cameron (UK) / Sarkozy (France) helped train in military tactics! I don’t know how early US CIA and/or SOF IPB guys were covertly infiltrated into Libya but the UK press reported that UK 22 SAS “smash” teams were on the ground in Libya at least three weeks prior to the UN Security Council Resolution setting up the No-Fly Zone. The mainly targeted for the NATO aircraft but reports came out that they also trained rebels! BLOWBACK from OP Odessy Dawn! Thank GOD we are not in Syria – at least I hope I am right. Reminds me of blowback from Clinton’s Balkans adventure – AQ trained Bosnian Muslims in tactics too!
Romney should take your article, verbatim, and give it as a speech tomorrow! Fabulous!! Thanks you!
The administration is trying to put lipstick on a pig and trying to pass it off as Miss America.
OMG! I hope I haven’t offended Obama’s supporters in the Arab street with my mention of animals porcine. Please don’t riot. Please don’t cut off anyone’s head while yelling, “Allah Akbar”. Please. Please. I will do anything. Just don’t become enraged.
But the Adm. all acting dumb as posts “spontaneously” does confer to them a definite benefit: how do you talk to a post?
Sarah, you said it all.
Thanks for putting simmply the errors of our misguided, ignorant, self-important do-nothings who are over-paid, under-worked supposed-to-be servants
of the people of the United States. It makes me wonder who our real ememies are.
Lovely and timely piece. I really liked your ointment solution to the problem of inflammation. Please indeed!
Let’s see odipshit is a Muslime apostate and he brags about killing saint bin laden. Could the religion of pieces be upset about THAT? No it must be the fault of a poorly done video no one has seen. Yeah, that must be it.
This is the result of voting into the Oval Office such a specimen of Affirmative Action and political correctness, and the totally unqualified appointments which the Chameleon Obama has subsequently made, notably this Susan Rice(who?) and Hillary Clinton…the latter of course, at least having had some White House experience……but she seems to be such a busy-body and meddler, spinning the wheels on the landing gear of her official aircraft visiting airports here and there.
Great essay unfortunately. How I have too make an effort to read everything else you ever wrote.
That should read “NOW I have to make an effort to read everything else you ever wrote.”
Everything I ever wrote? (Sarah stands back aghast.) Under every pen name? THAT is a compliment, indeed.
For so great a piece, Ms Hoyt, no praise is adequate. Nor thanks; but thank you anyway.
excellent essay
thanks
Thanks for an absolutely awesome article. Since the MSM and their contemporaries refuse to cover the real story(ies) what recourse do us lowly taxpaying citizens have (11/7/2012)?
Sometimes, I despair at conservatives. They’re just babes in the woods. They’re still frothing at the Obama “spontaneous” spin. They do not see that the liberal narrative is leading from the front. Just read the transcripts of Samantha Rice’s interview with Fox with more care. There is a new spin here. While the protests at the Benghazi consulate started as “spontaneous”, she says, just some locals trying to emulate their Egyptian counterparts earlier in the news cycle – she also says that this peaceful protest was hijacked. Sort of like having your cake and eating it too. She will not say when spontaneity turned into deliberate and murderous planning. She doesn’t have to. The narrative will “evolve”.
Two further events have happened that already are fleshing out the narrative. One is apparently covert, like the open-mic thing with Medvedev. This concerns the negotiations that Obama has been having with Morsi on releasing to “Egyptian custody”, on “humanitarian grounds”, like the Lockerbie bomber, the blind sheikh. This is one of Morsi’s election pledges – release him, or else. Reading between the lines, Obama is asking for “flexibilty” from Morsi – he will release the convicted terrorist after the elections. Morsi must cut Obama some slack and not insist on an immediate release, which will doom Obama’s chances.
And has the Islamic world missed this? Nope. Bloggers may have but not the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who used to be mortally afraid of appearing in person in public, fearing an Israeli strike, has just done so in Lebanon. Clearly, he’s no longer afraid.
And what are his demands? One, Obama must stop the full video, “Innocence of Muslims”, from appearing on YouTube, freedom of speech be damned, … or, else.. Two, the international community must make all criticism of the Prophet a criminal offence, or else. (He tries to grease this – saying all criticisms of the earlier, lesser, prophets of Islam like Moses, Abraham and Jesus must also be made a criminal offence, ha ha ha). (The guy at the OWS rally who wore a T-shirt saying ” Jesus is a C**t”, be afraid. They’re coming for you, too).
Have the conservative blogworld picked up on this yet? Nope. But this is imminent now – a new narrative from Obama and a new reality in the middle-east.
My apologies. Susan Rice, not Samantha Rice. All these Samanthas of the ObamaCrowd has got my attention spinning.
I remember a debate I had with some libs awhile ago. I said that obamas domestic police was a complete disaster, and was pushing the country into ruin, just like Carter. But I had to concede that obama was doing a bit better on foreign policy, because unlike Carter we dont have islamatic fanatics burning down all of our embassies and threatening all of our ambassadors. Famous last words. The comparison with Carter is now complete, and our foreign policy is complete crap too.