Lines Crossed
A British newspaper casts some doubt on the competence of the State Department.
Sources have told the Daily Telegraph that just five unarmed locally hired Libyans were placed on duty at the compound on eight-hour shifts under a deal that fell outside the State Department’s global security contracting system.
Blue Mountain, the Camarthen firm that won a $387,000 (£241,000) one year contract from the US State Department to protect the compound in May, sent just one British employee, recruited from the celebrity bodyguard circuit, to oversee the work …
“We were in uniform, unarmed except for taser guns and handcuffs, and had been told in the case of attack to muster by the swimming pool,” he said. “I was separated from the others and couldn’t get anywhere near the swimming pool before I was shot.”
That characterization was not helped by the remarkable testimony of Deputy Assistant Secretary Charlene Lamb before Congress. She astonished Rep Darryl Issa by declaring “we had the correct number of assets in Benghazi at the time of 9/11 for what had been agreed upon.”
Issa incredulously retorted that “to start off by saying you had the correct number and our ambassador and three other individuals are dead and people are in the hospital recovering because it only took moments to breach that facility, somehow doesn’t seem to ring true to the American people”.
The ever-perceptive Vice President Joe Biden can recognize an oncoming freight train when he sees it. During the recent debate with Paul Ryan, Biden laid the blame so thickly on the State Deparment that the senior editor at The Atlantic thought that Biden was leaving the State Department to “hang out to dry”. “Biden said the issue of diplomatic security in Libya never reached his desk.”
“We weren’t told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security there,” he said. Rogin has confirmed Biden was speaking only for himself and the president, and not using “we” to include other parts of the Obama administration. …
Biden’s statement last night was the first administration one I’ve heard so far to acknowledge that some people were more responsible for that set-up than others.
Bet you anything though that if everything had come up roses in Benghazi that “we” would have included Obama and excluded Hillary. But in this case only Biden and Obama were blissfully unaware of the shambolic stat of the Benghazi consulate’s defenses. The incredulous Cable had to verify it for themselves. “Vice President Joseph Biden speaks only for himself and President Barack Obama, and neither man was aware that U.S. officials in Libya had asked the State Department for more security before the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, a top White House official told The Cable.”
Two top executives are somehow not getting the word. Neil Munro at the Daily Caller notes that “administration officials are now blaming the nation’s intelligence agencies for the administration’s week-long campaign to blame a little-known YouTube video for the lethal Sept. 11 Benghazi attack.”
It’s a tight spot that Hillary is in. She can’t very well lash out at the President. It might cost him the election and the Democratic party would never forgive her. On the other hand, she just can’t stand there and take it — even if she deserves it.
Belmont Commenters
How to Publish on Amazon’s Kindle for $2.99
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99
Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99
No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99
The problem with Biden and Obama’s Sgt Schultz defense (re: old Hogan’s Hero’s comedy series) is that they are STILL accountable. The buck stops with Executive management.
They can order investigations with teeth, suspend people who did have likely oversight responsibilities pending the outcome, and at minimum, ask for the resignation of the Secretary of State, UnderSec. of State, and desk that had any oversight over the Embassy and/or Embassy Security in Libya. What have they done since the attack to change the security situation on the ground in Libya, or any of the other Middle Eastern countries where American State Department personal are at risk? Obviously, an incompetent or incompetents were in charge on 9/11/12. Who’s in charge today? What change did Obama or Biden make? If an O.O.D. decides to run a watch without lookouts and dismisses half the bridge watch and then runs a Navy ship aground, the Commanding Officer is accountable. There may be others also to blame, along with this O.O.D., but the C.O. shoulders primary blame every time. He can’t credibly point his finger at the X.O. or Operations Officer or the O.O.D..
Obama has done nothing. Nothing has changed since 9/11/2012. He put out a clear lie as cover for “why my Ambassador died and my Libyan Consulate burned down…”, which puts responsibility and suspicion clearly on the CINC and his Bozo VP. Where the hell is Obama’s outrage that HIS APPOINTEES gross criminal negligence killed four Americans? The only person’s the Obama administration has held accountable thus far are Romney for his (accurate) statement on 9/11, and the GOP Congress for supposed cuts to the State Department budget, which never actually occurred.
Ryan missed the proper response to Biden’s “We didn’t know…”.
Ryan should have said: “For crying out loud, you’re the VP and Obama is the President of the USA, you SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. Why didn’t you know, Mr. V.P.? Who did you fire or suspend who did know yet failed to inform the President? This is a national security issue and you’re PROUD that you didn’t know, as though it absolves you of responsibility. I’m sorry, Mr. V.P. that excuse only works in Congress, and you’re not holding that office any more. We still have Americans at risk, and your main concerns is where the blame falls?”
O.S.
That a sitting Vice-president is not in the loop is ordinary and customary.
Not so for the President.
With attack after attack — it’s now obvious what passed unremarked by the boy who didn’t attend his own intelligence briefings.
Mitt needs to call the Wan out on his empty chair at such confabs.
I’m reading that he’s been AWOL for months at a stretch….
——
We need to find a multi-engine rated pilot that hasn’t had fish for diner….
——
Well, we keep hearing that Obama is not attending half of his daily intelligence briefs. He’s too busy campaigning and not doing his frigging job. But at that, at least no one says (yet) that Obama’s lost his nuclear football codes like Slick Willy Clinton did.
Unless all of the embassies in warn-torn areas are guarded by unarmed nationals, it looks very much like this ambassador and his staff were the sacrificial lambs for some unknown purpose of the administration. There is no excuse for this, and it is indefensible.
With attack after attack — it’s now obvious what passed unremarked by the boy who didn’t attend his own intelligence briefings.
Mitt needs to call the Wan out on his empty chair at such confabs.
This bears repeating. If Obama is claiming he did not know that the embassy was requesting more security, the obvious next question, as mentioned in the first comment by Old Salt, is why didn’t he know? The fact that he blew off intelligence briefings is a good place to start when looking for the answer to that question.
The NSC spokesman claimed Obama got copies of the briefing book and read them everyday, and that was good enough. Well, maybe Obama needed some Cliff Notes summaries to go with the book, since it seems he may have overlooked some important stuff.
5. JL
Well, maybe Obama needed some Cliff Notes summaries to go with the book, since it seems he may have overlooked some important stuff.
Or he can say that Bo the First Dog ate his homework.
The British invented Cabinet Government and Collective Responsibility. The Democrats have replaced that with Collective Irresponsibility. The ethics that the elites have cultivated among the feckless herd have blown back to infect the corridors of power. This cannot work. The only way an aristocratic or feudal society can function is if the ruling class are disciplined and held to a code of conduct. True Communists are as abstemious as Puritans or Spartans. As soon as the priests and lords become corrupt and publicly indulge in the vices of the peasantry, as depicted by Bruegel in the “Land of Cockaigne” or by Hogarth in “A Rake’s Progress”, the system implodes.
0bama should have know everything possible the hour after the attack started and that includes it “NOT” being a mob incited attack! BUT everyone is barking up the wrong tree, Hildabeast as I’ve been saying since day 1 is THE responsible person, it was her Department and her job! Romney needs to force 0bama’s hand and try to make it as ugly as it can get between 0bama and Hildabeast, I think the “MOVIE” was a “Look the other way” head turner, it is smelling very bad, dead people smell’n bad! Romney may be getting handed him a bad, bad situation, 9/11 size problem in his first several weeks in office.
8. CharlesWhite
“Romney may be getting handed him a bad, bad situation, 9/11 size problem in his first several weeks in office.”
What on Earth Could Lead You to that conclusion?
Rules of engagement
Approximate location of bombing, Aden Harbor, Yemen
The destroyer’s rules of engagement, as approved by the Pentagon, kept its guards from firing upon the small boat (which was not known to be loaded with explosives) as it neared them without first obtaining permission from the Cole’s captain or another officer.[36]
Petty Officer John Washak said that right after the blast, a senior chief petty officer ordered him to turn an M-60 machine gun on the Cole’ fantail away from a second small boat approaching.
“With blood still on my face,” he said, he was told: “That’s the rules of engagement: no shooting unless we’re shot at.” He added, “In the military, it’s like we’re trained to hesitate now.
If somebody had seen something wrong and shot, he probably would have been court-martialed.”
Petty Officer Jennifer Kudrick said that if the sentries had fired on the suicide craft “we would have gotten in more trouble for shooting two foreigners than losing seventeen American sailors.”[36]
Consequences
President Bill Clinton declared, “If, as it now appears, this was an act of terrorism, it was a despicable and cowardly act. We will find out who was responsible and hold them accountable”. Some critics have pointed out that, under U.S. law, an attack against a military target does not meet the legal definition of terrorism[37]
—
In Afghanistan the bombing was a “great victory for bin Laden.
Al-Qaeda camps … filled with new recruits, and contributors from the Gulf States arrived … with petrodollars.”[18]
The 9/11 Commission Report cites one source who said in February 2001, “[bin Laden] complained frequently that the United States had not yet attacked [in response to the Cole]…
Bin Laden wanted the United States to attack, and if it did not he would launch something bigger.”[39]
—
Ah for the days of President Willie and Ambassador Bodine…
At the Elephant Bar
Deuce said…
“This video clip is an unimpeachable timeline on the Benghazi attack and intended coverup by the Obama Administration. It puts a lie to Biden’s and Obama’s assertions in their debate and public appearances.
By all current indications, Obama is trying to cut the damage by having Hillary Clinton take the fall. “
Deuce then posted this quote from Human Events:
“The attack on the American consulate in Benghazi was the first successful terror action directly against United States’ interests since 9/11.
The media hardly noticed that the president had been skipping national security briefings before the attack, or that he flew off the next day for a Las Vegas fundraiser.
By the time U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s laughable assertion that the attack was a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Muslim film was discredited, and reports surfaced of previous security issues at the consulate, including ignored warnings, the media had moved on to more important things.”
- Human Events
The Obama admin is either the apogee of liberal idiocy with a return to reality beginning in November, or in the alternative, liberal idiocy has reached escape velocity and we are all headed off to nowhere man has been before.
One would think it uncomplicated enough for even a Women’s Studies PhD. Stop obfuscating the obvious and stop denying the obviously true. Alas, even this may become beyond our reach.
@4. SwampWoman >>Unless all of the embassies in warn-torn areas are guarded by unarmed nationals, it looks very much like this ambassador and his staff were the sacrificial lambs for some unknown purpose of the administration.<<
On another forum, a point was made that the Muslim world wanted the release of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (aka the Blind Sheikh), and that perhaps the intended outcome in Libya was that the ambassador get captured and give an excuse to trade the sheikh for the ambassador — a plan that went awry when two Navy SEALs (who were on the scene on an unrelated operation) spoiled what could have wound up as a clean snatch of an undefended VIP.
Peter Boston said:
…or in the alternative, liberal idiocy has reached escape velocity and we are all headed off to nowhere man has been before.
—
That confirms I am one sick puppy:
I laughed hysterically.
…or maybe it’s just that the drinking hour has arrived in Paradise.
I do not see how “we didn’t know” is a good defence when it is your job to know. He has been the chief exectutive for 4 years. He is responsible for the operation he is in charge of. He could have gone with “we were wrong” and got away with it.
Obama should get hammered on this. A good percent of the public, maybe most people, are unaware and it is up to Republicans to nail this all over the place.
Would that Rep Issa could demand the contents of the Daily Brief to the President for the period immediately preceding 9/11. If there is a ‘smoking gun’ that denies Plugs his ‘I know Nutteen’, it will be there.
tom
MichaelC, since this is the administration that thought Fast and Furious was a good idea, this is a good hypothesis.
The coke dealer for the administration must be making a fortune.
14. spindok said…
I do not see how “we didn’t know” is a good defence when it is your job to know. He has been the chief exectutive for 4 years…
—
He has also been Commander in Chief, but that post may be eliminated:
…he will have more “flexibility” after the election.
“They think we’re stupid.” — Herman Cain.
The Howie Carr interview on the previous thread rings true. Everybody knew.
There was reference to “diesel fueled fires” in early reports of Stevens’ death; How’d diesel get in the bldg? How’d the press know about it?
Susan Rice burned out my BS meter on 12 Sept.
I look forward to tomorrow evening. Mitt needs to bring his CEO schtick. He’s a nice guy. But nice guys can be firm and rigorous in requiring better performance. Mitt has demonstrated that he can express dissatisfaction with poor performance. He should channel his inner Trump.
The only logical explanation for this administration’s behavior is that :
A. They believe the American people are so brainwashed that Buraq can do anything he wants including clearly harming American interests without being held accountable.
B. Viewed in the most favorable light possible, one can only surmise that this administration is willing to sacrifice American lives and interests for their multicultural/ relativist “can’t we all just get along ” philosophy. But a more realistic appraisal would be that this Administration simply wants to do America harm.
Whether or not America’s upper most echelons of this Administration have been infiltrated or not, the fact remains that Buraq is responsible for this Benghazi disaster. He was responsible for setting up the response team for these kind of crisis. Whether or not this team below him did not adequately inform him or perform their duties is his fault and no one else’s. Not only was the security unbelievably inadequate, and that requests for additional security repeatedly denied, but it appears we still had assets available in terms of either the drone or aircraft just minutes away that could have used to help repulse the attack after it had started. Instead he did nothing.
It all falls on Buraq’s head.
I’m not nearly as self-centered and ruthless as the Lady MacBeth of Little Rock, but I know very well how to lead my bureaucratic superiors right off a cliff and escape being held accountable for their demise. It is a skill most any high-level ‘crat has because it is very hard to become and remain a high-level ‘crat unless you have it. Don’t ask me how I know!
Now, let’s examine the background: HRC was poised to become POTUS; if she’d won the nomination, there is no way in Hell that old wreck McCain was going to beat her. The people who were backing that black punk kid got some sort of goods on Bill and/or Hill and whispered, “nice life you have there, shame if something happened to it.” Now even if you have something big on her and her hubby, HRC is a dangerous beast that you’d rather have inside the tent peeing out than outside the tent peeing in. So, you make her SoS and let Bubba be the glamorous elder statemen on the condition they kiss the ring. Being forced to eat a sh*t sandwich like that makes people like Bill and Hill really, really angry.
So, I’m HRC and I have my fashionably gay ambassador in a Muslim country that is all but completely in anarchy. My ambassador is screaming bloody murder about the security situation and asking through the usual low-level bureaucratic processes for more security, security that he won’t get because in a Democrat administration, process ‘crats have no authority, so they have an automatic resort to SOP and an automatic “no” to any deviation from SOP; you heard that pitiful woman saying she’d followed procedure and they had what they were supposed to have. But, because I’m a ruthless and angry harridan, I’m well aware of my bosses’ disengagement and his complete distain for any details or much of any real work. So, to cover my butt, I write a nice comprehensive memo that I know will go into his briefing package but I know equally well that he isn’t likely to read it, or understand and act on it if he does. In the unlikely event that he reads it and acts, well then, the Libyan ambassador gets more security and I wait for another opportunity. But, if as is his wont, he doesn’t bother, and something bad happens, I know he’s going to try to blame it on me and when he does, I’m going to whip out that memo warning him and begging him to help my poor embattled gay ambassador and kill the pretentious SOB with it while escaping any responsibility and being made into some sort of hero by my many supporters for trying to cut through the bureaucratic clutter and help my poor ambassador. (I’m thinking BHO may already know she has that memo and that’s why he’s trying to throw Patraeus et al. under the bus rather than HRC.)
I’m thinking that Hill and Bill are thinking that after four more years of BHO, Americans won’t elect another Democrat for a generation. If Romney wins, all Hell is going to break out in the Country – I remember how the left behaved in Reagan’s first term, we’ll see several multiples of that complete with violence that we didn’t have back then. Then Hill is poised to give us the proven successful two fer one ticket in ’16.
Do they know something we do not?
Switzerland Prepares Army for Euro Zone Fallout
All the EU members are cutting back defense spending because they don’t have enough money to pay welfare benefits. One NATO answer to the cash shortage is “smart” defense. Wonder if that’s anything like “smart” diplomacy. Gotta’ love the Orwellian euphemisms.
Something like 5 US states have already proposed or passed legislation requiring the state government to prepare a survival plan that would be implemented in the event of the collapse of the Federal government and the US economy, including the printing of local currency in some cases.
While Obama struts around DC saying “I won”, ignoring Congress and tossing around executive orders like yesterday’s school lunch, the rest of the world (or part at least) is preparing for the disintegration of civil society. What could go wrong?
This is too easy….
IT’S BUSH’s FAULT – yell it loud and long enough and someone, somewhere, might believe you……
I just read elsewhere that the local Libyan security people were being told by their families that an attack was coming and passing this info on the the Americans.
I wish the ambassador had just left the country instead of repeatedly asking for more help and watching his security details being reduced.
Some kind of strange denial here: that this place, probably alone among all others, could be OK with this minimal level of security. You search for some inapparent motive, that would explain this, but I can’t see one.
“You search for some inapparent motive, that would explain this, but I can’t see one.”
The motive was the narrative. The narrative was that Libya was an Obama Arab Spring coup success. Why would security be necessary?
The slackended security in Libya must have come as a directive from the White House. That memo exists and needs to be produced. It must exist because there’s no way a bureaucrat would reduce security without having cover.
Seems we may have another “evolving” story.
“First there was the Libya coverup. Now, we have the Syria coverup.”
http://m.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-new-middle-east-coverup-biden-caught-in-syria-debate-falsehood/2012/10/15/fec2c060-16d2-11e2-a55c-39408fbe6a4b_story.html
The American consulate in Guadalajara Mexico was described by a friend of mine there as a “fortress.” It was not made so because of the cartel wars, but was a conscious and prudent decision made in the Bush years as a matter of course (pre-”cartel wars,” by the way, and Guadalajara was relatively tranquil until recently. The Mexicans consider the Guad ‘fortress’ as overkill). Even an improvised “consulate” in Benghazi could very easily have been made much more secure than it was. That Libya was volatile post-Ghadaffi was a given, and normal, process-driven security measures should have been waived in favor of a very robust security presence.
There is no excuse whatsoever for what happened.
Art -
Maybe so. Maybe so. BUT we now have a certain segment of the populace that is bone-tired of being tarred with labels they do not deserve and may well fight back…. HARD.
Its really fairly simple. It all really devolves down to the difference between having a job and a position. The attitude ranging from the very top of this administration is that only the position counts; the idea that you should actually have to do something other than mouthing platitudes if you get the position is wholly alien to them. I mean, all you need to do is show up at cocktail parties hosted by other Very Important People. There’s nothing to it at all.
And why not? Until now no statement ever made by the administration, whether a lie or a manifestation of supreme ignorance or stupidity, has ever been seriously challenged. They cannot lie well because they’ve never had to. They have no practice at it. They’ve never had to be competent at anything. I fear that the very notion of competence is wholly alien to most of them. You might as well try to teach your dog how to do calculus.
For the most part the rudder of the ship has been left unmanned with a sticky note reading “out for lunch” attached to it. And now the reef is ahead and the Golfer in Chief and his head minions are trying to figure out what that wheel and all those pedals are actually for.
RokShox @25
“The slackended security in Libya must have come as a directive from the White House. That memo exists and needs to be produced. It must exist because there’s no way a bureaucrat would reduce security without having cover.”
I’ve been thinking the same. What bureaucrat would make such a decision unilaterally? None. Somewhere, as you noted, there’s a memo, email, policy statement, SOP notation, taped phone call or meeting linking the WH to the deaths of four Americans.
Hilary, if she’s half as savvy as she’s painted to be, has been stashing documents, taping conversations and playing CYA every moment of every day for the past four years.
Many here at BC are excellent strategic thinkers. What am I missing? No matter how I look at the events and outcomes, I can only come up with three options:
- Criminally negligent
- Criminally delusional
- Criminal
If Obama brings up Bain outsourcing jobs Romney has his reply. ‘You Mister President outsourced the security of an American consulate to a foreign company and 4 people are dead.’
Old Salt,
Obama can’t ask for Hillary’s resignation without alienating a significant portion of his base. I don’t think he is willing to do that.
Modern history comes down to a conversation between two persons: the one who believes in God, and the one who believes he is a god.
I like to suggest a different thought about the O. He does not want to win the next election. He does not like being President. He hates to have to work that hard and deal with the major ME problems that are coming our way. If he drops his performance in the next debate then he knows he is done and will not win the election.
“On the other hand, she just can’t stand there and take it — even if she deserves it.”
Sorta right. Hillary can, and will, bend over and take it. Because she richly deserves it and because she is used to bending over and taking it. It’s how she rises and satisfies.
@ 28 -
Sorry to take so long to get back: I was busy cleaning my guns.
The lefties and blacks have never shown any inclination to raise Hell in places where they could get hurt. They sing songs and carry signs or break and burn things in big, Blue cities with unionized cops that are more interested in their wholly owned mayor’s re-election than in protecting the property of citizens and, especially, business-people.
Now if they go out into the ‘burbs looking for a plasma TV because their babies are hungry for one or because somebody told them the honkies were holding all the kids on the milk cartons it could get really, really ugly. I suspect I’m not the only cracker MF’er with a 12 guage close to the door.
National security briefings–isn’t the opposition Presidential candidate supposed to be read in to these after the conventions, to smooth the transition (if it happens)?
I think I read somewhere that this custom has been ignored so far this election but if not, would Romney have seen whatever warnings that might have been in those briefings Obama skipped?
rig @ 34…
Such is a TYPICAL act for a gonnabee.
It wells up out of the subconscious… as the playa has no idea where the self-sabotage is coming from.
This ‘explains’ why the Wan didn’t have the drive to prep for the first debate…
And why he’ll boldly lie about Benghazigate weeks after the fable’s falsehoods lie strewn across the world wide web.
It also explains why the Wan could go months at a stretch unable to find time to attend any security briefings.
———-
Let’s not forget: this is the maladministration that instantly bought Pakistani air time to deplore a Youtube(tm) video otherwise unknown in that part of the world.
How does Billary walk away from that spin?
BTW, who can believe that Hillary does anything significant without running it by Huma and Bill?
#37 – Chris – I had the same thought this morning. I had heard that Romney was now receiving security briefings. A quick Google search shows reports as of 9/13/12 that Romney/Ryan would begin receiving briefs “next week.” Many of those reports were highlighting Romney’s statement post the Benghazi attack – not complimentary.
Are we on a war footing or a feel good footing.
6 hour fire fight. Where is a major response team to go in country and track and find and kill the bad guys?
Our consulate and Ambassador is our country – almost our President and Capitol.
It is our honor.
Why do we wait 2 plus weeks for FBI (what is this all about) to arrive and start an investigation. In my vision of our old west the posse would already be in the canyons killing the bad guys. WE have assets all over the Med – very deadly and trained assets – give them a quick mission and tell them to track down and quickly solve it. Kill the bad guys or the “group” in the walled planning area. Drones or ground same deal – ground one is faster. If this is happening – great. Don’t tell me. But I am not holding my breath. Right now I see 4 Americans losing their lives due to executive stupidity and slowly sliding under the rug – so sad.
Fast & Furious now serving Syria, Libya, Egypt, Pakistan, along with Mexico.
In early 1943, the Tarascan indians living in Mexico’s Michoacán state region had felt hundreds of seismic tremors. On February 20, a farmer preparing to till one of his fields felt the earth begin to shudder. A 30 meter fissure opened, and sulfur fumes and smokes began to issue forth as the ground shook and heaved with increasing ferocity. The farmer unyoked his oxen and fled to a safe distance.
During the night, a cone of ejecta grew to a height of some 10 meters, and the eruption continued, spitting molten lava bombs 300 meters upward, then vomiting thick lava out to cover the crops growing roundabout.
The new volcano Paricutín took its name from the village it engulfed. By 1952 it had grown to a height of 424 meters.
For a number of years we’ve been feeling the tremors that mark the shifting tectonic plates beneath our feet. A pleonexia of unguessable malignant greed has been welling up from some primitive depth to collide with the fragile surface shell we have taken for granted so long. Our world floats on a lake of fire, and demons gnaw the roots that secure it.
The over-rated occupant of the WH is merely a symptom of the voracious pestis now devouring every thing of value. It seems we are about to be shown how earlier civilizations have been scattered and turned to festering corpses and crumbling towers.
Some with more of a sense of history, have made preparations for disruptions to normal affairs.
The shrieking Evils that bedevil us are probably not much different from the beastiary confronted by other times. But we’ve been convincing ourselves for generations that we were beyond all that.
Pray for guidance, friends, through the times that approach. I’ve come to believe that in this world we are being neither punished nor rewarded, but given choices moment by moment to choose the light or the darkness. I hope you find comfort and strength in the certainty that ultimately God holds our spirits in his loving hands.