Sophocles in Benghazi
What separated the great Athenian tragedian Sophocles from dozens of his contemporaries — now mere names attached to fragments and quotations — were his unmatched characters, an Ajax, Antigone, or Oedipus whose proverbially fatal flaws ultimately led to their own self-destruction.
The Libyan plot is Sophoclean to the core: the heroism of outnumbered Americans who chose to confront a deadly enemy, and were killed and wounded in the defense of their endangered comrades — while the world’s greatest military hesitated to use its power against a ragtag militia to save them. Bureaucrats ignored not only pleas for beefed-up security before the attack, but also more requests that followed during the assault for reinforcement. A concocted story about a culpable obscure video gave opportunity for the administration to brag about their cosmopolitan multiculturalism as they damned the unhinged filmmaker and, in doing so, systemically lied about the real terrorist culprits of the killings.
The strange thing about Libya is not so much who lied, but rather the question of whether anyone has yet told the whole truth. When American diplomatic personnel are murdered abroad, an administration usually is vehement in blaming likely suspects; I cannot remember a single incident, however, when our government ignored those most likely responsible to focus on others least likely to be culpable. Once the election is over, and reporters no longer feel any remorse about hurting the reelection chances of Barack Obama, perhaps some of their usual incentives to crack open a cover-up will reassert themselves.
In Sophoclean terms, hubris (arrogance) — often due to a character flaw (amartia) — leads to atê (excess and self-destructive recklessness) that in turn earns nemesis (divine retribution). In that tragic sense, an overweening Obama must have known that — despite the Drone killings — al-Qaeda was far from impotent. And it was not wise, as Obama once himself warned, to high-five the bin Laden raid and leak to the world the details — knowing as he did that bin Laden’s death was not his trophy alone (or indeed a trophy at all) — but better left an unspoken collective effort of military bravery and the dividend of the often derided Bush-Cheney anti-terrorism protocols that Obama had both damned and then embraced. Ironically (another good Greek word), it was probably not so much an obscure video, but the constant chest-thumping about the grisly end of Osama that infuriated the al-Qaeda affiliates. Nothing, after all, is quite so dangerous as talking loudly while carrying a small stick.
Meanwhile, Obama would continue to bask in the removal of Gaddafi, but shirk the hard, dirty work of securing the postbellum tribal landscape. Chaos on the ground in Libya logically ensued — and yet was ignored, as the intervention had to be frozen in amber as an ideal operation. That narrative was again ironic, given that Obama had been among the most vocal in pointing out the vast abyss from George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” to the Iraq insurgency.
Because Obama now cannot explain how his staff and subordinates watched a real-time video and did not react as most Americans would have responded, he is saddled with a long, drawn-out tragic dilemma — knowing that the predetermined end will prove bad and so avoiding it brings only temporary relief. Americans can deal with stormed embassies and lost ambassadors — but not their commander in chief of the world’s most deadly military watching real-time videos of the carnage before going to bed to prep for a campaign stop in Las Vegas (a city Obama himself once preached should be avoided). Either an administration discloses or does not disclose — but why, the public will ask, leak the covert details of the cyber-war against Iran, the Osama mission, and the Predator hit protocols, but not inform the public how our own were murdered? All that is hubris and simply asks too much of the public.
OBAMA DITHERED WHILE BENGHAZI BURNED.
I can’t believe the election is even close. Obama is a known disaster.
If he gets re-elected, Hurricane Barry and his hidden agenda will swamp the US in rules, regulations, czars, czarinas and his infantile ideology.
BARRY THE GIANT JOBS KILLER
is also a fairy tale.
Nonsense. Obamacare made employers uncertain about what their employees were going to cost, so they would hesitate to hire until the new rules are clear.
Ironically, if Obama had opted for complete government nationalization of US healthcare, it would have completely disrupted — and long-term trashed — our medical establishment but also have lifted the entire cost of healthcare from US employers. Consequently employees would have become much cheaper to hire (because employers directly pay the insurance company for a large fraction of their employees health insurance). Cheaper employees means more jobs. Employees would also have seen less money withheld from their paychecks, which might encourage them to spend more — at least until they saw the higher tax bills needed to finance their newly nationalized health care.
So yes, Obama’s feckless policies and overall lack of leadership on the issues he claims to care about can plausibly be blamed for the lack of jobs.
Give individuals the same healthcare tax brakes employers get. That would also lift the healthcare burden from employers with no government middlemen taking a cut.
They already do. Or were you not aware that your healthcare premiums are considered non-taxable income? In other words, your income is taxed only AFTER your healthcare premiums have been deducted.
ELEVEN WAYS OBAMA KILLED JOBS IN 2011
(needs to be updated)
1. The Unaffordable Care Act aka ObamaCare
2. Moratorium on drilling in the Gulf
3. EPA: anti-fracking initiatives
4. EPA: Cap & Trade initiatives /Acually anything the EPA touches
5. Failure to sell advanced aircraft to Taiwan
6. Solyndra and many other green dream BS
7. NLRA – Boeing in SC [yes, resolved. But it slowed things down when what was needed was to speed things up. See, also, Moratorium]
8. Keystone XL Pipeline
9. Dodd Frank/Over regulation
10. Over-taxation: Medical devices; private planes
11. U.S. Air Force Giving a Big Contract to Brazil
Keep flailing Mike. It’s almost over. You and the other lackeys beating the 0 drum in comments sections throughout the New Media will have to switch gears soon, from support of a failed president to criticism and condemnation of a successful one. I wonder, will your handlers still be rewarding all of you then?
I think possibbly you and “Mike” are on the same side here…read the post again!
Had a wonderful moment yesterday. As I pulled into my gym’s parking lot, I looked over at the Nob Hill supermarket and noticed that there were union strikers holding signs and picketing. It’s already been announced that the store is closing within a year, so I really didn’t think much about it and proceeded to do my normal workout.
Leaving the gym two hours later, I had to stop for traffic before turning, and noticed that two picketers were standing right next to me.
I rolled down the window, smiled, and asked, “What’s the issue?”
“Health care, benefits,” they responded. “They want to take away our health care!”
I swear to God, this next sequence is close to verbatim:
I asked them, “Did you vote for Barack Obama last election?” They said, “Yes” in unison.
I leaned further out the window and said, “So, what are you worried about, ObamaCare has got you covered. I bet you believed him when he said that you would be able to keep your doctor, didn’t you? I bet you’re planning on voting for him again, aren’t you?”
“You should be happy. You are getting exactly what you asked for. Have a great day!”
Window up, vroom, pull out, heading for home.
There are some moments where it all comes together that you just have to share. I’m sure they never will make the connection.
The incredibly sad thing is how many of these people there are and how they’re taking us down with them. In a democracy, the people get what they deserve. They voted for delusion in the form of Obama. If they do so again, it’s game, set, match.
“In a democracy, the people get what they deserve.”
To be more precise we get what the majority votes for. That’s why government powers and activities are supposed to be limited and enumerated. Then the minority can be dragged along on only certain things even when politicians figure out how to manipulate more than 50% of us. Why do people find this so hard to understand?
scenario is that during a second term his ever more recognized fecklessness and corruption leads the Democrats to expend whatever strength they have left defending him. If there is a tidal wave of bad regulations, with consequent bad effects, it will lead (after the next set of elections) to widespread rollback and the thorough rejection of liberal Democrats and “green” ideologues. In a second term there will in all likelihood be future foreign policy disasters big enough to turn Benghazi into a historical footnote. The MSM will make ever less money and be converted through subsidies into “government news”, losing whatever credibility they have left.
People tend to forget just how hollow second term, lame-duck presidencies are. Many old voters have forgotten — and the younger ones have never been taught — just how bad things were, both economically and overseas (Iranian hostage crisis) in 1980 when Reagan was elected. Carter lost a lot of his former supporters to a relatively strong third-party candidate John Anderson because many habitual voters who habitually voted for Democrats felt they could no longer support him.
The basic currents of historical nemesis are not significantly affected by close elections, no matter who wins them.
No, if he wins you will see the full emergence of the first American dictatorship. We are dealing with something entirely new here.
A full American dictatorship, indeed. IF he is re-elected, a whirlwind of pain will be foisted upon the American people, and beyond. But that doesn’t obviate the fact that he (and his surrogates)will be facing harsh Congressional investigations.
And the FULL scope of his treachery, with Benghazigate at the tippy top, is yet to be revealed. But there are more than enough dog droppings, some of which can be found here – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/11/05/bengazigate-house-of-cards-poised-to-crash-down-obama-regime-in-its-cross-hairs-addendum-to-bengazigate-mysteries-meandering-into-shia-iranian-territory-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
Justice can’t come soon enough.
But that doesn’t obviate the fact that he (and his surrogates)will be facing harsh Congressional investigations.
Sorry to say, Adina, that these will be essentially toothless Congressional investigations. Obama, Holder and Jarret would have found equality in the hangman’s noose before now if justice ruled the day. They are all afraid to according principle and the Constitution. And so the Republic falls. Gutless, most of them.
Agreed, Gylippus. There’s no name in the polisci taxonomy of regimes for the ‘new world order’ that’s coming.
For Petraeus to save his honor, he needs to resign his commission and his office and publicly expose the treason at the top which murdered our best young men for the avarice of effeminate politicians, bureau-rats and their flying monkeys. But the NYT was right: Betrayus won’t save his honor nor ours.
This quote is from someone who disagrees with you (and who thinks that Romney will easily win)
“Let me add that I believe something else as well – that, when it {i.e. the campaign ends with Romney elected] is all over, the adult wing of the Democratic Party (what is left of it) will breathe an audible sigh of relief. Barack Obama has done his party more harm than any President in the last hundred years (Jimmy Carter included); and, loyal partisans though these Democrats may be, they know it and they know that it is unimaginable that being a lame duck would improve the man’s performance. Four more years, and they would really be cooked.”
The quote is taken from
http://ricochet.com/main-feed/A-Landslide-Without-Coattails
As far as I’m concerned, if they did not stand up against, then they enabled tyranny.
Catastrophe has befallen us, and I guess now we must look to your hopeful scenario. For my own part I fear an open assault on freedom that will make the last four years seem like a stroll in the park. Even if it does trigger the awakening you hope for, it may be too late. Still, we have no choice but to fight on…
ALL FLAWS AND NO WINDOWS
For a character to have a ‘fatal flaw’ doesn’t he need to have ‘character’ to begin with?
Not if, instead of having character, he simply is one.
Take another bong hit, Mike. You’re on a roll. Why stop now?
Professor, have you ever wondered how many people quake in fear every time you sit at a keyboard. I have to confess that I wasn’t all that blown away by you when I “discovered” you several years ago. Curiously though, now I haunt your last known sightings looking for a new column. Please don’t stop writing. Thank you.
Well, if you are so indisposed why read VDH at all?
Read my post again. You misinterpreted what I wrote. Thank you.
No forensic of Benghazi attack should not include a dossier on the strange mystifying appearance of one Samantha Power and her mystical R2P (Resonsibility To Protect) pretext protocols that emerged in roughly hours before, (or was it during, perhaps after inititial incursions and military involvement into Libya to justify intervention there. Or perhaps it deserves an essay of its own. In a nutshell, it was (is?) a mandate for military action in the form of “world’s policeman” (sorry, police person…) anywhere in the world whenever there is a democrat party president in office.
The “Responsibility to Protect” does not appear to apply to American citizens.
Given the chaos of urban combat as evidenced by Black Hawk Down and the friendly fire A-10 attacks on our armored personnel carriers in Iraq, and the difficulty of identification between hostile and neutral or friendly folks; Interpretation of remote sensing is always dicey, particularly when good on the ground intelligence is lacking, confusing or just plain wrong. So I can’t rush to judgement on this issue. In the end, as one who lives overseas among another culture that I chose to become more involved in than other Americans, and listening to others who have extensive knowledge and experience living with other cultures, at the core is that our ambassador probably thought he was safer than he actually was. This happens to almost anyone who has an attraction and love for another culture, believing them to be a part of it when they’re still on the outside looking in. It is near impossible to understand another culture.
Further, Al-Qaeda in a franchise name and is not a command and control organization operating instead like a franchise that has bought the name only, and then anywhere to being a carbon copy to having a few principals in common. AQIM is now vulnerable in Northern Mali, occupying urban areas and traveling along limited transport routes. I’m interested in seeing what we will contribute to knocking the snot out of them as the Mali army is unable to do so. What I fear is the pulling back foreign policy and letting events play out without intervention or if they will destabilize the region.
The mere mention here of Mali has set me off.
This American was an expatriate all during the 1960′s in East and South East Asia, so I’m in a sense able to jump a continent or two and posit that we Americans should care a flying leap what happens in Mali, or Africa as a whole, including the Northern Muslim part of it. These butchering rivalries deserve each other. Let ‘em have at it.
Look at our long term influence in East Asia, entangled at extraordinary, horrendous human and fiscal cost… we’re continuing, after close to seventy years, seven-zero years, to provide for the defense of Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines [You're welcome....] against the stretching Chinese dragon. [Insert irony here: The Chinese are now smugly burdened with a hoard of depreciating United States Dollars. We may have a few laughs after all....]
The arid area of West Asia from Istanbul to Bangladesh is a collection of basket case “countries” beyond American “renovation”. The Dollar Hydrant there simply must be strangled in that ungrateful arena. Now.
Nuclear Iran is a separate category.
Let’s accept then, that alQaeda and variants are a basically disunited guerilla force spread from Gaza to Indonesia. And we Americans are still expected to handle this while others hold our thinning coat? …..You’re welcome, World.
These widely dispersed tribal sects and centuries old animosities will simply not be brought under any civilizing umbrella as we Americans see the application of our Western Civilization. We can’t do it alone while others continue to hold our coat.
Lastly, but to compound the futility of our World position, we have the likes of Samantha Power, the Hillary, Susan Rice, Janet Napolitano, and that Valerie Jarrett being busy, busy, busy in our Nation’s Capital.
That’s what this National Election tomorrow is all about.
So… The fawning brown nosing starts by comment #2. Why do people do this? Mark Steyn gets the same thing. It adds nothing of interest. They also try to write their comments in a style that imitates the author. Wretchard’s comment section used to be the same with each commentator trying to outdo the next in Churchillian-like verbiage, until he did the reveal. It’s annoying and useless. Please stop.
And still we will not acknowledge the now days old news of the Benghazi timeline that lays so many of that night’s mysteries to rest? Still we hew to fiction and allusion, and reject fact and circumstance? How high must our flights of fancy take us, how far into the past must our forced allegories delve, how artificial must our allusions become, until the jig is up, and the skein of this yarn is finally unwound?
Please, one and all, be educated:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-cias-benghazi-timeline-reveals-errors-but-no-evidence-of-conspiracy/2012/11/01/a84c4024-2471-11e2-9313-3c7f59038d93_story.html
Surely you jest!
Hopefully you’re being paid to spread idiocy.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Another tragic player in this disaster is the impotent “opposition” party – republicans – who for save a very few have remained on the sidelines not willing to risk political capital by forcefully defending America’s honor and the memory of the brave Patriots who died in Benghazi. This election is the first step; we need to clean out BOTH sides of the political swamp in DC that we know as Congress. Not all of our elected “leaders” have failed us, but there are very few that haven’t.
I am not sure how to prosecute our traitorous media establishment, but we need to find a way to hold them accountable as well. This is not a single issue; the MSM represents a large portion of our society that is the product of DECADES-LONG “progressive” influence in our schools and universities. The federal government is fully stocked with these type of individuals. It took generations to get to this point in history and it will also take generations to clean it up. Maybe Benghazi will become the core issue that galvanizes an American rebirth and ascendency to our rightful place as the Shining City on the Hill.
All that is needed for tyranny to exist is for good men to do nothing; the silence of our elected leaders on this national disgrace is deafening.
REMEMBER BENGHAZI!!
I could not agree more with BarocheDique. Enfolding the media and education in general is the profession of “social work.” Their multicultural agenda has not only destroyed the conception of truth, but divided us up by racial categories that ignore internal clashes of interest, let alone singular individuals. See http://clarespark.com/2012/11/03/the-social-work-of-progressives/. For these “healers” all traumas can be overcome, even the most extreme. I for one, will never get over the Obama administration and the pain of seeing America go down.
Obama, as always, showed in Libya that his dogmas, his “narrative”, and his romance with the “mystical, enlightened East” trump reality.
I don’t think he has ever seriously believed that the Muslim Brotherhood is secular; if they were, he’d have no interest in having them in power. He wants them there precisely because, in his mind, they represent the enlightened, ethereal Eastern spirituality that he sees as superior to Western materialism. The fact that the MB is a vicious, aggressive, homicidal group that preaches and practices holy war against anyone and everyone who does not fit their definition of a good Muslim simply never enters into the equation with Obama. They are mystical; that’s all he needs to know to know that they are the “good guys”.
I don’t believe he wanted Ambassador Stevens killed; or rather, I don’t believe he really gave a damn one way or the other. I do believe that he, Axelrod, Clinton et al are privately relieved that short of a seance’, Stevens will never be able to testify in front of a Senate committee about just who actually received the bulk of the arms that he was charged with seeing delivered to the Syrian resistance. Which, like most such groups in Islamic countries, is probably at least as anti-Western as the dictator it seeks to overthrow. A fact Obama may either not understand, not care about, or be rooting for; with him, the motivations of his reflexive hatred of all things Western are so myriad and convoluted that it can be difficult to determine exactly which one is in play at any given moment.
Obama’s endgame in the Islamic world has been pretty obvious from day one. Simply put, he wants them to win, and us to lose. Not because he’s “a Muslim”; he’s no more “Muslim” than he is anything else except a self-worshiping, conceited narcissist. Rather, he wants them to win because he sees the destruction of the West as a necessary step in the creation of an enlightened, mystical Utopia, that would look oddly like the Persian Empire- with solar panels and wind turbines. (As long as anyone still remembered how to fix them, which with the educational system that would result would be no more than about twenty-five to thirty years.)
Afghanistan is probably the most perfect example of his dreams in action. He is setting us up for a Vietnam-style “last helicopter out” denouement’, both to show us how powerless we are to stem the “inevitable march of history”, and to once more have a rod for the back of the (anti)-American left’s favorite whipping boy, the U.S. military. I suspect that, like many of his Che Guevara t-shirt wearing supporters, he pines for “the good old days” when they could spit on American servicemen and women, call them “baby burners”, be lionized by their friends in the press for doing so- and use the military’s “failure” as an excuse to gut it, and leave us naked before our enemies. (Remember, their definition of who the “good guys” are isn’t necessarily the same as anyone else’s.)
If Obama is re-elected, I expect that his second term will be more of the same, only worse. Because he will no longer have to worry about the electorate’s reaction to his putting his delusions into practice with no holds barred. And it will make 1975 in Saigon, and what came after it, look like a five-year-old’s birthday party by comparison.
If you listen closely, you can hear those helicopters warming up on the apron.
clear ether
eon
This guy knew nothing going into the job, he learned nothing on the job and he had nothing to offer during the job – except some tired failed ideas from the 30s.
In a way, he’s very much like the MB he supports: He can’t build anything. He can only destroy.
Obama has two tenets of faith: 1) ‘You didn’t build that” and 2) even if you did, “revenge requires that we destroy it” with uncertainty, poor decisions, no planning, no effort, just unequal tax increases and unpopular regulations that will be written and then rewritten by the faceless, nameless, office ‘predator’ drones.
Give your spiteful, selfish, inexperienced 15 year old a new sports car, an unlimited credit card and put him in full charge of the family affairs for four years and you would have a microcosm of Obama’s presidency. After the havoc give him another four years to do the same and you would have another microcosm of giving Obama a second term. His immature peers would love, support and colude with him to the bitter end. Thus you have Obama and his selfish, foolish followers. Can the enlightened yet empoverished parents take back control of whatever is left ? Please go vote for the adult !
I have long thought that you should have your own column here at PJ Media, eon. This comment is one of your best yet! Clear ether, indeed.
Giving more credit where due, VDH really does bring out the thoughtful and eloquent best in many of his commenters.
Maybe you and eon should take it up over dinner and drinks.
You sir, are aptly named.
Good comment, eon.
Two things:
Comparing Biden to court jesters is an insult to court jesters. They perform a useful function by being allowed to tell the truth to the king. Biden is a known liar. But he is not a buffoon. He knows this damn political game. He knows he can lie and smile and tell folks what they want to hear. He explained the method Domocrats use to extract more money from the public. The money is always for some good cause, say, “the children”, veterans, clean water, etc. And he couched the appeal in the terms of a boloney slice. Just a little bit more, just a thin slice more. That is one reason I get angry when so-called conservatives agree to a “small” tax increase. Slice after slice it all adds up to a lot and much is wasted. Biden is your typical morally corrupt politician; his survival this long attests to his skill.
Hillary Clinton is a bungling SoS. She only looked competent by a fawning press and in comparison to Obama. “We came, we saw, Gaddafi died”. Is that the best she could come up with? She had weeks to prepare a better statement. Mediocre.
In fact, as VDH pointed out, the whole Obama administration has been the triumph of the mediocre. All the players VDH mentioned, save Petraeus (he shoulda known better), really did not even reach mediocre status.
I hope this whole administration gets it’s pink slip on Tuesday.
Indeed; one of the most important passages in all literature is when Sophocles’ Œdipus takes personal responsibility:
It was no fault of King Œdipus that events, ordained before his birth, transpired as they did, but he takes personal responsibility for his own actions. Œdipus exiled himself, and struck out his own eyes, whereas modern leaders will lightly accept responsibility in words but then make no sacrifice and suffer no penalty. The president, for example, says, “The buck stops with me”, and then does nothing else.
I’m sorry for the double post. ’Twas all my doing.
Indeed; one of the most important passages in all literature is when Sophocles’ Œdipus takes personal responsibility:
It was no fault of King Œdipus that events, ordained before his birth, transpired as they did, but he takes personal responsibility for his own actions. Œdipus exiled himself, and struck out his own eyes, whereas modern leaders will lightly accept responsibility in words but then make no sacrifice and suffer no penalty. The president, for example, says, “The buck stops with me”, and then does nothing else.
Meanwhile, I received an ad by e-mail today wherein Pres. Obama claims he “brought Osama bin Laden to justice”. Brought to justice? I fear the “justice” which involves a president determining by himself who may next be executed by SEAL team.
Would that Pres. Obama be brought to justice.
I have thought if Obama is reelected, his vanity will overwhelm him and his tenure in the White House will be a tragedy of unexpected events that make Katrina and Sandy appear minor.
The problem is, many innocent Americans will be harmed; his supporters will bear the brunt of his failure, as he will throw all of American under the bus.
The bar of judgment will be unavoidable; the verdict on Obama may be stern and perhaps fatal.
Obama is not intelligent enough to understand his fate or outcome is as Daniel told the king [Daniel 5]. You have been weighed in the balance or scale and found to wanting, a light weight. The kingdom passes to another tonight.
“Or it was fed by vain hopes that someone, somehow would make it all just go away…”
Certain advantages come from combating ideologues: They filter everything through the dark lens of their ideology, which distorts what they see. Thus they are often unable to respond to reality as it unfolds beyond their defined ideological boundaries. They become highly reactive and scramble to concoct plausible narratives to mask their incompetence. That makes it easy to trip them up and expose them. The downside is that people get killed because of it. Of course the ideologues are just the puppets of much more cynical, focused individuals who are not blinded by ideology. They are the real threat.
This whole administration is composed of a sad bunch of treasonous clowns, the true dregs of America: from Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta, Eric Holder, and Janet Napolitano, to Susan Rice, John Brennan, Tim Geithner, Kathleen Sebelius, Tom Vilsack, Steven Chu, Hilda Solis, Ben Bernanke, Lawrence Summers, John Holdren, … to Valerie Jarret and the Maoists Anita Dunn and Van Jones, to the puppeteers and mouthpieces David Axelrod, David Plouffe and Jay Carney … Seldom in the pages of human history has such a vile assemblage of thieves and liars held so much power.
Couple that with the corrupted, race-baiting, strife sowing traitors of the Democratic Party, from Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to Chuck Schumer, John Kerry, Maxine Waters, Diane Feinstein, Debbie Wasserman, Alan Grayson, Barbara Boxer, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Charlie Rangel, Bill Clinton and Jesse Jackson… to Elijah Cummings, Barney Frank, and Keith Ellison… Not to mention sundry Democratic operatives like: David Brock, John Podesta, Frances Piven, Richard Trumka, Harold Ickes, Morton Halperin and Robert Borosage… and their many affiliated media lackeys, progressive think-tanks, Hollywood shills and academic bag-men, and you have the perfect storm of coercive-collectivist kleptocrats feverishly trying to put the finishing touches on the foundations of their new-age global cyber-tyrrany. It is high time to drive them out and reclaim our heritage. Historically it is almost always a mistake to bet against a free people. As the clear and lively discussions here at Works and Days have demonstrated these last four years, we have been busy getting oriented and organized, ready to begin our counter-attack. The Dems are about to discover this tomorrow. After that we do not rest until most of the names above are discredited (or behind bars), and their destructive works undone. Tomorrow is the time of maximum effort, and many battles still lie ahead… We must bind our children to eternal vigilance, for as another ancient Greek wrote:
“The love of freedom alone is not enough, unless united with the will to act. And life without danger is not given to a free nation, but to one already conquered.”
Beautiful, Gylippus, just beautiful, and true!
Right on right on, my man! Only, recall Sandy Berger and his hot pants… I don’t think (if Romney wins) there will be a “reckoning” of the sort you and many others would desire. Romney is a technocrat, bloodsport is not his game.
He will push these matters into a far corner and then try to dazzle us with what he can fix. However, some of the players you mentioned will not go quietly into the night and just might force Romney’s hand, kinda like a cop being the suicide perp for a person who wanted to check out but just couldn’t pull the trigger.
And when Obama loses tomorrow I expect the White House paper shredders to be working overtime 24/7. Like the WH’s computer keyboards missing their W’s after the Clintonistas left the WH, I wonder what infantile acting out the Obamatards will engage in?
You’ve come close, Gylippus, to naming the unspeakable new order:
“coercive-collectivist kleptocrats’ new-age global cyber-tyrrany”.
Gotta shorten it to a just a syllable or two. I’m outta ideas.
More important that any Constitutional duties as President and CiC has been the insistence that it is his elected prerogative to fundamentally transform America. And when there is popular outcry or in the case of Benghazi, cold-blooded murder, there is no learning. Just a reliance on the media not to cover the actual consequences of bad policies.
Everything I have seen involving the 2nd term (which is virtually everything the National Academies and the UN are publishing) involves trying to remake our economy away from fossil fuels while using education. K-12 and higher ed, to alter student values to a communitarian ideal. If civilization really is a thin veneer over a rumbling, oozing volcano, these agendas designed to increase central power will tear that veneer to shreads fairly quickly. And that’s before the consequences of a President Americans may come to fear but foreign tyrants will not.
Tomorrow matters far more than is commonly appreciated.
Your real humor is the perspective you provide: From such a distance one can see realities play out that have existed since recorded history.
And you, dear sir, are a man of history!
As to “Princeton Petraeus,” he can resign his office, come to the fore and tell the American people what he knows and where he made bad decisions. Whether or not his conscience and intestinal fortitude are capable of reaching such levels, only time will tell. However, the longer he waits the sooner he gets sucked into Obama’s “Hamlet” game of self destruction!
Still, we may be doomed if this evil clown from Kenya gets re-elected!
I wonder how many of the pro-Obama commenters will disappear after the election? I suspect many of them are paid for by the DNC and other Democratic party organizations.
“I wonder how many of the pro-Obama commenters will disappear after the election?”
Not soon enough. They tend to target Dr. Hanson’s posts frequently, though who would bankroll their drivel? I suspect its a troll or two with multiple sock puppets — the tone and writing style remains the same dpspite content.
Didn’t one of those Greek dudes end up strapped to a rock with the buzzards plucking out his eyes and entrails? What would we have to convict Obama of to achieve that as a result?
You don’t want to go there. Prometheus was punished by the Olympian Gods for teaching mankind how to use fire, lifting us closer to the Olympian Gods by making us for the first time something more than just animals. Obama like Prometheus? — only to the Nobel peace-prize committee.
Obama is more like Loki, the evil trickster god of the Norse pantheon. Loki did everything he could to bring about Ragnarok, the final destruction of the gods and the world as a whole (it is consumed by water, much as in the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark).
As to why, even Loki is unable to explain, although repeatedly asked by everyone from Frei to Odin himself. Ultimately, it seems he was motivated by nothing more than a deep-seated dislike of everyone else… for not being him.
In short, a petulant child who unfortunately acquires actual power.
clear ether
eon
Once the election is over, and reporters no longer feel any remorse about hurting the reelection chances of Barack Obama, perhaps some of their usual incentives to crack open a cover-up will reassert themselves.
For the most part, I find your post on target. That said some clarification and confrontation is required. The following are accurate to a point, ”
For still largely unknown reasons, she or her staff ignored repeated, clear, and detailed prior warnings that the consulate and embassy were vulnerable — and largely defenseless against just the sort of attacks that would kill the ambassador. She is in a tragic dilemma: she wants to leave the Obama mess but cannot as long as she suspects that only her continued presence on the job wards off administration efforts to make her a fall person.” Let me say this up front the brains, such as there are, of the Bill and Hillary show belong to Bill. Hillary knew or should have known she was headed under the bus when she took the job. At State she received all of the responsibility and none of the authority (I posted this at the time.) Two guys got the power, they’re long gone and in the clear, she’s got the mess (as planned). Funny thing about spin, there are something that just won’t! What is coming her way she asked for.
Good News! We will punish those responsible! Beatings for EVERYONE! That seems to be your position as stated in, “. . . he (Petraeus) should be held culpable for something.” You detailed the position the CIA always finds itself. You failed to mention that there two (2) individuals in the administration that are authorized to issue orders to CIA personnel that the DCIA can not countermand. That would be the the President, and the DNSA! I think that when the dust settles, if it settles, one or both of the alternates did the deed. I think the CIA was ordered to STAND DOWN, Not just those in Benghazi! Petraeus is nobody’s fool you can bet he has it in writing. That is the smoking gun!
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness as an everflowing stream” Amos5:24
Will this be true this time? Or is obama innoculated by race, if not hubris?
The Enlightenment “Age of Reason” intellectuals have illustrated such folly due to their Hubris. While scientific and philosophical advancement was achieved, the folly was Rousseau’s vision of the “Noble Savage” in that man through reason could correct the flaws God apparently was not capable of achieving.
Obama and Hillary intervened freeing the Libyans from their dictator and were multi-cultural in their alleged understanding of Islamist. So like Rousseau’s “Noble Savage,” they took these 7th Century Barbarians and would shape them into “Brave New World” creations. Until they killed and sodomized our Ambassador.
Perhaps they need some genetic modifications or enhanced behavior modification.
“…For still largely unknown reasons, she or her staff ignored repeated, clear, and detailed prior warnings that the consulate and embassy were vulnerable…”
The reasons for Clinton’s inaction is plain. She enthusiastically endorses the Obama policy. From the childish and ludicrous reset button she presented the former Soviets to the coddling and even hiring of Islamists, Clinton was fully on board the Obama ship of fools.
So were the “Wise Men” at the State Department. These bunglers never met a president closer to their hearts.
Damn them all.
It’s the American people who diverse nemesis. Reelect Obama we will reap the world wind.
“The night’s fighting had not finished. A mile south of the consulate is a smaller walled compound used as accommodation for most of the dozen US staff posted to Benghazi. As the crowd surged into the consulate, one group of diplomats managed to bundle themselves into a white armoured jeep, forcing it out through the main gates, the landlords said. It tore down the highway towards the accommodation block, surviving an attack as it drove through the armed mob.”
Question that no one is asking and the diplomats who were in the jeep are not available to the press. Why not? Are they under protection somewhere? Have they been sequestered until after the election? We know about the four who died, what do we know about the ones who survived? What are their stories and why the silence?
Survivors know the truth, unfortunately, dead men tell no tales except for the forensic evidence found on their bodies. When will the survivors have their opportunity to speak out or will they be silenced by the media as so many have been through the media’s refusal to seek the truth?
It would be great if Fox would do a follow-up on this aspect since it is obvious the other networks will not.
Please, one and all, be educated: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions...
“Educated” at the Washington Post? Tell me, please, General Tso: shall I write to President You Didn’t Build That for tips on opening a business? Perhaps visit a prison cell block for rapists in search of dating advice?
In full seriousness: I’m reluctant to see much tragedy in the current occupant of the White House or his banishment from power. Drama? By the bushel basket, to be sure, but it’s dramatic in the way of small children’s temper tantrums or teen-aged urban gangsters’ displays of tribal loyalty and pique. Fatal character flaws? Sure, but the individuals strutting about on stage are beyond loathsome. The crucial flaw was millions of voters’ naivete in believing the junior senator from Illinois was any part of the “post-racial unifier” he and the presstitutes of the former main stream “news” media claimed. I’m sure it must take hubris to propose the three fundamental beliefs required of so-called “progressives:”
1.) Government is benign.
2.) America is sorely afflicted with terrible problems.
3.) Only government experts can solve these terrible problems.
but are stupid lies of enduring interest? Are the people who tell and believe and retell them worthy of anything grander than contempt?
…Petraeus also must have known when he selflessly took the job that he was descending from Olympus to assume control of a bureau…
No. I’m sorry, but high generals don’t “selflessly” accept well paid government jobs to advance their careers.
…in a larger sense, we know that principled people who go to work for this administration often do not end up well…
Yes, but “Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas” covers it, I think. If you hang out with pimps, the odds you’ll end up with a sexually transmitted disease soar, don’t they? Meanwhile, what damage has the nation suffered while these immeasurably self-important creatures scurry this way and that like rats we’re shocked to see in broad daylight?
Pardon my skepticism, please, Mr. Hanson. I’ve admittedly been trying to inure myself against the anticipated deluge of “news” paper exhortations on the “tragedy” of YDBT’s “unexpected” loss, the “tragic” persistence of racism even in this modern enlightened age, the “tragic” failure of the ill educated masses to appreciate his heroic message, his “tragic” failure to tell the “narrative” in terms simple enough for the denizens of fly-over country to understand, et cetera ad infinitum.
I’m not sure what Obama knows or believes.
What a psychologically healthy person “must have known” is one thing,
what penetrates through this guy’s lifelong psychological defenses is above my pay grade.
As doctrine drives an army, so with Progtards, so with Obama.
Foundational-Lie-Doctrine #1) The Narrative matters, reality does not… insofar as The Narrative propels self-dealing advantage to Narrative-Makers… while convincing the Narrative-Takers of Some Other Big Thing. Hence, cause and effect are suspended, conveniently so.
a) Why push guns on Mexican Drug Lords, without a whit of care that innocent Mexican and Americans shall be killed by Mexican Druggees using those guns? The Narrative that Assault Weapons must be banned in America… trumps cause and effect!
b) Why do nothing when America’s Ambassador and friends are being killed? The Narrative that a bad-boy videographer in America is responsible (a Narrative that hides a pre-election jittery President who wanted to avoid a Black Hawk Down/Carter-Failed-Desert-Rescue event at all costs, including — sorry ’bout that — the cost of four lives.) … you see Narrative trumps cause and effect!
c) Why listen to Rev. Wright for 20 years at Trinity Church in Chicago, unless the same Narrative-Making-Process is taught by a mystic tyrant cleric to a soon-to-become mystic tyrant politician? (i.e. Give-to-Get pushed to poor blacks to make black pastors rich… another great Narrative which denies cause and effect…)
d) Why make an Apology Tour, believing no 9-11′s will happen again, since cause and effect are believed suspended by The Narrative?
e) Why not Spike-the-Football, when it is such an appealing Narrative! It won’t rile Extreme Muslims, since cause and effect are always suspended by… wait for it…. THE NARRATIVE!
f) In THE NARRATIVE WE TRUST, since cause and effect are so easily suspended! And the masses are so easily duped! Because The Narrative says you can fool all the people that matter, anyway, all the time! And the Narrative always lets its promulgators self-deal! The Narrative let’s the self-dealers self-deal without EVER getting caught! The Narrative always defends its promulgators! The Narrative trusts in stupid Narrative-Takers, and the Narrative is sure there aren’t enough smart people to deconstruct The Narrative! The Narrative always wins, insofar as the Narrative runs the L.A. Times, the NY Times, public education, universities and TV. The Narrative proves one thing: It cannot be beat!
(Except by Goddess Nemesis, who seems to overmuch enjoy her beauty rest. Wake up, honey! You’ve got work to do!)
The final act might go as follows:
King Barack Obama goes stark raving mad when informed that he’s lost his throne. He starts issuing orders to save his kingdom, but no one is left in the palace to either hear him or carry out his decrees. Joe Biden enters the stage with scroll in hand. He reads solemnly: “Your advisers have met and the congress concurs, by the authority of the 25th Amendment, you are relieved from office.” King Barack dashes offstage where we hear his screams as Nemesis feeds on his flesh. The fool, Joe Biden, places himself on the throne to await the arrival of the true king. The irony is complete.
~ finis
If they ever want to work in government or in any of the Democrat fronts and non-profits again, they’ll never speak out. I’m confident that the admiral and general who’ve been relieved have been threatened with a kangaroo court martial and told if they’d like to keep their reputation, rank, and requirement, they’ll quietly fade away.
Even though many upper level merit system bureaucrats lean Democrat, they rightfully fear a Democrat administration. Democrats maintain hit lists of any in the government who’ve offended any Democrat constituency and they routinely eliminate people well down into the ranks. Merit system rules only apply to Republicans and a complaining or whistle-blowing employee of a Democrat Administration is either ignored by the media or slimed by the administration and dismissed as disgruntled. There is a reason the phrase “disgruntled former employee” occurs so often.
Bureaucrats also know that there will always be another Democrat administration and when they take over, you will be held to account for any and everything you did for a Republican Administration. Republican elected and appointed officials are usually so averse to controversy that they won’t help a whistle-blowing or complaining employee. Even if you have other skills, nobody who is doing business with government or who wants to do business with government will hire you, and pretty much every employer in a capital city falls into that category. Since so many of the upper-level jobs in government are only done by government and you are usually in your late-40s or early 50s by the time you’re in a position to know anything useful, you have to be willing to accept wearing that WalMart greeter’s vest if you resign to play kiss ‘n tell, accept the reduction in your retirement earnings, and spend some years usually in low-paying jobs until you can collect your retirement based on age rather than service; it is a damned high price!
The occupant of the White House who pledged to “slow the rise of the oceans,” is probably glad he didn’t get around to this task on his “to do” list. The ocean rose, Jersey got hammered, and he got a chance to look presidential on a quick tour before skedaddling off to raise money. Best of all, the press chased the Hurricane Sandy story like a bunch of 6 year olds chase a soccer ball thus pushing out into the future detailed reporting on Benghazi.
This occupant of the White House and his thugs need to go. Pray for this country.
Greetings:
As Professor Hanson mentioned both President Obama’s post-Benghazi trip to Las Vegas and Mark Bowden’s “Black Hawk Down”, allow me to add the following. In my recent re-reading of Mr. Bowden’s book, I came across this bit of tid. Immediately after the battle in Mogadishu, Somalia, President Clinton flew off to the West Coast to deliver a pair of what the author described as “political speeches”. It’s almost like they have some kind of playbook, no ???
So, Victor, what’s your secret? How do you stomach playing politics with a tragedy like this? Is it the old “ends justify the means” argument or do you have a new and better excuse for sinking to the lowest level of pandering to base instincts?
Inquiring minds want to know.
The key term in this narrative is “tragedy” – a clever substitution for a carefully planned, id indifferently executed, attack on our soil. This tells us everything we need to know about the author’s perspective.
The charge of “playing politics” is also delightful: apparently this is “not done” during an election in his world.
The best part of this is that he still thinks his remarks were incisive.
What a country! I can listen to the fever swamp imaginations of the lefties on Facebook going on and on about the essentially anti-gay, anti-woman, evil Romney, or listen to you folks giving your inimitable versions of Comrade Obama. How is it that in a country of 300 million people, we seem to have two of the most evil folks in the history of the country going up against each other? In the fevered imaginations of the left and right, prizes are awarded for the most creative portrayals of the rival candidate as a blend of the Anti-Christ, Joseph Stalin, and/or Jefferson Davis (or the village idiot.) Potomac fever killed one of Lincoln’s children and is cutting a swath through the tortured imaginings of both sides. Will the fever(s) break? It’s a little like capitulating to blackmail, but I think that Romney can deal with the desperately wounded left, better than Obama can deal with the desperately wounded right, and all the accompanying boring of holes in the skull to relieve the pressure on the damaged and still-swelling brains.
Does that mean you’ll be voting for Romney tomorrow Dwight? If so then I will concede a new appreciation for your finely nuanced grayscale views!
Yes, I will, and to the extent that I publicize said action, I will have to defend myself against charges of being in bed with folks that come out with some of the incredible (but not surprising to me, given my experience here) bluster of you and Eon, not to mention cfbleachers and Rachel. You would mock “sensitivity groups” on the left, but once you guys get “sharing” your wacky views, let’s say chorus for the sake of VDH, any rational person inches or leaps toward the center.
D-White came off the Pick It Fence But on Romney some time ago. Splinter Group…
But!!!! He will find a way vote for Biden for VP just to make himself appear as Humpty Dumpty once more, for that Mystical Center.
But!!!! Then again, it might be the Mr. President/Ryan ticket.
Good thing, for D-White anyway, that he was never the object of another, different, audience with King Solomon.
But Lather still finds it a nice thing to do,
To lie about nude in the sand,
Drawing pictures of mountains that look like bumps,
And thrashing the air with his hands.
God bless you Dwight. I knew you had it in you. You’ve restored my faith in mankind. Wacky we may be, but you’ll find us a more honest and welcoming bunch than the other side. We’ve had our share of disagreements these last few years, but I’m proud to call you friend.
Hmmmm, NOW I am very nervous. ;-)
Biden is not a “jester” — as in the classic medieval court jester.
That person had to be incredibly savvy, and had to keep his wits about him at every moment. To do less would have meant crossing the line between humor and the headsman’s axe.
Biden is not even a good parody.
Free Movie 2016, a must see.
http://vimeo.com/m/51569342
Dr. Hanson stated, “when the final act of the tragedy of Libya will be at last fully aired”.
I hope it is, but I fear it will not ever be fully aired, at least not in my lifetime. My adult kids ask me all the time how I could have possibly moved from liberalism to conservatism and my answer is always the same “reading of history”. But for history to matter and to have its proper impact, its must be reported — and read. I suspect that any objective reporting of the events of Benghazi will be delayed for decades.
I hope I’m wrong.
Conservatives (to the extent that the word actually has a meaning) are generally against new things, preferring the old, tried and true, values, so they are helpful against moving too fast in foolish directions, but to the extent that society progresses, conservatives can be painted as always having been against the new stuff, SOME of which turned out to be essential. What were the conservative (which does not mean Republican) positions on race and gender issues? The conservative position in the American Revolution was that we stay with Englad and the King.
You will not be surprised to hear that I disagree Dwight. Those who style themselves as conservative today are the one’s championing the free market, the greatest driver of technological, material and even social change there is!
Ironically it is the “progressives” who are trying to reverse the clock by fashioning a kind of static, neo-feudal economy. Conservatives revere the Constitution because we know that it is the one thing that keeps that progressive dream at bay
Dwight needs to read about conservatism. I find the allusions to Greek tragedy make a rather dull article interesting because they bring character flaws in to play. We fail to examine a man’s character in politics. Look at the Democratic side with Ted Kennedy murdering Maryjo Kopechne, Barney Frank screwing male interns (underage?) Diane Feinstein sitting on military appropriations committee voting for companies owned by husband, it goes on and I would include Republicans like Hastert. There is a hubris that we watch and then forgive with our politicians and we need to examine this habit. Any takers? To start can you forgive O for the murder of 4 Americans
Maybe you should read Michael Oakeshott. I read him 45 years ago. Either “conservative” means something, or it doesn’t. Both are possibilities, but if it does mean something, I go with Oakeshott. A sample: “To be conservative, then is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.–Michael Oakeshott”
Yes, yes, yes–all true. But WHERE can I get the FREE Obama Phone ?
I wonder if that black lady who was all excited last time around because he was going to pay her mortgage and put gas in her car still has her house and her car. And a job.
I am not surprised that so many in the Obama Administration are incompetent and lack honor. Perhaps the biggest disappointment in this scandal is David Petraeus. At minimum he seems to have misled Congress regarding the nature of the attack, peddling the video narrative shortly after September 11th.
I never understood why Petraeus didn’t resign or retire when Obama failed to support his troop level recommendations for the surge in Afghanistan. Surely he knew that the timeline for withdrawal and the administration’s lack of interest in victory was a recipe for disaster. Maybe Petraeus thought he could make more of a contribution inside the administration than outside of it. He may have had many legitimate reasons for staying. But I think when you must compromise your honor to serve, it is time to leave. That point was Benghazi.
I am reminded of the West Point honor code which was instilled in Petraeus when he was a cadet.
“A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”
At the very least, Petraeus is tolerating lying. At worst, he was a willing participant in a coverup.
Here are two worst case scenarios to ponder.
1) Obama is reelected (don’t laugh). He and his legal lackey, Eric Holder, succeed in obfuscating, misdirecting, delaying, claiming executive privilege, etc. fending off a spineless, vehemently denigrated Republican effort to investigate the “trumped up scandal” called Benghazi Gate. Holder will reluctantly assign a “special investigator” that he and Obama will have in their back pockets. The media will continue to spin and avoid all the evidence implicating Obama while pointing fingers where they’re directed to point, at the “racist, bigoted, conservative, conspiracy loons.” A few from the current administration, not particularly supportive or crucial to the Obama communist agenda, will be charged with egregious, treasonous crimes and dragged, with great public fanfare, through the Obama/Holder “justice” system and thrown for the piranhas in the press to feed on. Obama will have another four years to finish what he started while all are focused on Benghazi Gate. “Never let a tragedy go to waste.”
2) Benghazi Gate eventually catches up to Obama but not before he implements more of his destructive agenda. He’s impeached. Biden becomes the POTUS.
I’ll sleep a lot better if Romney/Ryan soundly, convincingly and unequivocally defeat “The One” and Biden, the buffoon who might make Obama look Washingtonian by comparison.
The tragic/heroic figure is not David Petraeus – far from it.
It is the four men who were killed – two who foresaw it, and two who tried to prevent it as it was unfolding.
Oh – and Carter Ham, who attempted from afar to intervene, but who was kneecapped even as he tried to act – and then muzzled (‘exiled’ in the literary tradition)
And the Greek chorus of those who speak out into the great silence of the MSM – and are, of course (in the tradition of the Greek Chorus) ignored.
The vacuum starts at the top. (headiness turns into empty headedness).
Why do the Democrats insist on pulling a vacuum on everything they touch, including everybody’s wallet and bank account?
They’re even sucking out the common sense of all their faithful followers.
Who are the fools? What does it take to illustrate what parasites these people are?
Show up for work, punch in, then go off to the golf links, or campaign stop for some good food.
Obama’s lackeys will march into the nearest volcano while holding the hands of their own children to demonstrate their allegiance to HIM.
Which high ranking, model white politician will enter the volcano for HIM this time?
Which high ranking, model white politician will fall on the sword Obama is holding out for them?
Could Patreus have been told he would be held responsible for any consequences of a failed attempt to intervene? Obama must have told them they were on their own; He would not back anyone up with reinforcements.
What a sorrowful, pathetic, failure for the first black representative in the history of U.S. Presidents.
Petraeus is a political hack who cares more about his career and pension than the people who serve under him. In that respect he encapsulates about 95% of all generals and admirals in the US military. Which is mostly comprised of hacks and third-raters. As opposed to the magnificent non-coms, and junior officers with vision, drive, and talent. Donkeys leading lions is the phrase.
What happened was simple. No one wants to hear it. Obama made a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood, put them into power in Egypt (and elsewhere) and they’ll crush AQ for him. The Chicago way: bribery, selective killing, and co-option. To this end he was smuggling arms from Libya to Turkey destined for the Free Syrian Forces. The Jihadis fighting Assad and Iran.
What Obama did not realize is that the Brotherhood, who infest his administration (Huma Abedin is not even the most prime example) are allies of Iran. They have a Molotov-Ribbentrop pact to overthrow the House of Saud, and pump up oil prices.
Yes this is all about oil. What did you think it was about?
Iran (maybe with Russian help) knew (through the Muslim Brotherhood, and possibly Turkey or elements within the Erdogan regime) knew that the meeting was taking place (weirdly the attack “waited” till the Turkish Ambassador was clear) and then staged the attack.
The Obama people (and Obama himself) refused help to protect his Muslim Brotherhood allies with whom he “had a deal.” He let the SEALs and Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith die to protect his deal. Simple as that. He lied to protect his deal. His deal is all he knows — he is a Chicago thug.
The strange thing about Libya is not so much who lied, but rather the question of whether anyone has yet told the whole truth.
Certainly nobody in the regime. They are of a culture that avoids truth-telling at nearly all costs, lest people come to expect it.
I wonder if they know themselves what the truth is, or whether even that has become impossible.
This is becoming a hallmark of the modern left, if indeed it has not been a hallmark of the left since forever, that it values a distance from reality.
I’m betting that President Obama was pulling all the strings in this tragedy of errors. I think he gave the orders to stand down and let our patriots die. He will throw everyone in his administration under the bus in order to protect himself. Unless Hillary and General Petraeus have the goods on Obama, they can forget about ending their careers with honor. He will never blame himself for losing the 2012 election and he can’t blame a hurricane over which he had no control, so he will have to blame someone in his administration and an opponent he claims is lying about everything. He showed his true character when he said that voting is revenge. That is his true agenda. Revenge for everything and anything for which he has ever thought he has been slighted. His motivation is his weakness.
THE TRAGEDY THAT IS BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA aka BARRY SOETORO aka BARRY SUBARKHA
There’s probably a doctoral thesis in waiting for how a woman (i.e. Stanley Ann Dunham) feels when named for a son that her father really wanted instead of her;
There’s also probably a doctoral thesis in waiting for how a woman, named for her non-existent brother, treats her own son;
There’s speculation that Barry might have a different father (Frank Marshall Davis) than he claimed in his ghost-written auto biography;
Barry may self-destruct at any time. However, if he wins the election, he’ll try to take the country down w/him.
– for a film. Oh, wait! 300 has already been made.
1. If Obama is re-elected, Libya will lead to his impeachment.
2. If it wasn’t for sovereign immunity and work comp, Hillary Clinton would be looking at four wrongful death lawsuits.
3. The Clintons are the two worst related American political figures of all time.
obama is a coward and a liar. Benghazi is the smoking gun, for the braindead who can’t see the obvious.
Nicely done V.D.H. As someone who has studied classical languages, history, and literature I loved your article.
Maybe one day you will do a companion piece “Themistocles in Tehran” to discuss the stalling tactics by the Iranians regarding their nuclear program. There does seem to be a resemblance in what Tehran is doing nowadays and the trick Themistocles played on the Spartans regarding the re-fortification of Athens. That trick eventually lead to a lot of mischief taking place in Greece. No doubt what Tehran is up to, if successful, could have equally mischievous results in our time.
The American people don’t care what happened in Libya or who was responsible. They care about free rubbers, abortion and the freebies of the robberment. They care, above all else, about being able to enforce ENVY on those they hate. The ultimate versionhe goes out with a bang, too. The mexicans in the US are full of envy and in my experience hate whites. Since appeasement is a fundamental cause of war, I expect a big one soon. America is dead. Now let the enviers destroy themselves and pray let Nemesis let loose Mars in all his glory and redden garb. May Mars wipe the slate clean.
Great piece Professor Hanson. I don’t share, however, any optimism in the MSM bringing the whole truth, and a corresponding analysis of the Administration’s motivations, to light, before the public,despite the passing of the election season. The media’s power to create scandals without the merest basis, against their political enemies, while concomitantly smoothing the most troubled waters for their own champions, makes me believe that some serious effort (at the congressional level) will be needed, with the help of possible whistle blowers, to incite the sort of indignation in the public mind, this story demands.
Ah – Good Doctor
Expectation that the MSM (your term) might alter their lyrics in any way with respect to the character being portrayed on stage does not fit your classic scholarship of the role of the “Chorus,” to fix the audience’s perceptions of the character.
The political and social “Greek Choruses” of our times are diminshing; in large measure because their lyrics do not match the actions on the stage.
Instead the sounds of a rabble are becoming louder and more pertinent to the performance.
Looks like we are in the middle of a modern Greek Tragedy, Obamapis Rex, hubris, character flaw, excess, nemesis. Trouble is, these things never have happy endings!
What bothers me about the Libyan affair is why US personnel under fire were not immediately provided with military aid. Only the president of the United States can authorize military action in foreign county with which we are not at war. There may have been some personnel in country that could have provided limited support without presidential authorization. Why didn’t they? However, to act, any other forces such as the Mediterranean fleet, or personal in Italy, would need direct authorization from the president, and the president only. The chain-of command would have realized this and the president would have been immediately informed. If he gave the ok, to do everything possible, then why was nothing done? Why hours later and many hours away were forces mobilizing from Fort Bragg? None of this rings true, and US personnel died. This is what’s being covered-up. The lies about terrorist or not, were the cover-up, not what is being covered-up. The ugly truth can only be discovered by asking the ugly question—Did the president deny aid and did that result in the American deaths?