The
Congressional Benghazi Investigation made news this week because committee
chairman Trey Goudy released a report saying that while the committee is making
progress, it is still facing “obstacles” from the Obama administration.
This brought the usual chorus of defenders for Hillary the Inevitable to the
forefront. The defenders claim the terrorist attacks in Benghazi that killed
four Americans, including our ambassador to Libya, have nothing to do with Ms.
Clinton’s qualifications for the presidency. I strongly disagree.
I'm
sure everyone would want to serve under a commander who reacts to your requests
for beefed up security by cutting security. You also would like a commander who
sleeps through your call for support while the enemy is not only on the wire,
but inside the compound. I'm sure you really want a commander who instead of
taking responsibility for her bad decisions, lies about it in order to win an
election. But as Hillary the Inevitable said about the 4 dead Americans and her
contribution of negligence and malfeasance in office, "What difference, at
this point, does it make?" That attitude says it all when it comes to how
much she values their sacrifice and how much she will value our military if she
wins election.
The Secretary of
State is in charge of the State Department. Hillary the Inevitable had the
responsibility to know about the security situation in Libya, since it was
arguably the most dangerous US diplomatic post in the world. When the Secretary
of State uses the excuse that she did not personally know about the security
cuts in Libya, she admits dereliction of duty.
Politifact's
posting that she’s blameless because she didn’t personally know what was going
on in Libya fails the Bush test. If someone named Bush stated that he was not
responsible for some disaster, like lack of aid to the New Orleans victims of
Hurricane Katrina, because he didn't know about it, how would Liberals feel
about his excuse? Would Politifact or any other outlet of the Pravda Press rate
charges that Bush was responsible as Mostly False? I really don't think so.
Politifact and liberals in general are both giving Hillary the Inevitable a
pass because she's destined to be the Democrat's standard bearer in 2016.
Liberals are setting a higher burden of proof than they would for any
Republican.
The other
argument is that Republicans cut the State Department security budget and the
budget cuts made Benghazi vulnerable to attack. The budget cuts are
irrelevant. The allocation of State Department security personnel did not
reflect the relative risk of the posts. I will believe that the budget cuts in
the Diplomatic Security Service had an effect on the Benghazi attack when you
prove to me that the State Department had more security agents in Benghazi,
Libya, than they did in Paris, France. There were 5 agents in Benghazi. If I
remember the 2012 coverage correctly, there were over 100 in Paris at the time.
Unless you are going to argue that Paris was more at risk than Tripoli or
Benghazi, this was criminal negligence.
The 16 member Army Special Forces team assigned to protect State Department personnel in Libya plus a six-member State Department elite force called a Mobile Security Deployment team left Libya in August, 2012. This was about a month before the attack. The embassy in Tripoli, Libya, asked repeatedly to retain them, but their requests were denied. Here's the link:
Libya Security
Cuts:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/article24738427.html
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/may/19/ron-johnson/hillary-clintons-state-department-reduced-security/
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/may/19/ron-johnson/hillary-clintons-state-department-reduced-security/
Politifact on
Clinton’s direct knowledge of Libya:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2014/may/16/fact-checking-benghazi-our-most-recent-round-/
Original
article:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trey-gowdy-obama-administration-obstructing-benghazi-probe/article/2564329bama-administration-obstructing-benghazi-probe/article/2564329