Remember Benghazi?
January 16, 2019
I refer to a deplorable attack by members of the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Sharia on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya during which four U.S. citizens were killed. That atrocity occurred in September 2012, just over 6 years ago.
Today (January 16, 2019) — just a month after President Donald Trump declared that the Islamic State had been defeated and that he was pulling U.S. troops out of Syria — a suicide bombing in northern Syria attributed to the Islamic State killed at least 16 people, including two U.S. service members and two American civilians.
About four hours after this vicious attack by Islamic Militants – and after having been briefed on the bombing — Vice President Mike Pence told the world, “Thanks to the leadership of this commander in chief and the courage and sacrifice of our armed forces, we are now actually able to begin to hand off the fight against ISIS in Syria to our coalition partners. And we are bringing our troops home. The caliphate has crumbled, and ISIS has been defeated.”
Cold? Callous? Confused? Disconnected?
Even some senior Republican elected officials have pushed back on this mess, warning President Trump that his statements have served to encourage and inspire ‘the enemy we’re fighting.’
Back to Benghazi: At two years and four months, Trey Gowdy’s Benghazi investigation was longer than previous Congressional probes into 9/11; Watergate; the JFK assassination; and Pearl Harbor. Add to that time wasted: the $22 Million of public money spent in a clearly partisan attempt to “get” former Secretary Clinton, it must have been deeply disappointing to those who backed Gowdy when they read the final report which found no evidence of wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton.
Lessons Learned: Despite the temptation, let us be sure to tell our elected officials in Washington: Please don’t waste any scarce government resources investigating the direct impact of President Trump’s actions on the January 16, 2019 Islamic State fatal attack on innocent people in northern Syria.
Trump does what he is told, and there is no reason to investigate what we already know.
Congressional Inquisition of FBI agent Peter Strzok
July 12, 2018
Today, I watched and listened to a significant portion of the Congressional hearing involving FBI agent Peter Strzok.
I believe this Spanish Inquisition model was perfected by Rep. Trey Gowdy during his multi-year ‘Joseph McCarthy-inspired’ Benghazi investigation.
I also believe that the needs and rights of the American people are being completely ignored by members of Congress who follow this Model, seemingly fully deaf and blind to the needs and rights of the American people.
Trey Gowdy gained a national stage when he took charge of the Benghazi committee in the spring of 2014, prior to which there had already been seven (7) previous House and Senate investigations (plus an internal review by the State Department) into the conditions surrounding the terrible attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost by members of the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Sharia.
The Benghazi incident took place in September 2012 when attacks on the U.S. consulate in Libya resulted in the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and 3 other Americans.
Gowdy’s Select Committee on Benghazi consumed significant amounts of American resources, yet it yielded nothing that was not already known.
Today’s performances by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (backed up by Rep. Trey Gowdy) would be worthy of Tony Award nominations had they taken place within a Broadway show.
Although they were not performing on Broadway, they did help to inspire a vicious and highly partisan attack on Mr. Strzok, both professionally and personally.
I am an American citizen, property owner and voter who has become completely disillusioned by the increasingly malignant infestation of our legislative bodies by individuals who seem to be motivated by evil intent, and who further seem to be unwilling and unable to adhere to the commonly acknowledged rules of decorum.
This charade — publicly attacking Peter Strzok, a man who has an exemplary 20+ year history of service protecting and supporting the U.S. Constitution — is completely out of context.
If Strzok is a traitor or is guilty of some heinous crime, that should be determined behind the scenes, perhaps by a Grand Jury.
There is no excuse for a committee of the Congress to attempt to publicly eviscerate and excoriate a sworn federal agent who has proven his willingness and ability to protect the best interests of American citizens while upholding the U.S. Constitution.
Hillary is her own worst enemy
May 24, 2018
Hillary Clinton has consistently refused to use alternative facts to describe her own actions and behavior. She pays her bills. She has never gone bankrupt. She stayed with Bill despite some bumps in the road. She is the mother of an extraordinary emerging world leader.
Above all, Hillary does not dwell on the past. She learns from the past, and she offers productive solutions for the future.
And, she is a very smart, highly-educated, incredibly experienced and assertive female who represents the very essence of the threat described in Spencer Johnson’s book, “Who Moved My Cheese?”
Donald Trump built his reputation – and his empire — on his larger-than-life persona as the ‘Great White Leader’. He wants the world to see him as ‘a man’s man’ who will lead the loyal believers back to 1957 when America reached its apogee.
Donald wants the world to believe he is both clairvoyant and razor-focused on his vision of restoring the world to his vision of how it ought to be.
Yet, Trump’s sense of self-worth is continually at risk. When Trump feels imbalanced, he reacts impulsively and defensively, constructing a self-justifying story that doesn’t depend on facts and always directs the blame to others.
A consensus of psychiatrists and psychologists have determined that Trump’s mental instability and pattern of violence –bullying words, aggressive actions and denials of truth — are dangerous and have already caused unprecedented anxiety and stress across the nation.
Meanwhile, although Hillary is her own worst enemy, Trump is the greatest threat to the viable and productive future of the U.S. – and the entire world – that we have seen since the 1940’s.
The Lies We Believe About Iraq
July 2, 2014
Charles Lewis has had a long and distinguished career as an investigative reporter for a number of credible and main-stream print, broadcast, video and internet sources.
Charles Lewis’s book, 935 Lies will be released this week. In his book, Lewis provides some interesting and provocative commentary on why facts, logic and reason are often missing in the rush to war.
His book inspired me to think, “Come on, Rep. Darryl Issa and Rep. John Boehner: Let’s get the House Select Committee to investigate the real Root Causes of how and why the U.S. is embroiled in a religious war in the Middle East.”
We can pretend that the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi was the premier event of our 21st Century, and is singularly the responsibility of Hillary Clinton, with additional culpability on President Barack Obama.
Or, we might want to take a serious look at what occurred in Washington following the atrocities of September 11, 2001, and the incredible subterfuge which was created by President George W. Bush and his team which led to our military intervention into Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bush, Cheney and Company willfully brought the U.S. into religious wars in the Middle East which have been seething since 3,100 B.C.
No matter what we do as a nation, we will never be able to enable peace, harmony and tranquility in a region fraught with the residual effects of multiple centuries of social, religious and cultural nuances which defy explanation to those who are from outside.
Much like Marie Antoinette from 18th Century France, Bush and Cheney were ignorant, audacious and fully disconnected from the realities of the real world of everyday people when they foolishly launched their invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. They deliberately and willfully misled the Congress and the American people to create a real world replication of the 1998 movie “Wag the Dog”.
Now, some 13 years later, a majority of Republican elected officials in Congress are fixated on a variety of meaningless and inconsequential issues, i.e. “What else about Benghazi is the Obama administration still hiding from the American people?”
The American people really ought to be demanding that Congress get to work to ensure that our nation is fully prepared to prosper in the 21st Century. Something tells me that the events which led to the deaths of ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Libya are directly attributable to the actions which took place in 2001-2003 when the U.S. orchestrated the escalation of a Religious War in the Middle East.
So, why is it that House Republicans continue their assault on the Obama administration, when it seems to be perfectly clear that the real root cause of all of this mess in the Middle East traces directly back to bad choices and failures of the Bush/Cheney administration?
I’m thinking that a great deal of the problem is attributable to our failed public education system in the U.S. which seems to graduate young people who have never been exposed to critical thinking skills.
Boehner to appoint select Benghazi committee
May 4, 2014
What, another Congressional Witch Hunt?
Why not just send the elected officials home from D.C, then drag a huge bag of money out onto the National Mall, and burn it?
That solution would accomplish much more, and cost much less, than this current circus John Boehner wants to convene.
Please: let’s not forget that John Boehner is a Congressman who was elected in 1990 to represent an obscure rural district in SW Ohio, having taken the seat from an incumbent child molester….
There really is something wrong with a governance model that has allowed Boehner to subsequently acquire so much power over the people of the United States — despite the reality that his Congressional District – the 8th District in Ohio – is comprised of just 725,000 people, roughly 0.0023% of the U.S. population. And, this Congressional District looks nothing like the rest of the U.S.
It is 90% White, very blue collar, predominantly Republican, and quite conservative (not that there is anything wrong with that).
His district is not at all representative of the demographics of our citizenry, yet Mr. Boehner has somehow achieved the status of Chief Rocket Scientist (aka Speaker of the House), so he now has the power to pull the strings which may ultimately destroy our economy and take our country down.
We have a huge weakness in our governance model, and it is certainly not at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, as some ultra-conservative characters might like us to believe.
Cheney and Rumsfield: United Again!
May 16, 2013
Headline: Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former Vice President Dick Cheney call Benghazi a cover-up
‘If you’re going to put people at risk, you have to try to protect them,’ says Rumsfeld.
‘They lied,’ says Cheney.
This is solid stuff.
Cheney and Rumsfeld are world-class experts in lies, cover-ups and deception, so they must not be trifled with.
Although the investigations into the false claims around WMD (which led to to the war in Iraq and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan, and have cost some $3.7 Trillion and well in excess of 200,000 lives) have not yet started, it certainly makes sense to paralyze the U.S. government with multiple, continued and fruitless Benghazi investigations.
Thanks, Dick, for being you!
walrus51 