Heads Should Roll...

 

 

"What difference would it make?"

 

One of the reasons I miss having a Republican in the White House is watching the boldness of Congress. For example, if GW Bush was still president when the Benghazi mess happened, all hell would be breaking out. The articles for impeachment would have been drawn up, and calls for his Secretary of State to be fired or tried I n court would be deafening. It would have made Watergate look like a walk in the park. However, with our current President and the most popular woman in the world serving as Secretary of State, it seems as if most hands are wearing kid gloves.

 

Lets first review some facts. President Obama made it crystal clear from the get-go he wanted to be the "Anti-Bush". Whatever policies Bush had, Obama wanted the opposite. This was the most clear in the "War on Terror" and how radical Muslims were portrayed as "bad guys". The script for his presidency was going to be very simple - Bush waged illegal wars in the Middle East and aggravated the Muslims. Obama on the other hand, was going to show the world we understand, and are not "Crusaders".

 

The Arab Spring, which was endorsed by our Administration, was okay when Egypt first over threw Mubarak. However, the wheels started coming off in Libya. Not wanting to have boots on the ground, we sent arms to the rebels. In this crazy mixed-up world of the Middle East, it is hard to tell who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. So Qaddafi is overthrown, and a very loose knit, ad hoc government took over. All kinds of bad actors were involved - Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, and other minor players. As with Fast and Furious, we lost track of the weapons we supplied to people of questionable motives.

 

What happened in Benghazi really went off script. We sent our ambassador to a small, under protected consulate to do "something". Many think this "something" was to try and get our weapons back which had fallen into the wrong hands. Now we are way off script. First off, there were not suppose to be any bad guys in Libya anymore. We knew other consulates in Benghazi had been recently attacked by radicals, and we ignored it. After all, we were the good guys - everyone loved us now. We sent our ambassador, with minimal protection, into a hornet's nest. The bad outcome was almost predictable.

 

So what happened was a huge flub on the part of the Administration. The script had changed and we reacted poorly. It cost four brave Americans their lives. People should be fired for how this was handled. People should go to jail for not rescuing Americans who were begging for help. The Administration should be thrown out of office for a cover up which makes Watergate look like a Sunday School picnic.

 

What difference does it make Madam Secretary? It should make no difference if the administration is Republican or Democrat. However, in this case, it seems that it does.