Politicizing Benghazi

As readers of this humble blog know, a lot of things about the Benghazi disaster deeply trouble me.

One in particular stands out: The breaking of the bond between Americans sent to do dangerous things in dangerous places and the government that sent them. Lots of us have served in dangerous posts. Yes, of course, in the Foreign Service there is a band of officers whom I call the "Pierre Cardin crowd" because of their penchant for London, Paris, Rome, and Washington. Most of my friends in the Service, however, definitely belonged to the Cockroach-Terrorist-Iguana crowd. We wanted to go to the tough and rowdy posts. We went, however, with the knowledge that if the poop smacked the fan, our folks would come get us or at least make the effort. We had a very close bond with our military colleagues; we deeply respected their skill, capability, and courage. They, in turn, often thought we were nuts, but admired us for going to live in the places we did, and to work there with what struck them as minimal security. That bond was shattered in Benghazi by the National Command Authority; remember, even the hapless Jimmy Carter approved a far-fetched and dangerous rescue operation for the hostages in Teheran.

Our people were attacked and, as far as we know, neither the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, nor, most important, the President said, "Let's go get them!" Our people were left to die lingering, horrible, and degrading deaths at the hands of the Islamic jihadis for whom we had knocked off Queen of the Desert Moammar Gaddafi. Once the disaster became apparent, then the White House and its minions, with the connivance of the media, swung into action with a relentless campaign of lies, half-truths, distractions, and savaging of anybody who suggested things had not been handled well. There was an all-out effort to save Obama's re-election campaign, and it was so successful that the Republicans hesitated from making Benghazi an issue for fear of "politicizing" it. The "politicizing," of course, already had occurred.

For two years, the White House, the Democratic party, and the media have tried to ignore and bury Benghazi with epithets such as "phony scandal"; explanations that it was all caused by a "despicable" video seen by almost nobody; and charges that anybody who raised the issue was obviously some deranged Tea Partier, a racist, a fool, somebody who wanted to waste time on the past instead of "moving forward," or all of the above and many more. Now that the House finally has named a Committee, under the very estimable Trey Gowdy, the Democrats and their friends in the media are having a conniption.

The old canard of "politicizing" has been dug up; crazy Nancy Pelosi even has said that the families of the Benghazi victims do not want an investigation. Pelsoi also claimed that the Committee is unfair because it will not have the same number of Democrats as Republicans. That didn't seem to bother the party of the KKK, Jim Crow, and Alger Hiss when Congress named Democrat-majority committees to investigate Watergate and Iran-Contra.

Time to remind one and all when the politicizing took place and by whom. It wasn't now and it wasn't by the Republicans. The White House owns this disaster; yes, Mr. President, you did build that, and you did dishonor a bond of over 200 years between our military and diplomats--and that does make a difference.