I have questions
So should you
Do you recall all that was going on in the election year of 2020? Were you aware that on January 5th, before we heard of covid, that three Americans performing military duty were killed in Kenya in a terror attack by al-Shabab? Yes, the Al Qaeda affiliated terror group, the Shabab. Fought their way onto the military base that contained Navy Seals and Marines Special Ops, training Kenyan soldiers.
And what about the October 24, 2017 terror group attack that killed four American Special Forces in Niger, nine months after President Trump’s inauguration? Surely that one caught your attention, didn’t it? Members of Congress weren’t even aware we had 800 Special Forces members in Niger till that occurred. Lax security and bad decisions by nearby commanders caused that one.
There have been other deaths, as well. All of them properly documented by the major media outlet, the NY Times, and others.
On September 11, 2012 (the eleventh anniversary of the 9-11 attack) another attack was made on a temporary US diplomatic post in Libya and 4 Americans died there, too. I’m sure you heard about this one.
Via Wikipedia:
The desire of the State Department to maintain a low profile in Benghazi has been cited as the reason why the State Department circumvented their own Overseas Security Policy Board (OSPB) standards for diplomatic security.[65]: 74–75 In the aftermath, Clinton sought to take responsibility for the security lapses at Benghazi and expressed personal regret.[66] In her January 2013 testimony before Congress, Secretary Clinton claimed security decisions at the Benghazi compound had been made by others, stating, "The specific security requests pertaining to Benghazi ... were handled by the security professionals in the [State] Department. I didn't see those requests, I didn't approve them, I didn't deny them."[67]
The Benghazi attack began around 9:40 pm. Within 1/2 hr, an Annex Security team had arrived at the Embassy compound trying to fend off the attackers. They found one man unconscious who subsequently died and could not locate the Ambassador in the burning building.
It took 50 minutes from the launch of the attack before Defense Secretary Panetta was informed. 40 minutes later Panetta had a recon drone flying overhead the site (or 90 minutes after the attack was launched). Secretary of State Clinton called the CIA Director around that time to coordinate the defense (using the .
40 minutes after that the Annex Security team was back at its annex building, a little more than a mile away. About 15 minutes later, their annex building was attacked, just after midnight. They held off the attackers till dawn.
In the meantime, Libyan troops had finally located the Ambassador in a smoke-filled room. He was alive and unconscious (approx 2-1/2 hours after the first attack) . After 90 minutes of CPR, he was declared dead of asphyxiation from smoke inhalation that began when the attackers lit the safe room he had gone to. That was the second death.
Between 5 and 6 am after holding off the attackers at the annex for more than 5 hours, two more Americans were killed, more than 7-1/2 hours after the first assault.
Subsequently, more than 10 investigations occurred, one by the FBI, one by an independent board appointed by the State Department, 6 by Republican-led House committees, 2 by Democratic-led Senate committees. The State Department one ordered by Secretary Clinton offered 29 recommendations in its December 2012 final report to improve operations at the site, which Clinton implemented.
The 6th House investigation was begun 2 years later (2014) and dragged on till the middle of 2016, shortly before the party presidential conventions. It criticized the speed of the response by the State and Defense Departments but joined the other 9 investigations in determining no wrongdoing was done by any senior Obama officials.
One State Dept official resigned and 3 others were suspended for denying prior requests for additional security at the diplomatic post.
So the Benghazi attack had an impact on both the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections because it was politicized. Four people died over an 8 hour period.
Terror attacks on Americans have occurred during every presidential administration from Carter to Biden. The fewest number of dead Americans occurred during the Obama administration.
So what’s the point in rehashing that Benghazi attack now? Well, just 4 days ago, the Pentagon issued its report on the Kenya attack that occurred 14 months ago.
WASHINGTON — A series of security lapses and an “inadequate focus” on threats on the ground helped lead to a deadly assault on a sprawling military base in Kenya in 2020 that killed three Americans, a Pentagon investigation has concluded.
The inquiry, led by the United States Africa Command, also found what the head of the command described as “shortcomings” in the sharing of intelligence and deficiencies in the preparation of security forces charged with guarding the base.
“We were not as prepared at Manda Bay as we needed to be,” Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the commander of Africa Command, said in a video presentation of the findings at the Pentagon on Thursday.
The report found that “certain senior officers contributed to the inadequate force protection posture at Manda Bay, and allowed a climate of complacency and poor understanding of the threat.” Eight officers and enlisted personnel were disciplined for their actions or their failure to act, the Air Force said. But a spokeswoman for the service declined to describe the punishments or the fate of those personnel.
And note what the article also said:
Africa Command conducted an initial investigation shortly after the attack, but the results were bottled up in the Pentagon in the final months of the Trump administration and were never approved or made public.
Oh no! Imagine that! Secretary Clinton appointed an independent committee that issued a final report three months after the Benghazi attack. A month before that report was issued, voters re-elected Obama over Romney. One person resigned and 3 were suspended, basically for not providing enough pre-attack security.
But the Kenya attack investigation was “bottled up in the Pentagon” through the 2020 eletion by the Trump administration. And “Eight officers and enlisted personnel were disciplined for their actions or their failure to act” by the time this investigation was completed. Twice as many people disciplined in Kenya because of security lapses as occurred in the Benghazi, Libya attack.
The GOP dragged out its investigations for four years through two presidential elections. Defense Secretary Austin, appointed by Biden, finished his investigation in just over one year. It was started after the 2020 election because Trump had the Pentagon report blocked.
And most of the country wasn’t focused on it because of the falsified claims and wild goose chase done about a stolen election that wasn’t. From Trump, all we got was an insurrection effort that resulted in more fatalities and more people wounded.
Lies, coverups, an insurrection, more fatalities, more wounded, and more military people screwed up than we saw in Benghazi. We, the people, are supposed to control our elected government, but we only get to when we have a Democrat in the White House.
Foreign policy mistakes are made in every presidential administration. But the facts no longer are provided with Republicans in the White House. Nixon covered up and it resulted in his resignation. Reagan, two Bushes and Trump have covered up and lied without being held accountable.
And that’s when we, the people, lose control, lose track of reality and currently are at risk of losing our democracy.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson defines key moments in US history when our democracy was in peril before. Changes were made that saved the country from those who believed a small group of powerful people should overrule the will of our citizens. And she concludes we’re now at another of these ‘inflection points’.
It’s a must read. Especially if you don’t want to be ruled by a corrupt tyrant and the corrupt few who heavily fund the tyrant.
Her conclusion:
Now, once again, we are at an inflection point. The rise of global oligarchs and the internet, which enables those oligarchs to spread disinformation, has made significant numbers of American voters once again slide away from democracy to embrace the idea that the country would work better with a few leaders making the rules for the rest of us. In nineteen states, Republican-dominated legislatures have passed laws that restrict the vote and entrench minority rule, even up to allowing state legislatures to overturn election results. If that is permitted to stand, that minority can choose our president, and it is increasingly backing one single man, one individual, to rule over the rest of us.
If history is any guide, we are at the point when voters of all parties must push back, to say that we do, in fact, believe in the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence, that all people are created equal, and that our government is legitimate only if we have a say in it.
My words: have your say or let the USA democracy die.
And then the Trumps, the Putins, the Jinpings, the Modis, the Bolsonaros, the Jong-uns, and the oligarchs they rode in on can run everything.
I support broader governments fairly elected by the majority of their citizens. Like the one fighting to survive in Ukraine.
(Garden Kind is my graphic signature)