The Tears of Benghazi
By Alan
Caruba
The
Hollywood version of heroes is that of large, muscular men who show no fear and
little emotion after a confrontation with the enemy. The images that come to
mind are Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwartzenegger, and Bruce Willis who,
while not a muscleman, has the swagger we associate with movie heroes.
On
Wednesday, on Capitol Hill, three men, Greg Hicks who was deputy chief of
mission in Libya, second in command to the assassinated Ambassador, Chris
Stevens; Eric Nordstrom, a diplomatic security officer who was formerly the
regional security officer in Libya; and Mark Thompson, a former Marine and an
official with the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau; sat at a table
and gave short statements followed by answers to the questions they were asked.
In real
life, heroes often look like someone in middle management. It was wrong—even demeaning—for
the media to call them “whistle blowers.” These men were patriots. Who else
would go to a war zone to represent their nation or to protect its highest
diplomat there?
At the hearing
they wore suits and ties. And, when called on to tell the truth, they sometimes
choked up from the mix of emotions that flowed through them from memories of
colleagues lost in combat and the awful realization that the nation for which
they put their lives on the line, the nation they served with honor, left them
defenseless to come to the aid of those colleagues.
Looming in
the room were the ghosts of the dead ambassador, two security personnel; Glen
Doherty and Tyrone Woods were both former Navy SEALS, contracted by the Central
Intelligence Agency, and Sean Smith, a ten-year veteran of the State Department
and on temporary assignment in Libya as an information officer for the embassy.
Smith, an Air Force veteran, left behind two young children.
The
testimony was emotional at times as the witnesses had to pause to regain their
composure. They were a sharp contrast to the former Secretary of State, Hillary
Clinton, who became annoyed by the questions she was asked at a hearing on
Benghazi. “What difference does it make?” she replied angrily to a question
from Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
“With
all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of
a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill
some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?” Clinton asked the
Republican Senator. “It is our job to figure out what happened and do
everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again.”
Did
she really believe it was just “because of guys out for a walk one night
decided to go kill Americans”? On the anniversary of 9/11? Did she and the
President really believe that the attack was because of a video? That is what
they told Americans in the wake of the attack. That is what our ambassador to
the UN, Susan Rice, was sent out to say on five Sunday morning news shows.
What
emerged from the hearings was the failure and the refusal of the State
Department, the CIA, and the Department of Defense to activate any of the resources they
had to send any forces to defend the consulate. Someone had to make a conscious
choice to do that. Someone had to tell those forces to “stand down.
As
Hicks said, “I am a career public servant. Until the aftermath of Benghazi, I
loved every day of my job.” As one watched, his quiet presentation was marked
with moments of emotion. He was the last man to speak by phone to Ambassador Stevens.
Thompson said he was rebuffed by the White House when he asked for specialized
team known as FEST—men trained specifically to response to an attack. Asked how
a team of Special Forces personnel were not given authorization to fly
from Tripoli to Benghazi responded, Hicks said “They were furious.”
Rep.
Darrell Issa, (R-CA) the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee, told Fox News, “The question is, where’s the accountability for
lying to the American people?”
That’s
what the President of the United States did. That’s what the former Secretary
of State did. And that’s why the White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney,
replied to a question about Benghazi dismissing it saying the attack had
happened “a long time ago.”
The
loss of the lives of four patriots and the testimony of their colleagues, still
mourning their loss, is sad, but how much sadder still is the fact that our
great nation is led and represented by such soulless people?
©
Alan Caruba, 2013
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