by Diana West

Grief and politics don’t mix. When raw, aching grief and the dirtiest kind of politics meet, a hot volcano of pain and outrage erupts that is unstoppable. But it is necessary. It is the only way things might ever be clean again.

I am thinking of recent casket transfer ceremonies that have taken place at Dover Air Force Base, where senior administration officials have used the solemn occasions – Benghazi, the shoot-down of Extortion 17 – less to comfort grieving families than to lay blame, to establish a narrative, to lie.

Think of Sean Smith’s mother. Think of Tyrone Woods’ father. After the Obama administration’s hugs came the Obama administration’s stonewalling. They still don’t have answers about what happened in Benghazi on the night of Sept. 11, 2012. Continue reading →

by August Forecast

The Beng­hazi scandal is unques­tion­ably the lowest point of Amer­ican for­eign policy in the last 50 years. It sends a mes­sage to all for­eign ser­vice workers that their gov­ern­ment will no longer rescue them when expe­ri­encing hos­tile sit­u­a­tions; this flies in the face of his­tor­ical mil­i­tary coda where all avail­able resources are brought to bear to rescue and pro­tect the wounded, trapped or endan­gered. Fur­ther­more, it brands our gov­ern­ment as unre­li­able and untruthful.

Hence­forth, diplo­mats and sol­diers every­where should beware of the “Beng­hazi Bus“, which could run over them at any incon­ve­nient time. Get­ting Beng­hazied may even become a new verb in diplo­matic language.

Today’s live tes­ti­mony of the “Beng­hazi Whistle blowers” before the House Over­sight & Gov­ern­ment  Reform Com­mittee could pro­vide the tes­ti­mony that takes down the Obama Admin­is­tra­tion. Or not. The ques­tion is, will Con­gress have the guts to impeach the public offi­cials who were respon­sible for the dis­aster and the sub­se­quent coverup. This writer’s guess is that no one will be held account­able in the end. Continue reading →