There is an old story of a king who had an indiscretion that could have caused him tremendous political damage. He had an affair with the wife of one of his top military commanders. To make matters worse, while the general was deployed his wife got pregnant by the king. Now these were the days before Planned Parenthood was funded by the US Government. The resulting scandal would have been disastrous.
The king’s solution was simple and almost elegant. Before the woman’s pregnancy could be known publicly he called the general off the battlefield to consult with him. His hope was that the general would take advantage of the home leave to enjoy some connubial bliss; but the general disappointed the king. Because his men were afield and unable to enjoy their wives, the loyal general would not allow himself to enjoy his own. Rather, he slept at the palace.
Frustrated, and fearing his own political future the king sent the general back to war and sent secret orders to the general’s peers. The king’s instructions were clear: Engage the army in heated battle and then, at a secret signal, pull all forces back – leaving the general to fight the enemy alone. The king’s hopes of a quick end to the general’s life were soon realized. With the general out of the way, the king was free to marry the grieving widow – his paramour – and the birth of a child from that relationship would not be too closely scrutinized.
The plan worked. But history being history, the truth came out. For the king the truth came out earlier than he’d hoped, and he was disgraced.
So what does that old story have to do with today?
President Barack Hussein Obama began celebrating the end of the terrorist threat to America on the day he gave approval to kill Osama bin Laden. Since 1 May 2011 the president’s narrative has been that terrorism is dead and America’s relations with Muslim nations are on the mend. In February and March of 2012 the president took advantage of the apparently democratic shift in the Middle East and North Aftrica and touted the revolutions that took place as further evidence of his success in thwarting extremism and securing Americans. He went so far as to insert US military forces into the Libyan revolution, believing that he was making friends.
This story was the one story President Obama’s administration could point to and credibly say they’d accomplished something worthwhile in their first 4 years. It was thin, but it was all they had.
Then, in the summer of 2012, reports of increased terrorist threats to our assets in Libya began to come in. Accompanying those requests were urgent pleas for additional security support – specifically for the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Sending support would have been tantamount to admitting to the nation and the world that the sole success of his administration was really marginally successful at best. It would have been fodder that Fox News and conservative-leaning talk shows would have spun and re-spun through the election – putting President Obama’s reelection in jeopardy.
So the very conscious decision was made to ignore the requests and continue the charade of improving relations. So intent was the president on the farce that he even chose to ignore warnings from the fledgling Libyan government in late August and early September.
The mistress was pregnant.
If he could just squeak through the election in November, however, President Obama could then afford to acknowledge the rising threat. Perhaps he even thought of sending those security assets then.
But as fate would have it, the loyal general would not sleep with his wife.
The rabid purveyors of fear and death known to the world by many names, but in truth called only Islamic terrorists, would not wait until the election. They attacked Ambassador Chris Stevens and his security detail at the US consulate in Benghazi.
As US Air Force drones circled overhead beaming television images of the raging firefight to State Department and White House situation rooms, US military assets sat idle only hours away. For seven hours four Americans fought desperately for their lives, keeping faith with each other and with the country they hoped would not abandon them.
The king ordered his general to be abandoned on the field and forbade anyone to aid him in his distress.
Barack Hussein Obama’s hope was that he could avoid having to answer questions about the tragedy until the November election was past. In the short term, the president sought to mask the attack with a story of offense, outrage and protests gone wild. Finding something patently offensive to Muslims on the internet - not a particularly difficult task - would create just the smoke screen. And fabricating a plausible story of riotous protests would be easy enough. Just send that line to the news people and sit back under cover of an "ongoing investigation" if pressed by Jake Tapper.
And then, secretly, he hoped that the event would have faded from the national consciousness – replaced by thoughts of who would become the next American Idol or what would be the outcome of the next NFL game.
Bread and circuses…. Bread and circuses….
While lecturing Governor Romney about these things called “aircraft carriers” – big boats you can land planes on – and the obsolescence of horses in modern warfare, the president would have done well to remember that thing called the “IN-ter-NET” that doesn’t forget anything. The president and his minions needed not only to control the three major networks and CNN while marginalizing anything coming from Fox News, but to control the voices of literally MILLIONS of individuals who have refused for more than a decade to be controlled or silenced.
And so, as with the ancient king, the truth has come out earlier than the president had hoped.
In 12 days we must use the power of the ballot box to remove this president who has consented to the death of Americans loyal to the country – and ironically loyal to him – in the interest of maintaining his own political power and station.
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