OPINION:
Ultimately, Benghazi is the greatest and most deadly of all the scandals that have battered this nation’s government this past year. It is by far the most despicable incident.
Highest-level officials of the American government, including President Obama, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and then-Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, with intentionally cold malice, refused to protect fellow Americans serving this country on foreign soil in Benghazi, Libya. The reason for this malicious, calculating decision is even more outrageous, if popular reports are accurate: to advance the political reputation of Mr. Obama. Essentially, the president had claimed that Islamic terrorists were no longer a threat to America, because of the elimination of Osama bin Laden and the killing of a number of senior-ranking al Qaeda leaders. Mr. Obama had actually publicly stated that al Qaeda was “on the run.” He basked in the glory of this claim and unabashedly took credit for the results.
As current events now bear witness, with the closing of U.S. embassies across the Middle East resulting from a highly credible threat from al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, this was a misleading and false claim by Mr. Obama.
Nonetheless, Mr. Obama widely publicized this false report. He seems to have actually believed that this illusion would be an important factor in getting him re-elected in November 2012. The timing of the Benghazi attack and massacre on Sept. 11, 2012, could not have come at a more embarrassing time for him.
Apparently, it was important enough to neglect Americans, who were ultimately killed by the very kind of Islamic terrorists Mr. Obama had boasted to all Americans no longer existed. However, to further accentuate the gross neglect underlying this matter, the State Department (and in fact Mrs. Clinton herself) had received prior written warnings in the weeks before. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens had requested additional security — but was denied by the State Department.
These cowardly acts and cover-ups leave these top-ranking government officials with nowhere now to hide. It is up to every one of us to remember what happened in Benghazi and to hold these three accountable for this unforgivable atrocity.
BOB JACK
North Las Vegas, Nev.
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