Michael Ingmire: Benghazi, Nine Years and Nine Points
It is a daunting consideration when we chart the journeys of our lives. Everyone has stories to tell. We all have tales of triumph. We also all learn from our own personal tales of tragedy. Those are our hard won lessons. Ultimately, it is how we handle and digest our experiences that help determine the content of our character.
My life changed dramatically after the death of our nephew Sean Smith in the September 2012 Benghazi attacks. Before September 11, 2012, music was my primary focus, as a performer and as a writer. While music is still the balm that soothes my soul, my frame of reference has broadened. My eyes were opened in 2012 and they have yet to close.
When you consider some of the many scandals that festered under the Obama-Biden Administration, Fast And Furious, Extortion-17, Benghazi, the trading of Five Taliban Leaders for an American deserter and traitor, among others, it reads more like the accomplishments of a crime family. The supervised release of the Five Taliban leaders has obviously expired as we now see one of the five rules over of the Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan currently.
After nine years, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot expect any accountability from any member of the Obama Administration. Whether that accountability is regarding Benghazi or any of the many scandals that plagued that questionable administration. I am not surprised. The soulless rarely express sincere remorse.
Barack Hussein Obama currently claims to be part of a “sophisticated vaccinated” crowd. I see nothing sophisticated about his persona. His behavior and policies during his eight years in office and his behavior after leaving office, demonstrate what a morally bankrupt individual he truly is.
After the Obama/Biden administration abandoned my nephew and other Americans in Benghazi in 2012 my faith in God has increased as my faith in our government and politicians has been diminished. I absolutely have no belief in the United States government, whatsoever, with good reason. When I consider the foreign policy of the Obama, and the current Biden Administration, it reads like a sequel to the title of a favorite book of mine. The book is by John Kennedy Toole: “A Confederacy of Dunces.” With apologies to Toole, what we are experiencing is the “Dance of the Dunces,” with Obama leading Biden on the policy dance floor.
Make no mistake, for all of his vaunted intelligence, Obama’s foreign policy has been full of boneheaded moves. You can lay even money that Joe Biden was right in there with him. Biden, that bobble headed yes man, on the wrong side of any right issue, at any turn. Historically, Joe operates without common sense or any real morals in any policy decision he has made or been told to make.
In consideration of the ninth anniversary of the Benghazi attacks, let us examine the following nine points.
One: I do not believe, nine years after Benghazi, that our Diplomatic Outposts or Consulates are any safer. Can anyone really believe that there is any proper risk assessment in our Government’s placement of diplomatic personnel in hostile countries? There was no risk assessment when determining the safety of placing personnel in Benghazi. Nor were any of the requests for additional security implemented by Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
Nine years later, we are attempting to rescue American Citizens in Kabul, Afghanistan. As the Obama Administration destabilized Libya, along with other countries in the North African region, we need to note that they also ignored the cries for freedom & equality from the women of Iran. As Obama made deals with the Mullahs, so now follows Joe. Biden has destabilized Afghanistan and increased the terrorist stock and trade of the Taliban. Biden did what Obama did to create a refugee crisis and the migration of hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants to America and other Christian countries. This is intentional. If we had a righteous Congress, Joe Biden would be impeached unanimously.
Our cowardly exit from Afghanistan is an insult to Gold Star Families everywhere. Biden is merely a Commander and Thief in practice. He is vastly incompetent in his foreign policy. Additionally, in regards to Afghanistan, I hold Presidents Bush and and Obama equally responsible. (Birds of a feather. No wonder the Obamas and the Bushes socialize.)
The Taliban respected President Trump and knew the consequences if they failed to keep their end of the bargain. The Taliban are no doubt laughing at the current administration of incompetent clowns.
Biden’s foreign policy is to do everything the opposite of President Trump. Biden’s policy is peace through publicist, force through frailty. He believes his own press as he bumbles and wanders through a presidency. A typically foolish move from a consistently foolish man. Joe Biden, a decades long Master of Mediocrity.
Where was Joe when Afghanistan was falling? He was on vacation. To paraphrase the late Blues Singer, Mose Allison, Biden’s mind has always been on vacation and his mouth has worked overtime. Even more pertinent to this article, Biden was a direct part of the crime and cover-up that was Benghazi as I wrote about, in detail, in last year’s Biden, Benghazi and 2020.
Two: Hillary Clinton is not in jail, but remains quite diminished. Despite Donald Trump’s quips during the 2016 debates, Hillary Clinton still remains out of jail. For that matter, none of the criminals of the Obama Administration have experienced any recriminations for their actions. Since the 2016 Election, Hillary Clinton is exiting public life like a reverse Dorian Gray. The wages of her sins are referenced in her ravaged visage. An odd justice, but one that I will accept in the process of this life.
Three: Federal agencies, like the FBI, have become more and more weaponized against the American people. Hillary Clinton was given a pass by FBI Director, James Comey for countless violations of the Federal Records Keeping Act. Many of her emails referenced the Benghazi attacks. It is time for Presidents and public officials, like Mrs Clinton and former President Obama, among others, to face the consequences of their crimes. In 2021 America, private citizens are being harassed by the FBI. It is only going to get worse if we allow it.
Four: A video still did not murder my nephew. Nine years ago, a video by filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was blamed as being the impetus for the 2012 protests in Egypt and Libya. It had nothing to do with the crimes that were Benghazi. It was the foreign policies of the Obama Administration that was the true crime. The Obama Administration unconstitutionally jailed Nakoula and, in effect, ruined his life.
Five: The Obama Administration never got back with the Benghazi victims’ family members for updates on the Benghazi investigation. Like a three-piece nightmare, Panetta, Hillary and Obama promised family members, like Pat Smith, that they would keep them abreast of the investigation. They didn’t and they lied. There is no veracity in the word of Barack Obama or his administration.
Six: President Obama never responded to my inquiries about Benghazi. Piggybacking off of five, I personally never heard one whit from the Obama Administration, per my emails or phone calls, regarding Benghazi. In December 2020, I received a personal letter from President Trump expressing his regrets about Benghazi and that “Benghazi should never have happened.” Actions speak louder than words, thank you President Trump. Obama remains the dilettante President while puppet Joe pretends he is calling the shots.
Seven: Benghazi has had some accountability attached to it. Unlike Fast and Furious and the Extortion-17 terrorist attacks, there have been two convictions and several alleged deaths-by drone of some of the Benghazi terrorists. However, the flimsy sentences handed down by Obama appointed Judge, Christopher “Casey” Cooper, are an insult to the four Benghazi murder victims and their families.
Eight: Since May 2017 a bill seeking to honor the four Benghazi victims with a Congressional Gold Medal remains unfulfilled. In May 2017, Congressman Stephen Lynch (D-MA-8th) sponsored a bill, H.R 2315, to posthumously honor the four heroes of Benghazi with a Congressional Gold Medal. Since May 2017, the bill has been passed back and forth between the House and the Senate under various numbers.
Surprisingly, during the 115th Congress, on December 12, 2018, the bill actually passed the House with a unanimous voice vote, only to stall in the Senate. Now in the 117th Congress, the bill is in the House as H.R. 310 and in the Senate as S. 1408. I wrote about this previously in the December 28, 2018 PolitiChicks article, Congressional Gold For Benghazi Ghosts and in the January 22, 2021 PolitiChicks article, A Failure to Honor Heroes. I remain hopeful that the more than appropriate medal will be awarded.
Nine: My nephew Sean Smith supported an administration that abandoned him. Sean Smith and I were not personally close. We were exact opposites on the political spectrum. In fact, he loved President Obama. Yet, family is family, whether by blood or marriage. Politics has nothing to do with Justice. Being a political writer or pundit was not my life ambition, but here I am. We all do what we have to do. As citizens, we should never be afraid to confront our so-called public servants
In retrospect, despite the various committees and reports, the best report was the 75-page report by the Citizens Commission on Benghazi entitled Betrayal in Benghazi: A Dereliction of Duty. This report was written by some of the best minds of America like Clare Lopez, among others, and explains the before, during, and aftermath of the Benghazi attack in succinct detail.
Nine years later and here we are facing chaos in Afghanistan due to the vast mistakes of a former(?) member of the Obama Administration. Sound familiar? As the Benghazi attacks could have been militarily avoided, avoided via appropriate security and planning, so could our current troubles have been prevented in Afghanistan.
Nine years later, the American Islamic jingoism of Barack Obama raises its ugly head in Afghanistan via the wooden man, Joe Biden. Refugees are going to be pouring into our country. We need to address this as citizens. Do not accept this travesty.
The American Media remains silent in truly addressing the fall of Afghanistan as does Congress. Just like they mostly did when Benghazi burned. The fall of Afghanistan will be far worse than what happened in North Africa in 2012; that is a given. It is the responsibility of all American citizens to not accept our current chaos. Our government has not learned any tangible lessons since Benghazi. We continue to make the same mistakes.
