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The Obama Watch
Libya and Lies
What has this president not deceived us about?
It was a little much when President Barack Obama said that he was “offended” by the suggestion that his administration would try to deceive the public about what happened in Benghazi. What has this man not deceived the public about?
Remember his pledge to cut the deficit in half in his first term in office? This was followed by the first trillion dollar deficit ever, under any President of the United States — followed by trillion dollar deficits in every year of the Obama administration.
Remember his pledge to have a “transparent” government that would post its legislative proposals on the Internet several days before Congress was to vote on them, so that everybody would know what was happening? This was followed by an Obamacare bill so huge and passed so fast that even members of Congress did not have time to read it.
Remember his claims that previous administrations had arrogantly interfered in the internal affairs of other nations — and then his demands that Israel stop building settlements and give away land outside its 1967 borders, as a precondition to peace talks with the Palestinians, on whom there were no preconditions?
As for what happened in Libya, the Obama administration says that there is an “investigation” under way. An “on-going investigation” sounds so much better than “stonewalling” to get past election day. But you can bet the rent money that this “investigation” will not be completed before election day. And whatever the investigation says after the election will be irrelevant.
The events unfolding in Benghazi on the tragic night of September 11th were being relayed to the State Department as the attacks were going on, “in real time,” as they say. So the idea that the Obama administration now has to carry out a time-consuming “investigation” to find out what those events were, when the information was immediately available at the time, is a little much.
The full story of what happened in Libya, down to the last detail, may never be known. But, as someone once said, you don’t need to eat a whole egg to know that it is rotten. And you don’t need to know every detail of the events before, during and after the attacks to know that the story put out by the Obama administration was a fraud.
The administration’s initial story that what happened in Benghazi began as a protest against an anti-Islamic video in America was a very convenient theory. The most obvious alternative explanation would have been devastating to Barack Obama’s much heralded attempts to mollify and pacify Islamic nations in the Middle East.
To have helped overthrow pro-Western governments in Egypt and Libya, only to bring anti-Western Islamic extremists to power would have been revealed as a foreign policy disaster of the first magnitude. To have been celebrating President Obama’s supposedly heroic role in the killing of Osama bin Laden, with the implication that Al Qaeda was crippled, would have been revealed as a farce.
Osama bin Laden was by no means the first man to plan a surprise attack on America and later be killed. Japan’s Admiral Yamamoto planned the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II, and he was later tracked down and shot down in a plane that was carrying him.
Nobody tried to depict President Franklin D. Roosevelt as some kind of hero for having simply authorized the killing of Yamamoto. In that case, the only hero who was publicized was the man who shot down the plane that Yamamoto was in.
Yet the killing of Osama bin Laden has been depicted as some kind of act of courage by President Obama. After bin Laden was located, why would any President not give the go-ahead to get him?
That took no courage at all. It would have been far more dangerous politically for Obama not to have given the go-ahead. Moreover, Obama hedged his bets by authorizing the admiral in charge of the operation to proceed only under various conditions.
This meant that success would be credited to Obama and failure could be blamed on the admiral — who would join George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton and other scapegoats for Obama’s failures.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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drudge ette obama| 10.23.12 @ 6:15AM
Someone should tell Obama that killing Osama with a machete while on a horse would have been something then again.
Obama is definetely a "drone man" - he would never hold a machete and, if he did, he'd ask where the kiwi fruit was that needed to be sliced.
Obama lectured Romney last night about the value of killing a figurehead like Osama Bin Laden - then he would ramble about, finally coming to some point where he stopped, exhausted by his own rhetoric. Romeny won by taking the leader's road. Obama seemed juvenile at times.
I throught that getting rid of Saddam was a better kill than Osama. Did anyone notice that the moderator called Osama bin Laden "Obama" then quickly corrected himself?
Von Mises Jr| 10.23.12 @ 8:41AM
Ted Kennedy also called him Osama Obama. Perhaps they are on to something?
Barry is a metrosexual and would leave all the fighting to manly men, like the two thugs that beat the crap out of the WI State Senators son: http://www.nbc15.com/home/head.....07881.html
Barry wouldn't have the nerve to bitch slap someone unless he had the power of the government or SEIU thugs to defend him.
All liberals are cowards that can't even stand up to political correctness. That is why they employ thugs and police power to do their bidding.
Cobalt| 10.23.12 @ 8:57AM
Barry should carry a man purse embossed with the Presidential Seal.
JimH| 10.23.12 @ 12:43PM
Is that another name for it? I think Michelle is carrying them.
SUBVET| 10.23.12 @ 10:05AM
So....... Joe Wilson was right !!!
Burlington| 10.23.12 @ 12:03PM
See what Trump has to say Wednesday. It will be interesting.
Ralph Novy| 10.23.12 @ 5:31PM
No, it won't. It never is.
Ralph Novy| 10.23.12 @ 5:29PM
Whisper that in Reince Priebus's ear tonight, son.
Then turn over and whisper it in Lindsey Graham's.
The Avenger| 10.23.12 @ 6:48AM
This president is a fraud. His lies are legendary yet the fawning by the press continues. What a sad day it was for America when he was anointed. What a glorious day it will be when he and his Chicago thugs are sent packing. November 6th can't come soon enough.
Al Adab| 10.23.12 @ 1:19PM
Think of what damage a man with his mental condition (they don't deserve me) can do between Nov. 6 and Jan. 20 and be afraid.
Cobalt| 10.23.12 @ 3:44PM
Think of what Valerie will do in her remaining time in The White House. It will be get even time on steroids.
Appleby| 10.23.12 @ 6:59AM
Obama lecturing Romney sounds just like a college sophomore lecturing his Dad on his shortcomings, while living in his Dad's house and eating his Dad's groceries and graciously allowing Mom to do his laundry and clean his room -- just before he rolls his eyes and demands the car keys so he can go to the liquor store. And Romney was much more patient than my personal Dad ever was, but when he said, "Attacking me is not a plan," he made me think of "Father Knows Best." Finally, the smart-aleck remark about "horses and bayonets" was the same kind of condescending pat response a college sophomore would come up with.... "Oh, Dad, you are SOOOOOO out of touch! Like, this isn't World War II, dude!" Hasn't anybody told Obama that 79 million voters out there are in Romney's cohort, and 90% of us are damned tired of being talked down to by brats who never earned an honest dime or faced a machine gun...or bothered to say thank you for the hard-earned goods and services he's gobbling up. The one hope I have for this election is that it will finally draw a bright line between reality and The Sixties...that when the dust settles, the historians can say "That's when The Sixties Finally Went Away." Speed the day.
SUBVET| 10.23.12 @ 10:06AM
TLP.........what.... another early entry !!!
TLP| 10.23.12 @ 5:25PM
What're talking about?
I didn't even leave a comment.
Drink some coffee.
Ralph Novy| 10.23.12 @ 5:25PM
Oh, so your explanation for Romney's sputtering performance is that he was just acting like an exasperated yet indulgent father, eh?
Nope. Won't fly, no matter how much lipstick you put on it.
Romney showed his depth -- and it's pretty shallow.
Freedomfighter_99| 10.24.12 @ 4:51AM
Must be tough, Ralphie. Trying to insult somebody who better-looking than you, smarter than you, richer than you. More honest than you. Better-looking wife, more accomplished. Man, he's a better man than you just about any way things can be measuerd. You must HATE him. he's
StanAmSpec| 10.25.12 @ 4:07PM
Didn't Dr. Sowell refer to Obama as a permanent Sophomore in another post?
c. j. acworth| 10.23.12 @ 8:37AM
You know, I'm actually inclined to give Obama a little credit for giving the order to send in a team rather than just drop a few Hellfires. Any time you have an operation as complex as that the danger of something going badly wrong is high. Don't forget, we did lose a helicopter to a hard landing. A little harder and we could've lost everyone on it. The potential for a bloody shambles is ever-present, as Jimmy Carter could tell you. That said, Obama was an idiot to tell the world all about it so soon (though the Pakistani's would've yelled bloody murder soon enough) and he showed no class at all trying to make out like he capped bin Laden personally.
Von Mises Jr| 10.23.12 @ 8:54AM
Dr. Williams brings up Libya and I think I deconstructed the regime’s lie. On Fox with Chris Wallace, Dick Turban was interviewed and the text of one of the ancillary CIA reports quoted. The statement appeared to say that in Tripoli there was a protest that may have included anger over an internet video. But the assassinations did not happen in Tripoli.
Benghazi is also on the coast, but clear across the other side of Libya. Benghazi is under control of Al Qaeda and that was a clear terrorist assault with NO protest involved.
So the regime conflated the two instances so that it appeared that they were the same. In Tripoli, authorities were able to control the events. In Benghazi it is an Al Qaeda stronghold and not under control by the country's leadership.
This is the dirty little secret that Obama must hide. He touted that he killed Osama and that Al Qaeda is on the run. But the truth is that Bush policies led to the death of Bin Laden and in the last four years, a dozen regions have been newly controlled by Al Qaeda. Hence we are far less safe today as we even now have Al Qaeda training camps in Iraq.
Al Adab| 10.23.12 @ 1:20PM
Quid est Veritas? In the wolkenkuckkucksheim world of The Left everything is relative.
Mike Rogers | 10.23.12 @ 11:19AM
Worse, much worse, on Osama: Obama hesitated several times before giving the go-ahead on the Bin Laden raid, and even then, Valerie Jarrett almost talked him out of it, as she had three times before:
http://granitegrok.com/blog/20.....eat-driver
Simon Templar| 10.23.12 @ 12:49PM
It is time to bring forward the idea of potential prosecution or impeachment. Listen carefully, if a Republican president was caught deceiving the public like this in the size and scope of this scandal, he would be in jail, pardoned like Nixon, or impeached. This level of infraction, coverup, and incompetence MUST not be allowed to be tolerated or let go without accountability. He either fires or ask resignation of Hillary or he and her both go down for this....
If he is allowed to get away with this, he will have set a new standard low that will become acceptable and not a fatal political action. Do you want this to be an acceptable low level of unaccountable behavior for a government?
If you don't care, then this republic is truly dead, it will not matter who gets elected in the future.
Al Adab| 10.23.12 @ 1:22PM
Saint:
One could ask where are the day in day out Congressional hearings ala Sam Irvin, televised daily, hammering home nothing but raising distrust incessantly? Why not?
Butch| 10.23.12 @ 4:15PM
Issa is trying in the House, for Fast and Furious and others, with zero coverage from the MSM and not much from Fox. They will have him on, though. The Senate is totally shut down from that sort of thing.
Remember the hours and hours of hearings about the various provisions of the several-thousand page Obamacare bill? Yeah, me either.
Ralph Novy| 10.23.12 @ 5:17PM
I would agree that "It is time to bring forward the idea of potential prosecution or impeachment."
... of SCOTUS justices Thomas and Scalia.
Margie| 10.23.12 @ 9:06PM
And if it had been a Republican, all of the details would have been all over the media.
Freedomfighter_99| 10.24.12 @ 4:55AM
If this had been a Republican there would have already been two George Clooney movies released. Both showing a beady-eyed President sweating in the dark. I can't stand this slanted press anymore! They do not deserve the First Amendment protection handed to them by much better men.
Ralph Novy| 10.23.12 @ 5:14PM
And here I thought the Hoover Institution was a "think tank."
Little did I know it's actually a home for the criminally insane.
StanAmSpec| 10.25.12 @ 4:08PM
Troll, bring an argument, with logical reasoning or go back to the Huff Post or your NYT.
Freedomfighter_99| 10.24.12 @ 4:56AM
You ate a lot of lead paint as a child, didn't you Ralphie?