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Ron Paul: On Benghazi

Congressional hearings, White House damage control, endless op-eds, accusations, and defensive denials. Controversy over the events in Benghazi last September took center stage in Washington and elsewhere last week. However, the whole discussion is again more of a sideshow. Each side seeks to score political points instead of asking the…

Congressional hearings, White House damage control, endless op-eds, accusations, and defensive denials. Controversy over the events in Benghazi last September took center stage in Washington and elsewhere last week. However, the whole discussion is again more of a sideshow. Each side seeks to score political points instead of asking the real questions about the attack on the US facility, which resulted in the death of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Republicans smell a political opportunity over evidence that the Administration heavily edited initial intelligence community talking points about the attack to remove or soften anything that might reflect badly on the president or the State Department.

Are we are supposed to be shocked by such behavior? Are we supposed to forget that this kind of whitewashing of facts is standard operating procedure when it comes to the US government?

Democrats in Congress have offered the even less convincing explanation for Benghazi, that somehow the attack occurred due to Republican sponsored cuts in the security budget at facilities overseas. With a one trillion dollar military budget, it is hard to take this seriously.

It appears that the Administration scrubbed initial intelligence reports of references to extremist Islamist involvement in the attacks, preferring to craft a lie that the demonstrations were a spontaneous response to an anti-Islamic video that developed into a full-out attack on the US outpost.

Who can blame the administration for wanting to shift the focus? The Islamic radicals who attacked Benghazi were the same people let loose by the US-led attack on Libya. They were the rebels on whose behalf the US overthrew the Libyan government. Ambassador Stevens was slain by the same Islamic radicals he personally assisted just over one year earlier.

But the Republicans in Congress also want to shift the blame. They supported the Obama Administration’s policy of bombing Libya and overthrowing its government. They also repeated the same manufactured claims that Gaddafi was “killing his own people” and was about to commit mass genocide if he were not stopped. Republicans want to draw attention to the President’s editing talking points in hopes no one will notice that if the attack on Libya they supported had not taken place, Ambassador Stevens would be alive today.

Neither side wants to talk about the real lesson of Benghazi: interventionism always carries with it unintended consequences. The US attack on Libya led to the unleashing of Islamist radicals in Libya. These radicals have destroyed the country, murdered thousands, and killed the US ambassador. Some of these then turned their attention to Mali which required another intervention by the US and France.

Previously secure weapons in Libya flooded the region after the US attack, with many of them going to Islamist radicals who make up the majority of those fighting to overthrow the government in Syria. The US government has intervened in the Syrian conflict on behalf of the same rebels it assisted in the Libya conflict, likely helping with the weapons transfers. With word out that these rebels are mostly affiliated with al Qaeda, the US is now intervening to persuade some factions of the Syrian rebels to kill other factions before completing the task of ousting the Syrian government. It is the dizzying cycle of interventionism.

The real lesson of Benghazi will not be learned because neither Republicans nor Democrats want to hear it. But it is our interventionist foreign policy and its unintended consequences that have created these problems, including the attack and murder of Ambassador Stevens. The disputed talking points and White House whitewashing are just a sideshow.

Ron Paul is a former U.S. Congressman from Texas, presidential candidate and leader of the pro-free market movement in the United States. This article – reprinted with permission – originally appeared on his Free Foundation website.

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18 comments

GrandTango May 13, 2013 at 3:18 pm

Ron Paul is a Liberal-Tarian who lost and lost BIG. He is OLD News.
If Ron has any Decency, he will accept his rejection by the people and let his SON, a Conservative, continue his rise.
We’ve run moderates, and liberal-Tarians, and they lose.
Sit down and shut up. It’s because of you we have Obama…and he’s ruining the country. If you really care, step back, and quit ruining it for everybody else.

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Charlemagne, King of France May 13, 2013 at 3:55 pm

the GOP runs moderates in their primaries and those moderates lose to RW extreemists. most people would love a fiscally conservative, socially liberal candidate but they dont trust the Dems to be fiscally conservative and dont trust the Rs to be socially liberal…but they would trust a R running on individual liberty and fiscal conservativeship…thats what the people want, neocons wont give it to us

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GrandTango May 13, 2013 at 4:02 pm

A VAST majority of Americans believe in God and
according to a Gallup Poll: 58% of Americans Oppose All or Most Abortions…
You are just an ignorant Liberal, who thinks because Obama was able to lie and cheat to get elected, people are as immoral and soul-less as you and the Liberal-tarians are…

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lance riprock May 13, 2013 at 3:55 pm

For those who may have forgotten, it was a brain-addled Ronald Reagan who sprang the air strikes on Libya. Ron Paul is right- we need to keep our noses out of other people’s business. What have we accomplished by intervening in Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq. Iran, Afghanistan, et al? The first two were supposed to be for the purpose of stopping “the god-less menace of communism”. I’m confused about the others, but I think it has to do with oil and Muslims. An alternative motivation might be to milk the “military-industrial complex”. If an American citizen or American company chooses to venture abroad, then they should do so at their own risk. Uncle Sam needs to stay his ass home.

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GrandTango May 13, 2013 at 4:06 pm

Would have been real nice to have Reagan around to ‘Strike’ Libya on 9-11-12, when our Ambassador and the other 3 Americans were being brutally murdered, and Obama could not be found…
Reagan would not be stuttering and Stammering right now, like Obama is, trying to ‘splain why he lied and why he Screwed-Up, and let our people perish…

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BrigidBernadette May 13, 2013 at 6:53 pm

Would have been nice to have him around for the Libyan-financed and orchestrated Lockerbie bombing, Pam Am flight 103.

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The Skeptic May 13, 2013 at 8:19 pm

Yes. I like the funny part where Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld fooled Colin Powell into pleading at the United Nations, successfully, about the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.

That got us into “Bush’s War” that cost us, what, $5 trillion, 4,600 dead, plus one massive recession.

Republicans have been pretty funny over the past 15 years.

Reply
lance riprock May 13, 2013 at 3:55 pm

For those who may have forgotten, it was a brain-addled Ronald Reagan who sprang the air strikes on Libya. Ron Paul is right- we need to keep our noses out of other people’s business. What have we accomplished by intervening in Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq. Iran, Afghanistan, et al? The first two were supposed to be for the purpose of stopping “the god-less menace of communism”. I’m confused about the others, but I think it has to do with oil and Muslims. An alternative motivation might be to milk the “military-industrial complex”. If an American citizen or American company chooses to venture abroad, then they should do so at their own risk. Uncle Sam needs to stay his ass home.

Reply
The Skeptic May 13, 2013 at 8:19 pm

Yes. I like the funny part where Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld fooled Colin Powell into pleading at the United Nations, successfully, about the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.

That got us into “Bush’s War” that cost us, what, $5 trillion, 4,600 dead, plus one massive recession.

Republicans have been pretty funny over the past 15 years.

Reply
Salem Alkasah May 13, 2013 at 6:52 pm

Ron Paul , thank you for that, yes off course this is the feedback of the intervention in Libya , radical Islamic groups have become more strong after the direct support by US and others and have starred to retake action against US and other western governments , every single day we saw new evidence about the risk of those groups. Where is the international community who came to protect civilian in Libya? Civilian still under attack more than before if that was the reason.

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Salem Alkasah May 13, 2013 at 6:52 pm

Ron Paul , thank you for that, yes off course this is the feedback of the intervention in Libya , radical Islamic groups have become more strong after the direct support by US and others and have starred to retake action against US and other western governments , every single day we saw new evidence about the risk of those groups. Where is the international community who came to protect civilian in Libya? Civilian still under attack more than before if that was the reason.

Reply
GrandTango May 13, 2013 at 8:05 pm

On a day Obama is making lame excuses for using the IRS to get personal info. to persecute private US Citizens, Ron Paul chooses to attack America for paying attention to and having an intrest in places that are intent on destrying us…

And Ron-Paul calls himslef a libertarian…

No wonder this Head-buried, kook can hardly get more than single-digits in votes. .

Reply
This just in . . . May 13, 2013 at 8:14 pm

G.O.P. Split Over Whether to Waste Time Investigating Benghazi or Repealing Obamacare

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) — A deep divide has emerged within the Republican Party over whether to waste Congress’s time investigating Benghazi talking points or repealing Obamacare, G.O.P. lawmakers confirmed today.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia), sounded the first discordant note at a press briefing this morning, telling reporters, “The time for wasting day after day investigating Benghazi is over. The American people are counting us to waste our time repealing Obamacare yet again.”

Warning that “the American people don’t have an endless appetite for meaningless political theater,” Cantor added, “If we’re going to do something that’s purely symbolic, pointless, and detached from reality, I say it should be repealing Obamacare for the thirtieth or fortieth time.”

Rep. Cantor’s comments drew a strong rebuke from Darrell Issa (R-California), who has spearheaded the investigation into Benghazi: “Quite frankly, we have all the time in the world to blow repealing Obamacare. The moment to waste our time investigating Benghazi is now.” Noting that previous attempts to repeal Obamacare had cost the taxpayers approximately fifty million dollars, Issa said, “I think we’re entitled to spend at least that much, if not more, investigating Benghazi again and again and again.”

But even as the debate raged over whether Obamacare or Benghazi was more worthy of Congress’ wasted time, House Speaker John Boehner offered a third point of view: “Personally, I think the time we’re wasting on Benghazi and Obamacare could be better spent blocking progress on guns and immigration.”

Reply
This just in . . . May 13, 2013 at 8:14 pm

G.O.P. Split Over Whether to Waste Time Investigating Benghazi or Repealing Obamacare

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) — A deep divide has emerged within the Republican Party over whether to waste Congress’s time investigating Benghazi talking points or repealing Obamacare, G.O.P. lawmakers confirmed today.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia), sounded the first discordant note at a press briefing this morning, telling reporters, “The time for wasting day after day investigating Benghazi is over. The American people are counting us to waste our time repealing Obamacare yet again.”

Warning that “the American people don’t have an endless appetite for meaningless political theater,” Cantor added, “If we’re going to do something that’s purely symbolic, pointless, and detached from reality, I say it should be repealing Obamacare for the thirtieth or fortieth time.”

Rep. Cantor’s comments drew a strong rebuke from Darrell Issa (R-California), who has spearheaded the investigation into Benghazi: “Quite frankly, we have all the time in the world to blow repealing Obamacare. The moment to waste our time investigating Benghazi is now.” Noting that previous attempts to repeal Obamacare had cost the taxpayers approximately fifty million dollars, Issa said, “I think we’re entitled to spend at least that much, if not more, investigating Benghazi again and again and again.”

But even as the debate raged over whether Obamacare or Benghazi was more worthy of Congress’ wasted time, House Speaker John Boehner offered a third point of view: “Personally, I think the time we’re wasting on Benghazi and Obamacare could be better spent blocking progress on guns and immigration.”

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JC May 13, 2013 at 9:08 pm

Ron Paul could not be more right on this issue. It’s too bad our politicians would rather line the pockets of defense contractors than do what’s best for our country. And it’s too bad that most Americans are too stupid to realize that the narratives they hear from politicians and the media are simply lies and propaganda.

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JC May 13, 2013 at 9:08 pm

Ron Paul could not be more right on this issue. It’s too bad our politicians would rather line the pockets of defense contractors than do what’s best for our country. And it’s too bad that most Americans are too stupid to realize that the narratives they hear from politicians and the media are simply lies and propaganda.

Reply

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