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Disgrace in Benghazi (Steyn)
National Review Online ^ | September 15, 2012 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 09/15/2012 2:17:02 AM PDT by Yardstick

So, on a highly symbolic date, mobs storm American diplomatic facilities and drag the corpse of a U.S. ambassador through the streets. Then the president flies to Vegas for a fundraiser. No, no, a novelist would say; that’s too pat, too neat in its symbolic contrast. Make it Cleveland, or Des Moines.

[snip]

One can understand why they might do this, given the fiasco in Libya. The men who organized this attack knew the ambassador would be at the consulate in Benghazi rather than at the embassy in Tripoli. How did that happen? They knew when he had been moved from the consulate to a “safe house,” and switched their attentions accordingly. How did that happen? The United States government lost track of its ambassador for ten hours. How did that happen? Perhaps, when they’ve investigated Mitt Romney’s press release for another three or four weeks, the court eunuchs of the American media might like to look into some of these fascinating questions, instead of leaving the only interesting reporting on an American story to the foreign press.

[snip]

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: 911ii; benghazi; marksteyn; steyn
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To: livius

Stevens is a naive leftist that has managed to get a lot of innocent people murdered....this leftist fool was key in pushing the Obama fools into removing Ga-daffy, resulting in untold death and destruction. I hate to say this but Stevens has met his karma.


21 posted on 09/15/2012 5:36:11 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: agere_contra

He should fear the consequences of reelection and the praetorians


22 posted on 09/15/2012 5:37:47 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Present failure and impending death yield irrational action))
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To: Yardstick
I love Steyn - nobody can put words on a page like he can!!!

"Some years ago, I had occasion to assist in moving the body of a dead man: We did not stop to take photographs en route. Even allowing for cultural differences, this looks less like "carrying Chris' body to the hospital" and more like barbarians gleefully feasting on the spoils of savagery. "

23 posted on 09/15/2012 5:40:01 AM PDT by Momto2 (I am praying for Israel...)
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To: Yardstick

Masterful job by Stein—love his writing and his sardonic tone—the right mix of righteous indignation coupled with amused befuddlement.

The main point of the argument, both here and for the past dozen years is this: America is at war. Period. War with Islamocists (you can single out the extremist elements if you like, but their silent enablers are aiding and abetting). We cannot win any war unless we first recognize the fact. Today’s liberals choose to shrink from this battlefield. Their idea of appeasing our way through the fog of this war will likely get us all killed. And, as usual, liberals, in so doing, display a lack of understanding of both human nature and the past. Islam has never been a religion of peace, it has, during its most placid moments been constrained by superior force. They do not understand, nor do they care for democracy (I’m talking about the devout islamocists), they want caliphate, total rule, sharia, and, most of all compliance and silence of any opposing voice. Period. We need not understand their choice in the matters of life and the living of it. What we NEED is for THEM to understand US, that we not only choose freedom, but detest their practices as antithetical to anything a free society, such as ours, aspires to. They need to know that we do not view them as equal partners in the human experiment, but wayward stepchildren who are living in the past. These are folks who have not evolved, are a drag on human civilization, present no prospects for peace, and offer nothing attractive whether we are talking things material, or things spiritual. They must know that we will defend our ways to their deaths. We will use overwhelming force in order to do so. Much collateral damage will ensue—think: starting all over again, think: living in caves, think: getting your water from puddles on the sides of roads, think: living in tents. They must know this, every last man woman and child and they must believe that we are willing, ready, and able to do so—at the drop of a hat, or the storming of an embassy, as the case may be.

Only in this way, do we have any chance of not having to fight them. For the islamocists-in-name-only among them might just be willing to set up a side protest and shout down the “small segment of the islamic population” that are militant and hell-bent on our destruction. They might muster up enough courage to “retake their religion” from these “extremists who have kidnapped it” (so we can all believe this euphemistic barrage of Barbara Streisand). Barring this, we will continue to suffer the death as of a thousand paper cuts. A nick here, a slice there—never bleeding out, but always bleeding, bleeding 4 Americans today, another 2 tomorrow, 5 the day after that...


24 posted on 09/15/2012 5:48:36 AM PDT by MarDav
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To: Yardstick

Every time I think Steyn has written The Best Column Ever, he goes out and tops it. And by a wide margin. BRAVO!


25 posted on 09/15/2012 6:05:43 AM PDT by SW6906 (6 things you can't have too much of: sex, money, firewood, horsepower, guns and ammunition.)
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To: MarDav

bttt


26 posted on 09/15/2012 6:33:23 AM PDT by metesky (Brethren, leave us go amongst them! - Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond, The Searchers)
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To: Yardstick
"Elderly Soviet propagandists must be wondering why they wasted their time jamming radio transmitters and smashing printing presses when they could just have sent everyone to Columbia Journalism School." M.S.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/321050/lying-state-mark-steyn#

27 posted on 09/15/2012 6:45:53 AM PDT by Walmartian (I'm their leader. Which way did they go?)
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To: Yardstick
In this case, as Secretary Clinton and General Dempsey well know, the film has even less to do with anything than did the Danish cartoons or the schoolteacher’s teddy bear or any of the other innumerable grievances of Islam. The 400-strong assault force in Benghazi showed up with RPGs and mortars: That’s not a spontaneous movie protest; that’s an act of war, and better planned and executed than the dying superpower’s response to it. Secretary Clinton and General Dempsey are, to put it mildly, misleading the American people when they suggest otherwise.

Every paragraph in this piece could have been an op-ed piece... hell, every paragraph could have been expanded to book length. He's an amazing writer...

28 posted on 09/15/2012 6:56:21 AM PDT by GOPJ (first they came for those clinging to their guns and religion, and I did not speak out....)
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To: SW6906

“Court eunuchs of the American media” -quote of the year!


29 posted on 09/15/2012 7:00:39 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus
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To: urbanpovertylawcenter
Who on the left can compete with this great mind?

Great list, but you how could you leave off Janeane Garofalo, lol? It's remarkable how many of the most adored opinion-shapers and "great minds" of the left are ex-SNL stars and the like. Al Franken, anyone?

The left's intellectuals are drawn from the ranks of entertainment personalities (Garofalo, Baldwin, Cher, etc).

Our entertainment personalities are drawn from the ranks of intellectuals (Mark Levin, Mark Steyn, WFBuckley, etc.)

30 posted on 09/15/2012 7:22:10 AM PDT by TheSarce (Reject Socialism. Champion Liberty.)
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To: Yardstick
A devastating analysis by Mark Steyn. He really nails what's going on here on every level!
31 posted on 09/15/2012 8:02:54 AM PDT by Gritty (The Obama agenda has failed not because it was stopped, but because it was passed! - Paul Ryan)
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To: TheOldLady; Rummyfan; Howlin; riley1992; Miss Marple; Dane; sinkspur; steve; kattracks; ...

Mark Steyn ping. This one is really a must read for everyone.

Freepmail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.

Thanks for the ping Slings and Arrows.


32 posted on 09/15/2012 9:06:56 AM PDT by JLS
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To: livius; nuconvert

Daniel Greenfield did a hard-eyed assessment of Stevens and his over-trusting nature.

Christopher Stevens Feeds the Crocodile
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2930836/posts


33 posted on 09/15/2012 9:42:02 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: FreedomPoster

yeah, i read it yesterday


34 posted on 09/15/2012 9:53:41 AM PDT by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
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To: Cowboy Bob
The MSM is certainly the enemy within, and has been the driving force in America's decline.

America is confronted by three distinct enemies:

1. Radical Islam abroad

2. Left-wing radicals at home

3. The Mainstream Media

And, of these, the most dangerous is the latter. For, without the support of the Mainstream Media, the former two enemies would have been defeated a decade ago.

35 posted on 09/15/2012 10:19:56 AM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA; Ignorance on parade.)
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To: JLS; Yardstick

Thank you for the ping and post.

America may be at war, but you can be sure that the Neville Chamberlain in the white hut will never wage it.

It has been said here before, but I’ll say it again. Anyone who votes to re-elect this traitor to the presidency is a traitor himself.

And ignorance of the crime is no excuse.


36 posted on 09/15/2012 12:09:56 PM PDT by TheOldLady
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To: nuconvert

There are so many questions.


Unfortunately they will never be answered as the media will continue to investigate Romneys remarks.


37 posted on 09/16/2012 4:43:52 AM PDT by chessplayer
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To: Yardstick

“And he’s even more drunk on his celebrity than the fanbois, so in his slapdashery he winds up comparing the sacrifice of a diplomat lynched by a pack of savages with the enthusiasm of his own campaign bobbysoxers.”

Steyn tells it like it is..I have mostly been too sad and too mad to post about this..Thank heavens for Steyn.


38 posted on 09/16/2012 4:45:06 AM PDT by MEG33 (O Lord, Guide Our Nation)
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To: JLS
[W]hile America’s clod vice president staggers around pimping limply that only Obama had the guts to take the toughest decision anyone’s ever had to take, the poor schlub who actually did have the guts, who actually took the tough decision in a part of the world where taking tough decisions can get you killed, languishes in a cell because Washington would not lift a finger to help him.

It's actually much worse: American officials were criminally culpable in divulging information that revealed "sources and methods". This is why America cannot develop sources of humint. Anyone crazy enough to work for us is in peril of being betrayed by opportunistic politicians, and worse, their staff.

39 posted on 09/16/2012 4:50:11 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (AGWT is neo-lysenkoism.)
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