Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday attempted to take one for Team Obama. While in Lima Peru, Secretary Clinton stated, "I take responsibility, I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice president wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They're the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision."
Is Hillary Clinton the new Les Aspin? In 1994, then Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, was ousted from the Clinton administration in large part because of the failed raid in Mogadishu Somalia (Blackhawk Down) and his decision not to send tanks. According to a Senate Armed Services Committee report on the deaths of 18 U.S. service members, Defense Secretary Les Aspin and his deputies rejected sending needed tanks and armored vehicles to Somalia because they feared a political backlash would undermine their pro-United Nations policy.
Fast forward to 2012. The late Ambassador Stevens and the diplomatic mission in Libya made multiple security related requests that were turned down by Washington based officials. Ambassador Stevens even wrote in his diary that he feared for his safety shortly before he and three other Americans were murdered by terrorists. Lt. Col. Andrew Wood has stated that U.S. Ambassador Stevens wanted a Security Support Team, made up of 16 special operations soldiers, to stay with him in Libya after their deployment was scheduled to end in August. The embassy staff’s first choice was for us to stay and "that would have been the choice of the embassy people in Tripoli” Lt. Col. Andrew's continued.
Why would the Obama administration deny adequate security to our diplomatic team in Libya? Especially during the 11th anniversary of 9/11 and in a country rife with anti-American Islamists. Liberals have this unfounded view that if the United States keeps a low profile and doesn't project power, then somehow our enemies will like us and not try to kill us. President Obama has spent the better part of four years apologizing to Muslim extremists; projecting weakness in the process.
Benghazi is Obama's Mogadishu, the only difference is 18 Army Rangers died in Somalia and four diplomats died in Libya. Defense Secretary Les Aspin took the blame for Bill Clinton's failed foreign policy in 1994 and Hillary Clinton is attempting to take the blame for Obama's failed foreign policy today.
I find it ironic that a 2008 Hillary Clinton campaign ad featured a telephone ringing at 3 a.m. It strongly suggested that Barack Obama was not prepared to take that phone call at that critical hour. Somewhere a crisis would mount, and she wanted primary voters to understand that the inexperienced Illinois senator was not ready to tackle it. That 3 a.m. phone did in fact ring..and Obama didn't answer, Hillary did, and they both failed miserably.
Senate Report on Somalia
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