Chip Bok for December 21, 2012

as one commentator said, Hillary is suffering “Diplomat’s Disease”……..-and her State Department unclassified Report on Benghazi’s 4 dead Americans after 3 months, is a Whitewash for Hillary and Obama….a toothless verdict….and a few underlings got thrown under the bus as scapegoats for Obama’s and Hillary’s “Rules of engagement” where no US Military were allowed to guard our property & people…the locals hired were not allowed bullets…and Americans were left without protection, and in a 7-hour attack no “Help” was sent.

The commentator disgusted refers to is Mr. Bolton, who is well known for very hawkish and very conservative slants on all topics related to foreign relations. As I listen to the ongoing reports, it seems there is argument about whether funds were properly made available or if they were made available but were not properly allocated. If it is the latter, I may find myself having to apologize, but as there is still a very legitimate possibility of the former, I will withhold my apology for a bit longer. In the meantime, what we have learned indicates Mr. Stevens went to a building that was neither embassy or consulate and the local “guards” provided not only ran away at the first sign of danger, they apparently left the doors open when they did so. There will be lessons learned. I believe that one of those lessons will be that Ms. Clinton really couldn’t have prevented this specific tragedy since the structure where the attack took place wouldn’t have been on the list of buildings to be reinforced anyway. It might have provided more American security and if so, at least the doors would have been kept closed and no one would have run.Respectfully,C.

respectfully, CDowns, why didn’t you comment on Hillary’s Rules of Engagement given to the entire diplomatic corps?Especially in a nation like Libya where Obama helped militia to overthrow a “controlled” violence government. Other nations pulled out, neither Obama or Clinton recalled our people in the face of the buildup of jihadists and the training of more jihadists…by militia that had a history of killing Americans in Iraq and elsewhere.-I prefer our D.C. leaders to be “hawks” and “conservative” in foreign relations. The liberal lefties and appeasers of known radicals in charge of foreign countries have not and cannot produce “good” for our national interests.-I disagree that this 8-year regime is capable of “learning any lessons” by failures they refuse to acknowledge. Foreign Policy is IMO in utter ruins under Obama-Clinton-Rice.

Hello Harley, and it is a good reply, as ansonia says, as far as it goes. As my original post suggests, I’m waiting for more information. The piece of info I want most will probably never be asked. What had to happen at that particular location that required Ambassador Stevens be THERE? It was not an official gov’t building. One report said it was a CIA ‘safe house’, which is why the CIA was one of the first US responders. I await more info and you may get that apology from me yet.As far as Nixon goes… out of context example. Benghazi was a covert diplomatic operation. Watergate was a covert attempt to steal an election. Withholding info while active investigations were taking place is expected. Misleading an enemy by misleading the press, also has a lot of historical precedent. Withholding information after your burglars have been arrested is interfering with an active investigation and is against the law, as is lying under oath.I look forward to hearing how this all resolves.I hope you and Ansonia have a safe holiday season and a fun New Year.Respectfully,C.

I’m sure glad the right’s “lord and savior” W, nor Condoleezza took any responsibility for the civilian contractors killed in Fallujah, that led to a massacre of the civilian Iraqis there. Boy, it’s so evil to “blame Bush” for anything he actually DID do, or authorize. (Okay, most was Cheney, Rumsfeld, and his appointees, not just W, who was lucky to survive brush cutting in Texas, or National Guard “warfare”, in Alabama.)

Sort of like Kafka.

Another pointless, ridiculous attack. Maybe if Mrs. Bok didn’t have so many headaches, Mr. Bok could draw cartoons based on reality.

nasty Boch. what’s the matter? Isn’t she working hard enough to suit you?

Hello Ansonia,Thank you for the reply. Your comments re: the media find total agreement with my own opinion. The gun running statement has been verified and is one of the reasons, Mr. Obama had been hesitant to supply US weapons to a non structured group like those in Libya and now in Syria. I agree attacks on US Embassies warrant strong response, but as we saw after Ambassador Stevens was killed, the majority of Libyans like the USA and some died attacking groups who were thought to have killed Stevens. Punishing the still disorganized nation for the acts of a terrorist group would only take away some of the fragile good will we have established in Libya. What do you think about Egypt, where people who were incensed about the video attacked and entered the actual Embassy, taking away materials and destroying property? No one died, but it was an attack and material was taken. There was a time when the major networks had significant news gathering outlets on every continent and in most major countries. Budgets and competition have created a news machine that tends to focus on the noise of the moment rather than actual looking under the surface to find “truth”.I have “disagreement” with a few of your statements. This is based on enough information to make me still willing to give the administration the benefit of the doubt. I assure you my mind is still open, though often diverted in the wrong direction. For instance-I have read reports saying it had been discovered the building in which Stevens died was a CIA structure, and have repeated that statement as early as yesterday. Thank you for inspiring me to do more research as I am finding the actual building initially attacked was being used as a consulate however, a second building that was actually a CIA safehouse also came under attack. Depending on which article you read, one might think the Ambassador’s party had taken shelter in the second building but reports vary and some of my sources questionable. I apologize for my earlier inaccurate comments. As has occurred from the start, the news is fluid and the facts change weekly, as opposed to daily like it did at first.Wish we could share a hot buttered rum and talk this over in depth, but… there are some things you just can’t do on the internet.thank you for the reply, while my mind is not made up, your tone and content make it easy to understand why yours is.With much respect,& an awesome hot buttered rum recipe,C.

-Libya is one of the most dangerous places on earth, all the more so since law and order has not been secured under the new regime.-The host country is responsible for security of diplomats.-Chris Stevens was not at the more secure embassy in Tripoli, but in the unsecured consulate in Benghazi.-Appears there was a clandestine operation going on out of Benghazi, probably involving the CIA and aid to the Syrian rebels.-Appears Chris Stevens made a very bad decision in going insufficiently guarded into a very dangerous zone with multi Al Qaeda looking for American trophies. (He did have contract guards who were also killed.)-It would be difficult to give absolute security to every diplomat who does not exercise sound judgement when placing himself in danger. Chris Stevens has to take some responsibility for his own death. -There was anti-American demonstrations going on in the region over the anti-Muslim video at the time, which further inflames anti-American sentiment and complicates accurately interpreting events.

Turns out it wasn’t a “faked” headache.