Have you noticed that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has gotten a bit quieter about the events in Libya of late? Wonder why? Could it be the hypocrisy of the various positions his has taken over the last year that have finally come back around to not just slap him in the face but bite him in his hide quarters?
To see where I’m going with this, let’s go back a bit, to April 22 of last year. On that date, Sen. McCain, while at a Libyan Rebel stronghold in Benghazi, of all places, held a press conference. During that conference he railed about how the Libyan rebel progress could stall unless the U.S. supplied the Libyan rebels with weapons and air support. He also urged that the U.S. should “recognize” the TNC, Libya’s “Transitional National Council.
As far as the U.S. public knew at the time, the U.S. did supply air support to prevent Muammar Gaddafi from committing genocide across Libya. What we didn’t know at the time is that the U.S. CIA secretly supplied weapons to those rebels via Qatar. Now, we, as citizens, not only know that they did that, but Salon and the NY Times are reporting that “those” weapons while going to the rebels, were being turned over to Libya’s Islamist militant fighters … you know, those same Islamist militant fighters who took out the Benghazi outpost along with our U.S. Diplomats. That link hasn’t yet been confirmed, but no doubt, it’s most likely coming.
The situation in Libya is one Sen. McCain’s actively sought to help create. Once it backfired, he apparently felt the need to deflect any blame that might befall him. So — what better way to do that tan to claim that the Administration was engaged in a cover-up and shift the blame elsewhere. He even enlisted the support of other Senate GOP stooges to provide the appearance of credibility and help him further ‘his’ cover-up. There is no evidence to support that the Administration engaged in a cover-up, yet these three Senators diligently worked the media so as to convince the American public that one had in deed occurred.
His choice of scapegoat, Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, just doesn’t pan out in the wash. The CIA provided the arms, the CIA was protecting its assets and its backside in Libya when the attack occurred, the CIA once again provided faulty intelligence as well as the ‘talking points’ for that round of Sunday morning talk show talking heads, but Sen. McCain decided that he should “shoot” the messenger instead of seek out the root causes of the problem.
Where exactly were these three Senators when Condoleezza Rice failed to take appropriate action regarding the seriousness of an impending terrorist threat that she ignored just prior to 9/11/2001, or when she promoted the myth of weapons of mass destruction being in Iraq to justify the need to start a war there, kill thousands of Iraqi citizens in the process, as well as get a large number of our U.S. Soldiers killed or maimed for life? There was absolutely no outrage, no even about the extended vacation by then President Bush who took an extended 23-day vacation after learning of the Bin Laden threat.
Further, where are these Senators when it comes to funding the necessary medical support and/or jobs support when they return to the US after fighting for whatever ideal they folks espouse? Nowhere! Where were 38 GOP Senators when it comes to assuring that our disabled soldiers are treated fairly and appropriately anywhere in the world? Again, nowhere!
I’m so thrilled that voters succeeded in keeping this man from becoming President of our nation. Clearly, Sen. McCain doesn’t learn. Even given the outcome of the Benghazi situation, it has not dissuaded him from advocating “arming” rebels in yet another Islamist nation—Syria.
I’m sorry —but arming rebels is not the best approach to resolving challenges elsewhere across the globe. It clearly didn’t work in Afghanistan, when we armed the rebels in their fight against the Russians—ultimately spawning Al Qaeda. It didn’t work when we armed the rebels against Muammar Gaddafi—resulting in the loss of a US Ambassador and other staff. The time has come for serious contemplation and diplomacy—not misguided tirades that cause other world leaders to doubt our nation’s ability to lead on any issue—and definitely not more armed conflicts that do little or nothing to solve our nation’s fiscal issues..