One of the things Republicans claim is their biggest problem with most Americans is that they do not take responsibility for their circumstances that forcing them to be held accountable would remedy. However, as is usually the case with any conservative and particularly Republicans, the idea of accountability or responsibility is irrelevant when there are adverse consequences arising from their own actions or lack thereof. Disavowing their part in the current civil unrest in Iraq is a prime example of Republicans not taking any responsibility for creating the mess in Iraq when their great “war president” George W. Bush lied to launch a preemptive war of aggression that destabilized the country and the entire region. Of course, with an African American man in the White House, they have spent the past two weeks blaming everything going on in and around Iraq on President Obama as if he is responsible for Bush Republicans creating sectarian violence or signing the agreement to withdraw American combat forces from the country in 2011.
It is almost a certainty that when Republicans begin blaming Democrats or President Obama for anything, it is more likely than not that they are the real culprits. For nearly two years, Republicans have spent no small amount of time and taxpayer dollars blaming the attack on the American diplomatic outpost in Benghazi Libya that claimed four American diplomats’ lives on the President and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The concept that the President and Mrs. Clinton are responsible for the Benghazi attack is beyond comprehension, even coming from Republicans, but as they ratcheted up their bizarre and false assertions, it became really obvious there was more at play than just Republican politics; they are covering up their responsibility for the deaths of four American diplomats.
Republicans are ultimately responsible for the attack on the Benghazi outpost for several reasons they will never admit, but that does not absolve them for their very substantial role in the diplomats’ deaths or eliminate the need for a special prosecutor to hold them accountable for inciting Islamist militants to attack Americans. Taken on their own, any one of the reasons Republicans are responsible for the Benghazi attack is reasonable in any universe, but in their totality, there is no doubt whatsoever they, and not President Obama or Hillary Clinton, should be the focus of an investigation and subsequently held accountable for their guilt.
First, it is now a fact, right from the captured mastermind of the Benghazi attack’s mouth, that the attackers were driven by religious rage over an American-made anti-Muslim video that “depicted the Prophet Muhammed, Islam’s founder, as a homosexual, villainous child-molesting buffoon.” Republicans rejected, out of hand, the idea the anti-Islam video played any role in the Benghazi attack despite reporting in the New York Times the day after the attack that protesters were enraged over the slight to Islam they first learned of from watching coverage of anti-American protests in Cairo Egypt. Now, it is true Republicans probably did not secretly fund the production of the anti-Islam video, but they have incited anti-Muslim sentiments in America over the past thirteen years beginning shortly after the terror attacks on 911 and continuing to this day.
If anyone believes Republicans and their conservative masters at the Heritage Foundation have not portrayed Muslims as terrorists and sub-humans, they have been comatose over the past decade. On Monday, the day before the White House announced the suspect in the Benghazi attack had been captured by American special forces, the Heritage Foundation hosted an Islamic hate-fest documented in the Washington Post that focused on abusing a Pakistani Muslim, Saga Ahmed, for suggesting that some attending the Heritage conference readily stereotyped all Muslims as violent and anti-American. Add to the perpetual Muslim bashing the Republican predilection for military intervention in the internal affairs of Muslim nations such as Iran, Syria, Libya, and once again Iraq that from a Muslim, and many Americans’, point of view is just a reason to kill Muslims as part of what George W. Bush called a “crusade” replete with American troops carrying weapons emblazoned with Christian bible verses. There are also several Republican state legislatures passing absurd bans on what they call “barbaric” Sharia Law. It is little wonder that after a decade of defaming Islam and Muslims as sub-human monsters intent on killing good American Christians in a Holy War, that a devout evangelical did not appropriate funding to produce an anti-Islam video that drove Islamist militants to seek revenge and attack the nearest Americans at an embassy outpost lacking adequate security that is solely the fault of House Republicans.
Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State, requested additional funding for embassy security early in 2011 to protect American diplomats working in Muslim countries. Republicans in the House rejected Mrs. Clinton’s request because as proud Republican Jason Chaffetz of Utah boasted upon being asked if he voted against increased embassy security funding, “Absolutely. Look, we have to make priorities and choices in this country. When you’re in tough economic time, you have to make difficult choices how to prioritize this.” Not only did the Republican House not increase embassy security funding, they voted to cut $300-million from the U.S. embassy security budget as part of their priorities due to what they call “tough economic times. Remarkably, Republicans never prioritize prioritize funding anything whether it is for Veterans, food assistance, infrastructure repair, or embassy security and yet there is always money for tax cuts for the rich and corporations and subsidies for the oil, tobacco, and pharmaceutical industry; the things most important to Republicans.
Republicans will never take any responsibility for their integral complicity in driving anti-Muslim sentiments that led to the anti-Islam video that incited the attack on Benghazi the captured Islamist militant said enraged Muslims after seeing protests against America in Cairo. He clearly admitted he and his militia sought retribution against the nearest American establishment; the Benghazi outpost. Instead of decrying the video’s role in driving the Benghazi attack, or Republicans’ role in withholding funding for embassy security, Republicans covered their guilt by claiming President Obama and Hillary Clinton are responsible for murdering four American diplomats. Besides refusing to take responsibility for their role in the deaths of the Americans, Republicans are hypocrites for never investigating George W. Bush for the deaths of thousands of Americans on 911, or the deaths of Americans in any of the several attacks on American embassies around the Middle East due to the war of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There does need to be an in-depth investigation into the Benghazi attack, but the focus should be on Republicans for their significant thirteen-year role in inciting anti-Muslim anger that drove the production of the video that led to anti-American rage and the attack that killed four Americans. Republicans should also be held accountable for deliberately withholding funds for increased embassy security; particularly after then-Secretary of State Clinton requested help to protect American diplomats and then lying that tough economic times meant leaving Americans to die while the oil industry received millions in subsidies. It is time for Democrats to turn the tables on Republicans and lay out their case to the American people about why four Americans were killed and who is responsible.
It is true Islamist militants attacked and killed four Americans in Benghazi, but without two wars of aggression to kill Muslims, thirteen years of fear mongering leading a Christian malcontent to produce a virulent anti-Islam video, and Republicans withholding funding for embassy security, Americans would have never heard of Benghazi and four American diplomats would be alive. Republicans may not have pulled the triggers or launched rocket-propelled grenades that killed Americans in Benghazi, but they are responsible for the Benghazi attack and for that they must be held to account for killing four American diplomats.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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