What Benghazi Reveals About Self-Blame in American Society -- And The Failure of the Obama Administration

Now that the issue of Benghazi is being addressed in Congress, Barry Rubin poses the question Why the Benghazi Issue is Overwhelmingly Important

Congress holds hearing about last year's terrorist assault on the US
diplomatic mission in Benghazi (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Rubin notes that a key point is getting lost among the multitude of details and timelines that are being presented to the public about what happened on September 11, 2012 -- a point that is central to the development of American society and intellectual life over the last decade:

America was attacked once again on that September 11, attacked by al-Qaida in an attempt to destroy the United States—as ridiculous as that goal might seem. Yet the U.S. government blamed the attack on America itself.

After listing the numerous consequences of that attitude of self-blame in the wake of the terrorist attack on Benghazi, Rubin turns his attention to other issues -- among them:

• The failure of the Obama Administration to defend and rescue Americans in Benghazi is equivalent to its failures to defend American interests around the world.
  
  
• The standpoint that it is better to let Americans die than to risk offending certain groups. That might seem harsh but when it was decided not to send a rescue mission that was precisely what was happening.
  
  
• The perfect symbolism of the president of the United States going to sleep in the face of a crisis, the living embodiment of a 2008 election ad by his opponent about whether he would deal with a crisis that erupted at 3 AM.
  
  
• The perfect symbolism of the secretary of state being the one who did that ad and who said, "What difference does it make" regarding the attackers' motives.
  
  
• The fact that the cover-up seems to be involved with the administration's need to declare victory over al-Qaida. Not only is that claim untrue but the idea that if al-Qaida is defeated there is no more threat from revolutionary Islamism is the central bad theme of Administration Middle East policy.

Read the whole thing.

Regardless of the effect of the current Congressional hearings into the Obama administration's responsibility for the tragedy in Benghazi, and many fear that there will be no consequences, there the revelation of the degree of incompetence of the Obama administration -- starting from the top.

It remains to be seen if the American people take to heart the what we learn from these hearings, and apply them in the voting booth come November next year.

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