October 12, 2012

With each passing day, the Libyan scandal not only worsens, it demonstrates in one incident the utter collapse of President Obama’s Middle Eastern policies and anti-terror strategy. Let’s count the failures, lies, and incompetence:

1. The administration abandons our Egyptian allies and even declares victory as Egypt transitions to Muslim Brotherhood rule.

2. The Muslim Brotherhood exports terror as terrorists strike Israel from the Sinai, and “foreign fighters” begin to infiltrate newly liberated Libya from Egypt.

3. Benghazi grows ever more dangerous, our consulate is attacked, and the British ambassador survives assassination attempts.

4. As Libya descends into (greater) chaos, the State Department decreases security.

5. Multiple officials, including security officials, protest the decreased security, express concern for their safety, and request more resources.

6. The State Department denies their requests and instead relies on a local militia of shopkeepers to protect our ambassador — an unpaid militia that receives only a food stipend.

7. On September 11, terrorists launch an “unprecedented” complex attack on our consulate.

8. During the course of that attack, (if current reports are accurate) the United States not only loses track of our own ambassador, we find out that he was taken to the hospital by a local mob.

9. Despite knowing almost immediately that the United States suffered one of the worst terrorist attacks on its diplomats in its history, the administration publicly denies this reality and blames the violence on a YouTube video made months before.

10. Days later, the amateur filmmaker is very publicly detained for questioning and ultimately arrested for a probation violation.

Does that sum things up?

The Libyan scandal is the perfect storm for President Obama’s foreign policy — at one stroke demonstrating the consequences of his failures in Egypt, the continuing capability of the jihadists he’s crowed about defeating, the incompetence of his own administration as it stripped security from Libya, and the corruption and cynicism that compelled officials to lie and spin in the face of obvious truths.

One final note: It’s often said that in Washington, the cover-up is typically worse than the crime. And for a long time, we’ve focused on the cover-up (“what did Obama know, and when did he know it”). In this case, the “crime” of abandoning our public servants in their hour of maximum need is far, far worse than the administration’s ensuing spin and lies.