Maureen Dowd, "When Myths Collide in the Capital": Maureen Is the Only Times Columnist with Balls

Did you serve in the military? Were you part of a close-knit combat unit? I always wanted to believe that if I was ever stuck in a firefight facing impossible odds, an effort would be made to come to my relief. Conversely, I always was prepared to give my life to come to the rescue of other soldiers facing such an onslaught.

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "When Myths Collide in the Capital" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/opinion/sunday/dowd-when-myths-collide-in-the-capital.html), Maureen Dowd is the first Times columnist to address the Benghazi debacle. Better late than never, Dowd writes:

"The administration’s behavior before and during the attack in Benghazi, in which four Americans died, was unworthy of the greatest power on earth.

. . . .

The hierarchies at State and Defense had a plodding response, failing to make any superhuman effort as the siege waxed and waned over eight hours.

In an emotional Senate hearing on Wednesday, Stevens’s second-in-command, Gregory Hicks, who was frantically trying to help from 600 miles away in Tripoli, described how his pleas were denied by military brass, who said they could not scramble planes and who gave a 'stand-down' order to four Special Forces officers in Tripoli who were eager to race to Benghazi.

. . . .

In the midst of a re-election campaign, Obama aides wanted to promote the mythology that the president who killed Osama was vanquishing terror. So they deemed it problematic to mention any possible Qaeda involvement in the Benghazi attack."

Let's get this straight: There are two things that the Obama administration did "wrong":

1. They didn't make the slightest effort to come to the assistance of those besieged in Benghazi.
2. They lied about the motivation underlying the attack, its nature, and the identities of those who perpetrated this obscenity.

Indeed, Obama and friends didn't lift a finger to save Ambassador Stevens or come to the aid of those desperately seeking to defend him. Orders were given to "stand-down."

Re the subsequent distortion and lying, Susan Rice appeared on a series of Sunday morning talk shows following the Benghazi assault and let it be known that the attack was the result of a "demonstration" provoked by a crude Internet video. She knew that Ansar al Sharia, which is linked to al-Qaeda, was intimately involved in the attack on the consulate, that the attack did not stem from a demonstration, and that the attack was unrelated to the Internet video.

Hillary stated one day after the assault, "we are working to determine the precise motivations and methods of those who carried out this assault" and linked the attack to "inflammatory material posted on the Internet." This baloney, of course, was followed four months later by her infamous January 23 tirade:

"With all due respect, the fact is we have four dead Americans. Whether it was because of a protest or because guys outside for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans. What difference at this point does it make?"

In an appearance on the "Daily Show" with Jon Stewart on October 18, 2012, Obama declared:

"When a tragic event like this happens on the other side of the world, immediately a whole bunch of intelligence starts coming in and people try to piece together exactly what happened. And what I have always tried to do is to make sure we just get all the facts, figure out what went wrong, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. And we’re still in that process now. But everything we get, every piece of information we get — as we got it — we laid it out for the American people."

Needless to say, "every piece of information" was not laid out for the American people. Quite the contrary.

I'm no neocon or fan of Karl Rove. I don't watch Fox News. However, even if Obama and friends did nothing "illegal," I regard their behavior as unconscionable.

Dowd's conclusion:

"All the factions wove their own mythologies at the expense of our deepest national mythology: that if there is anything, no matter how unlikely or difficult, that we can do to try to save the lives of Americans who have volunteered for dangerous assignments, we must do it."

Over the years, I've had my issues with Dowd, but in this instance she's dead on balls accurate.