The ill wind blowing past Benghazi
By Wes Pruden
PrudenPolitics.com
It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and that evil wind from the Middle East comes just when Barack Obama needs a distraction most. Just when the mainstream media finally discovers the deadly screw-up in Benghazi and can no longer avoid talking and writing about it, the Palestinians fire volleys of rockets reaching Tel Aviv.
The
president himself is in Asia, mispronouncing the
names of everyone he meets, and trying to play
kissyface with Aung San Suu Kyi, the heroic woman
who led the struggle to free Burma from the grip of
evil generals. In the photographs, the lady is
trying to keep her mouth out of the way of Mr.
Obama’s kissing equipment.
The
president was just being friendly, but she doesn’t
look as if she’s enjoying herself. (Can’t the U.S.
government afford a protocol officer to explain to
the president that Asians are generally not fans of
the American obsession with hugging and slobbering
over everyone in sight on first meeting?)
Mr.
Obama got the name of the new reformer president,
Thien Sein, wrong, calling him “President Sein,”
instead of “President Thien.” The Burmese describe
this as “a slightly affectionate reference” that
likely made his hosts cringe. This was not as bad as
Jimmy Carter’s infamous invitation to a welcoming
crowd in Poland to share a sexual adventure with
him. Mr. Jimmy could blame his interpreter, who was
confused by a word with two different meanings. Mr.
Jimmy suffered international humiliation and the
rest of us got a big laugh, or at least a large
chuckle.
Americans, apparently even Harvard Law School
graduates, are never very good with languages, and
particularly with unfamiliar forms of address, but
presidents travel with aides who are paid to know
such things. Mr. Obama even got the name of the
country wrong, using “Myanmar,” the preference of
the evicted evil generals, instead of “Burma,” which
is preferred by the reformers and Aung San Suu Kyi,
whose name the president also mangled. “Burma” is
the preferred usage of the State Department, and the
White House explained that the president used
“Myanmar” as “a diplomatic nicety” in deference to
the discarded order. Mr. Obama is said to be working
on an explanation to blame George W. Bush, who once
called Greeks “Grecians,” for which he caught
considerable flak from the popguns of the media’s
Gaffe Patrol.
The
president’s magical mystery tour of Southeast Asia,
making no real news, is a perfect distraction from
the real events of Benghazi and the Middle East.
Hillary Clinton fell on the president’s sword a
fortnight ago, and now Susan Rice must follow. The
White House and its acolytes in the media are trying
to make the Benghazi story about what Miss Rice, the
ambassador to the United Nations, knew and when she
knew it. The president’s men are portraying her as
the little woman who only told five Sunday morning
talk shows what the big, brave men at the CIA wrote
out for her to say. If the talking points were
doctored, well, why blame the White House?
The
White House excuse for the misinformation about what
happened in Benghazi was “faulty intelligence.” That
explanation falls apart on closer examination. The
Washington Guardian now reports, quoting senior
officials, that the president and “senior
administration officials” were told within 72 hours
that the Benghazi attack was largely the work of
organized terrorists, not street mobs writing a
critique of an amateur video portraying Mohammed as
a pedophile.
The
timing here is crucial. The consulate was attacked
on Tuesday, Sept. 11, and President Obama was told
not later than Friday that it was a terrorist
attack. Miss Rice was dispatched Sunday morning, two
days later, with the bright, shining lie, and
repeated it five times. Mrs. Clinton and the
president’s resident press flack did so as well.
The
administration’s story blaming the CIA for faulty
talking points has changed slightly: the talking
points included disinformation to mislead
terrorists. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California,
chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, now
says Miss Rice’s lie was “within the context” of
what was presented as fact. Who knows who, if
anyone, is telling the truth?
OpenMyanmar Photo Project
The
president, trying to reassure Israel in its hour of
maximum peril, says the Israelis are within their
rights to answer the Palestinian rockets. Well, duh.
With that and five bucks, a reassured Israeli can
get a decaf latte at Starbucks. A decaf latte is
considerably more than we sent Chris Stevens, the
American ambassador begging for help as terrorists
closed in on the Americans in Benghazi.
Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington
Times.