‘Why Were Republicans SILENT When REAGAN'S ‘BENGHAZI’ KILLED 241 American Servicemen’?

[Segami]

Benghazi wasn’t the scandal that the conservative right tried to make it out to be. Unfortunately, the Democratic president didn’t engage in a big cover-up, and the Republicans trying to score political points by shouting “Benghazi, Benghazi!” are rapidly becoming irrelevant. In the fact of that, it should be pointed out that this amount of supposed outrage is completely hypocritical. One way to illustrate this is using the Beirut Barracks Bombing of 1983, which occurred during, and was the fault of, the Reagan administration. The following image, which has been shared quite a bit recently, is referring to it:





The image isn’t entirely correct. Only 220 United States Marines were killed. The remaining casualties consisted of 18 killed sailors and three soldiers, for a total of 241 servicemen. Yet other than that small error, what the image claims is true — it was President Reagan’s fault that incident occurred. In fact, the official investigation and subsequent Department of Defense report found chain-of-command errors and placed fault on the Reagan administration, as well. The Marines had been stationed there as part of an international peacekeeping venture:

Those Marines had been ordered into Lebanon by President Ronald Reagan as a part of an international peacekeeping force following the June 1982 Israeli invasion of that country and the Palestine Liberation Organization’s withdrawal.

Making an already-dangerous situation even more hazardous, the Marines were under strict presidential orders not to load their weapons — this, so that they would appear as peacekeepers and not as armed belligerents in the conflict and despite the fact that they were moving into a war zone.

Realistically, they had become “sitting ducks” from the moment they entered Beirut. And as a result of their absurd orders, when the explosives-laden truck sped toward their doomed barracks, the two unarmed guards had no way of stopping it.


http://www.phillyburbs.com/entertainment/in-debacle-reagan-escaped-the-blame-game/article_0174fce9-b60c-5b6b-8934-915bd3c2bcf7.html



PDF Marines Barracks Beirut 1983 Bombing Defense Department Report

http://www.paperlessarchives.com/FreeTitles/Beirut1983BombingDoDReport.pdf

cont'




http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/09/why-were-republicans-silent-when-reagans-benghazi-killed-241-american-servicemen/

[Segami]

1. Where were the Republicans when.....

-...Marines were under strict presidential orders not to load their weapons


-....According to Col. Timothy J. Geraghty, the commander of the Marines in Beirut: “It didn’t take a military expert to realize that our troops had been placed in an indefensible situation. Anyone following the situation in Lebanon in ordinary news reports could realize a tragedy was in the making.


-....The Reagan administration immediately attempted to deflect blame for the attack with a deluge of false statements and misrepresentations. In a televised speech four days after the bombing, the president insisted the attack was unstoppable, erroneously declaring that the truck crashed through a series of barriers, including a chain-link fence and barbed-wire entanglements, and argued that the U.S. mission was succeeding.


-....Despite the fact that Reagan had dispatched the Marines into an impossible situation and then had issued orders that led to their inability to defend themselves, he suffered relatively little criticism from the press or partisan opponents, and after months of vigorous campaigning was overwhelmingly re-elected the following year.


http://www.phillyburbs.com/entertainment/in-debacle-reagan-escaped-the-blame-game/article_0174fce9-b60c-5b6b-8934-915bd3c2bcf7.html

[Kolesar]

2. Benghazi gives the 'pukes something to wail about in their fundraising letters ...

...to their fringe constituents. NPR/OTM did a segment on it. Most Americans have no awareness of this "story".

[Loup Garou]

3. Aide: Reagan Left Marines Vulnerable in Beirut

Aide: Reagan Left Marines Vulnerable in Beirut

A former defense secretary for Ronald Reagan says he implored the president to put Marines serving in Beirut in a safer position before terrorists attacked them in 1983, killing 241 servicemen.

"I was not persuasive enough to persuade the president that the Marines were there on an impossible mission," Caspar Weinberger says in an oral history project capturing the views of former Reagan administration officials.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183262,00.html#ixzz2StumWXA6

[Berlum]

4. Republican go AWOL on Reagan-Republican fiasco FAIL in Beirut Marine barracks

"Thanks for nothing, you big-mouthed, unprincipled Republican chickenhawk hypocrites."
- Americans in military service to the US of A.

[Savannahmann]

5. I can't believe we're still doing this failed response

Gang, listen up. There are things that work, and there are things that just look petty and childish. Jay Carney two days ago saying that Benghazi happened a long time ago, was asinine. If a year was a long time and we shouldn't be worried about it, then why would anyone pay attention to something that happened thirty years ago?

The answer to the Benghazi situation rests with the White House, and Jay Carney would have to take the lead. He would either have to memorize who said what, when regarding the explanation and understanding of the events. Or he could put it on a note card that he rests on the podium to refresh his memory. When someone asks a question about it, he has to go down the dates, and people, who said what, when, and who about our evolving understanding of the situation.

You defuse a lie, with the truth. Not with propaganda, which lists of other attacks etc are. You defuse it by showing that good people who had good intentions made some little mistakes about our understanding of the situation. You defuse it by showing there is nothing to hide, and that eliminates the claims of conspiracy of all but the rabid 6% who would happily believe that about any President. You don't let it gain traction by claiming anyone asking questions is a racist, or a nut job republican.

Why you ask? Look at the situation now. People who were apathetic are now starting to wonder, and all we're doing is saying it happened a long time ago, and it's a Republican Witch Hunt. It may be, but that doesn't answer the questions that more people are starting to have. Not when the hearings are highlighted as whistle blowers by the right. Nobody is going to watch the hearings to get as much straight information as they can, they're going to look for a summary. Our summary? Oh nobody complained when Reagan had his Benghazi thirty years ago. The Republicans didn't complain when Bush lost far more Embassies to attacks.

It is a question of trust. We ask for the people to trust and support us the Democratic Party. We have to earn that trust every single day, and we have to earn that trust every single time something happens. Whenever a question is raised, we have to take the question seriously, and give the answer again, and again, and again. We have to earn that trust, or we'll be out the sidelines watching the Rethugs run the damned Government again.

[BlueCaliDem]

9. Goes to credibility. You know?

Like, after having read just two of your posts that excuse Republican tactics, your credibility as a DUer is a bit ambiguous.

[City Lights]

13. !

[HangOnKids]

16. Excellent reply!

[LeftInTX]

22. You are right, we have to be better than them

But, they sure get away with $hitloads and $hitloads!!!!!!!!!

It is a witch hunt. And Nancy Pelosi was kind enough not to start impeachment proceedings on Bush.

[Cha]

32. You're being selective in what Jay Carney had to say.. in fact he was brilliant..

White House: Republicans ignored Benghazi emails

The emails about the September 2012 attack on the diplomatic post in Libya were shared with members of Congress during negotiations over the confirmation of CIA Director John Brennan. If Republicans had had major problems with what the emails revealed, they probably would have said something at the time and not confirmed Brennan 63-34, White House spokesperson Jay Carney said during his daily press briefing this afternoon. “This is an effort to accuse the administration of hiding something that we did not hide,” Carney said.
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/10/wh_republicans_had_no_concerns_about_benghazi_emails/

Republicans Meltdown Into Deranged Babble After Jay Carney Repeats Benghazi Facts

White House press secretary Jay Carney was trending on twitter Friday afternoon after a press conference in which he reminded reporters that Mitt Romney started the politicization of the Benghazi attacks. You see, conservatives are outraged that Carney repeated the Candy Crowley “lie” (also known as a fact in sane circles) that Obama referred to the Benghazi attacks as an “act of terror.”

Jay Carney said today, “There is the discussion about, you know, the Republicans again, and this ongoing effort that began hours of the attacks when Mitt Romney put out a press release to try to take political advantage out of these deaths, or out of the attack in Benghazi, and, in a move that was maligned even by members of his own party. And from that day forward, there has been this effort to politicize it.”

“If you look at the issue here, the efforts to politicize it were always about, you know, were we trying to play down the fact that there was an act of terror and an attack on the embassy. And the problem has always been with that assertion it is completely hollow because the President himself in the Rose Garden said this was an act of terror and he talked about it within the context of September 11th, 2001.”

This brought up the Romney debate wounds still simmering on the Right, who still to this day do not believe that President Obama used the words “act of terror” in his Rose Garden presser.

Full article here: http://www.politicususa.com/jay-carney-benghazi.html

[fascisthunter]

6. because in truth, they really don't care

[Bluzmann57]

7. I know a guy who was a Marine in Beirut

He was not among the barracks which got blown up, but he's still angry about it. As he said to me, "I lost some brothers over there. Fuck Reagan."
He (the guy I know) has had a drinking problem in the past, in part because of his experience in Lebanon, until he met a great woman who helped him work through his problems. They have been married for 18 years I think. She isn't too fond of Reagan either.

[hobbit709]

8. IOKIYAAR, next question?

[magellan]

10. +1

Can't put a finer point on their hypocrisy than that.

[timdog44]

18. INOKIYAAD.

The hearings have shown that everything that happened in Benghazi was totally above board and that any response by the military could not have happened in a timely manner. That was testified to by the commanders of the troops. I mean the big boys. Who else can you ask to testify?

[kestrel91316]

11. Because here's the rule: If you are a RWer, you can do no wrong;

and if you are not a RWer, nothing you do is ever right.

See, that was easy.

[Boomerproud]

19. Yes, you answered the question correctly.

[Initech]

12. Obama wasn't the president. Funny how that works.

If one of their own allows that many attacks they'd look the other way and continue kissing ass.

[hughee99]

14. How many of the repukes that were silent in 1983 are the same repukes making a big deal now?

Isn't this like trying to blame today's Democrats for those that opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act? Admittedly, I don't recall Issa getting all worked up about the Beirut bombing, but then I didn't work with him making car alarms at the time, either.

[HangOnKids]

20. I think Issa was stealing cars at that time

It's how he got his expertise for car alarms.

[hughee99]

21. He was actually stealing car alarm companies if I understand right.

He made a loan to the company owner and took the whole company when the guy missed a payment.

[HangOnKids]

23. He is a car thief

What an esteemed member of Congress

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/rep-darell-issa-american-role-model-c

[hughee99]

25. I didn't hear about any of this before. I just heard about the company...

which he was also suspected of trying to burn down for the insurance money. What a "colorful" guy.

[HangOnKids]

27. Nasty little rich fuck

He makes Congress stink, ah hell he makes the WORLD stink.

[Segami]

31. Daryl Issa....

Ed Schultz & Papantonio discuss Issa at 1:15

Lots of material...

Enjoy!!

[JDPriestly]

15. If you listen to the announcements that Hillary Clinton and President Obama made in the

Rose Garden on September 12, 2012, you wonder why Republicans are such bad listeners. Those speeches are never mentioned. There were both demonstrations against the film -- in some places -- and armed attacks.

ma Discusses the Attack in Benghazi, Libya
Matt Compton
Matt Compton
September 12, 2012
11:54 AM EDT
Share This Post
President Barack Obama, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, delivers a statement regarding the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya (September 12, 2012)

President Barack Obama, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, delivers a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House, Sept. 12, 2012, regarding the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Yesterday, four Americans lost their lives after an attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya. Ambassador Chris Stevens and Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith were among those killed.

This morning, President Obama condemned that attack, which he called "outrageous and shocking" in a statement from the Rose Garden.

"We're working with the government of Libya to secure our diplomats," he said. "I've also directed my Administration to increase our security at diplomatic posts around the world. And make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/12/president-obama-discusses-attack-benghazi-libya

The President spoke of an "attack" in Benghazi.

The meaning of "attack":

noun
9.
the act of attacking; onslaught; assault.
10.
a military offensive against an enemy or enemy position.
11.
Pathology. seizure by disease or illness: an attack of indigestion.
12.
the beginning or initiating of any action; onset.
13.
an aggressive move in a performance or contest.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/attack

In contrast, what does "demonstration" mean?


dem·on·stra·tion
[dem-uhn-strey-shuhn]
noun
1.
the act or circumstance of proving or being proved conclusively, as by reasoning or a show of evidence: a belief incapable of demonstration.
2.
something serving as proof or supporting evidence: They sent a check as a demonstration of their concern.
3.
a description or explanation, as of a process, illustrated by examples, specimens, or the like: a demonstration of methods of refining ore.
4.
the act of exhibiting the operation or use of a device, machine, process, product, or the like, as to a prospective buyer.
5.
an exhibition, as of feeling; display; manifestation: His demonstration of affection was embarrassing.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/demonstration?&path=/

The President clearly used the word "attack." There was no subtlety, no subterfuge, no speculation.

The Republicans need to review the fundamental facts about what the President said and did. They need to learn as we have that Fox News cannot be trusted to present the facts as they occurred. They are making fools of themselves.

I have questions about Benghazi, but there was no cover-up about what happened.

[bvar22]

17. Cut & Run Ronnie?

One of the few things he did right was to LEAVE Lebanon after the Marine Barracks bombing.
He moved everybody OUT, and said he wasn't going to waste American lives in a country where we weren't wanted.

I commend him for how he handled that,

and wish other American Presidents would imitate his approach to hostile countries in the Middle east,
and NOT his Trickle Down Economic Policies.

[amuse bouche]

24. Ronnie's record

needs to be corrected and displayed for the awful it was

[Zoeisright]

26. Because they are sleazeball hypocrites.

Pretty much the answer to anything those assholes do or say.

[DonCoquixote]

28. IOKIYAR

Nothing more than that.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1251844

[indepat]

29. Republicans want absolute power and it matters not a whit how disastrous or catastrophic

are the policies and actions of a Republican president, no matter how large and costly the tactical and strategical military blunders, no matter the cost in treasure and blood, no matter how illegal and inhumane their pre-emptive wars of aggression are. Having total power and control are all that matters to Republics and that power and control will ruthlessly be used to fully implement their right-wing PNAC agenda and otherwise doing the bidding of large corporation and other wealthy patrons.

[UTUSN]

30. Big R#32 & K. HANNITY keeps parroting, "Nobody died in Watergate." What is that "Beirut" word?!1 n/t