Benghazi’s Fading Memory

Four months after the Benghazi attack.
[courtesy Google Images]

Wikpedia

“On the night of September 11, 2012, a heavily armed group of between 125 and 150 gunmen attacked the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, in Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and another diplomat. Several hours later in the early morning of the next day, a second assault targeted a nearby CIA annex in a different compound about one mile away, killing two embassy security personnel. Ten others were injured in the attacks which were strongly condemned by the governments of Libya, the United States, and many other countries throughout the world. . . .  The debate over the events before, during, and after the attack featured heavily in the 2012 US Presidential election. In the following months, several Republican members of Congress launched investigations, which are currently ongoing, and the topic remains a matter of great controversy, including the CIA’s presence and role at the diplomatic mission. . . . On August 6, 2013, it was reported that the U.S. had filed criminal charges against several individuals, including militia leader Ahmed Abu Khattala, for alleged involvement in the attacks.[13] To date, a few arrests have been made (none by the FBI); no one has been prosecuted.”

There was a time when an attack on a US embassy and the murder of a US Ambassador could be sufficient cause for the US to go to war.  Today, such an attack can be grounds for a cover-up by the US government and, arguably, US mainstream media.

Benghazi
[courtesy Google Images]

In October of A.D. 2013, Congressman Trey Gowdy (Republican, South Carolina) complained to the media and the American people about the Benghazi deaths, resulting scandal and lack of meaningful investigation by the US government, the mainstream media, or the American people.  

Some people died.  They could’ve been saved.  The government that could have rescued those people, refused to do so.  Secretary of State Hilary Clinton (probable candidate for the presidency in A.D. 2016) was implicated in that decision.

The disturbing point to Congressman Gowdy’s complaint (below) is that nobody gives a damn.   Not the government, not the media, not even the American people.  The attack in Behghazi is simply being allowed to disappear under the daily haystack  of additional news reports on subject after subject.  Whoever may have been responsible, culpable or simply negligent won’t be prosecuted or even officially identified.

Worse, although the events took place just sixteen months ago, almost no one even remembers.  The people responsible for Benghazi–not just the armed attackers, but also the US officials who refused to defend the Americans who ultimately died–are going to get away with it simply because, without media coverage, the attack will be forgotten.

I’ll bet that, today, 80% of the American people can’t recall what Benghazi was all about.  This time next year, the number will be 90%.  By the time the election rolls around in A.D. 2016, many of those who have any recollection of “Benghazi” will guess is was a battle in WWII.

There’s something disturbing about a nation that has such a high capacity for indifference and a limited capacity for recollection.  Has the computer technology behind Twitter and texting caused us to become so submerged in the trivialities of the immediate moment that we’ve lost our capacity to remember our history and its lessons, principles and values?  Can we survive as a nation without a highly developed sense of our own history?  If we can’t recall events that happened just 16 months ago–and the lessons those events teach–how can we recall the events, lessons and values on which this nation was built over two centuries ago?

Or, are the American people right to forget Benghazi?  Was it only the story of a handful of government employees (spies and thugs?) who were ultimately betrayed by another handful of government employees/thugs?  Is the story of the resulting deaths no more meaningful than the killing of one gang of drug dealers by another gang and therefore  merely much ado about nothing?

Here’s Congressman Gowdy’s  3-minute video: