Benghazi Hearings Cancelled After Clinton Drops Out of Race

[Adam White]

I cannot accept something solely on the basis that the President said it.

Your missing my point.

I am not sure I am. But maybe I am.

I think sometimes the red mist descends for you when someone appears to disagree with you and then you go on the defensive. I wasn't taking exception to your graphic or your post. I was just - in general - criticizing the notion that the Beirut bombing was terrorism. That doesn't mean that - using the current Republican logic - that an investigation wasn't warranted or that Reagan shouldn't have been vilified for "allowing it to happen" on his watch.

[Adam White]

To be honest Adam, back when the beirut bombing happened, I was very politically aware already.  There wasn't anyone who didn't think it was terrorism in this country.

Lebanon had been such a peaceful beautiful country prior to that, it didn't seem possible.

All of the news broadcasts labelled it as terrorism.  And you've got to keep in mind that this was before the word 'terrorism' started meaning so much more terrible stuff.  Back then a Plane HiJacking was considered an act of terrorism, instead of just a hijacking.

Of course. But that doesn't mean it was terrorism. Lockerbie was terrorism (as an example). Hijacking a plane was terrorism.

But driving a truck filled with explosives into the barracks of the enemy is an act of war. The US was painting itself out as a peacekeeper when it had taken sides in the conflict. Similarly, the bombing of the USS Cole during the Clinton administration was not an act of terrorism - it was a military strike that caught the US off-guard.

When American soldiers (or sailors, marines, etc) are killed by non-state actors, the US likes to call it terrorism. But when American warplanes bomb the shit out of a hospital it's a mistake. And don't get me started on the cruise missiles that destroyed a pharmaceutical factory.

The media called it terrorism - but the media is so biased towards the government that it would've been shocking if they had said anything else.

[SunKing]

Interesting argument but I don't recall anywhere in the Middle East being peaceful growing up.  Especially Lebanon-that's what the Marines were there for in the first place.  Keep those folks from killing each other.

There was a shock factor because we weren't used to dealing with that type of fanaticism.  So put into the context of the time, a surprise attack on any installation whether civilian or military at that time would be considered cowardly.  Like 9/11, it was a completely outrageous act, so terrorism was an easy label.

Agree it gets overused and but sort of grey area there given the times.

[Adam White]

Interesting argument but I don't recall anywhere in the Middle East being peaceful growing up.  Especially Lebanon-that's what the Marines were there for in the first place.  Keep those folks from killing each other.

There was a shock factor because we weren't used to dealing with that type of fanaticism.  So put into the context of the time, a surprise attack on any installation whether civilian or military at that time would be considered cowardly.  Like 9/11, it was a completely outrageous act, so terrorism was an easy label.

Agree it gets overused and but sort of grey area there given the times.

I think the reason it happened in Lebanon was that the Marines (well, US forces) were seen as having taken sides in the conflict. Then there was the issue of the Israeli invasion which the US did not oppose.

Whether or not the attack was justified (not saying that killing people is justified, but whether or not the attackers were correct in their assessment of US actions or policy), it was a military action.

Lee Rigby getting his head cut off in a London street = terrorism. A USMC barracks in a war zone being destroyed by a truck bomb = not terrorism.

I think Reagan (and others since) have labeled these sorts of actions as terrorism in an effort to delegitimize the attackers and to play the victim card. If you do that, you don't have to look at how your actions might've helped precipitate the event.

[finehoe]

THE HOUSE Select Committee on Benghazi further discredited itself on Thursday as its Republican members attempted to fuel largely insubstantial suspicions about Hillary Clinton's role in the 2012 Benghazi attacks. Grilling Ms. Clinton all day, they elicited little new information and offered little hope that their inquiry would find anything significant that seven previous investigations didn't.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/benghazi-business-as-usual/2015/10/22/5a09b31e-7901-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc_story.html

More taxpayer dollars wasted.