Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has said some pretty audacious things, but Monday night during an MSNBC town hall she told host Chris Matthews that “We didn’t lose a single person” in Libya. While it is understandable that the former secretary of state would like to forget Benghazi, it is beyond the reach of reason that she has actually done so.
On September 11, 2012, Islamic militants (read terrorists) launched an attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, where they killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith. Hours later, in another coordinated attack on a compound one mile away, CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were also killed. The failure of the Department of State to act and send in support has dogged Mrs. Clinton since then. It also appears that the scandal surrounding her private, unsecured e-mail server may be connected to communications that contradict her statements — including sworn testimony — about the events of that night.
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Her most recent comments were made during a portion of the town hall when she and host Chris Matthews were discussing the history of the U.S. government’s history of assassinations and attempted assassinations of heads of state. She said:
In Libya, you had a dictator who had American blood on his hands, remember Reagan tried to knock him off — as you recall because you were working in the Congress — missed when he tried. When he said that he was going to track down his people and murder them, the Europeans and the Arabs came to us and said, “You’ve got to help us.” Because what they feared is what we see in Syria. What they feared was an out of control civil war on their shores right across the Mediterranean, right next to Egypt, right next to the rest of the Middle East. Remember we had those countries helping us in Afghanistan in our very big coalition.
Mrs. Clinton then segued into a defense of an interventionist foreign policy that knows no boundaries — literally or figuratively. Then she shifted gears and said something that — in retrospect — even she must realize sounds insane:
Now, is Libya perfect? It isn’t. But did they have two elections that were free and fair where they voted for moderates? Yes they did. So, you know, changing from a dictator who has hollowed out your country to something resembling a functioning state and — even hopefully more of a democratic one — doesn’t happen over night. And we’ve got to continue to support the Libyan people to give them a chance because otherwise you see what’s happening in Syria with the consequences of millions of people flooding out of Syria, with more than 250,000 people killed, with terrorist groups like ISIS taking up — almost — a huge swath of territory as big as some of the states in that area.
So yes, I mean Libya was a different kind of calculation and we didn’t lose a single person, we didn’t have a problem in supporting our European and Arab allies, in working with NATO. And now we’ve got to support the Libyan people.
So, Mrs. Clinton expects people with access to news archives and historical data to swallow the notion that her decision — as secretary of state — to help topple the Gadhafi regime in the summer of 2011 did not play any part in the death of four Americans in the fall of 2012? We didn’t lose a single person? Next thing you know she’ll be claiming she never sent or received classified e-mails over her private server. I know that Mrs. Clinton has been busy running for president and from an indictment, but perhaps she should brush up on her Benghazi history. I’d like to recommend tha she spend some flight time in between campaign stops watching 13 Hours. That should help bring her up to speed.
Photo at top: Hillary Clinton on MSNBC
