An empire reaches or degenerates into a culture fixated on theater, whereby all events are judged as performances. This allows our judging peoples' actions by "How composed they were", "How self deprecating they were", "their facial expressions". The public judges U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi hearings as events featuring celebrities strolling down the red carpet preening for gestures of worship from the hysterical public and sycophantic reporters. This cycle of public spectacle diverts us from critically analyzing content, substance, etc..This critical method is too taxing and time consuming for a culture addicted to instant gratification. Yes in the abstract these two judgement methods aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. We could blend analyzing performance and the underlying content. But a culture that focuses excessively on flair will do so because they lack a genuine interest in fine details and viewing the big picture instead of identifying patterns of behavior. Therefore, U.S. House hearings and multiple reports (most recently published on Tuesday June 28, 2016) on Benghazi are judged by many in the media as though it were a stage crowded by the conflicting performances of opportunistic Republicans and a Democratic Presidential candidate.
Theatrical settings like this feature performances.The major media outlets express their admiration (in some cases begrudgingly) for former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton because she withstood 11 hours of interrogation. That's right she faced an interrogation that would reduce Darkness at Noon to an image of hyperactive children being sent to timeout. So her surviving this show-trial positions her better to become the next President.
The House Republicans contribute to politics as theater by focusing their laser beam exclusively on Hillary Clinton distorts their Benghazi hearings into a public show-trial. Once they establish the show-trial setting, their hearing becomes an event covered by some major media as a contest . This view of the hearing as a contest and as theater influences some of the major media's coverage.
The hearings as theater wherein the media judges the actors by their respective performances includes their focusing on both Hillary's and House Select Committee member Peter Roska's (R-Ill) facial expressions shown at different moments during the hearing.
Does someone's calmness suggest an admirable display of strength in the face of an unprovoked attack? It does sometimes. In this case it certainly does if you judge Hillary's fundraising for her Presidential campaign that occurred immediately following her appearance before the House Select Committee. Such calmness can also signal the mind of a sociopath. Yes House Republicans are exploiting this tragedy for political gain. But, this tragedy begat more tragedy and instability that continues today. Libya is a failed state. So what? Before it plunged into post-Qadaffi chaos could Libyans boast that Anthony Bourdain showcased their local cuisines showing foodies worldwide that this failed state still offers something for the palate? Or, for that matter would Hillary claim failed states are the desired outcomes of the Clinton Doctrine?
U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders indignantly whined that "the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails." His indignation states that Hillary's emails are trivial and that discussing them only diverts our attention from more important issues. Bernie is right that other issues deserve our attention. But, he and the public shouldn't overlook the content in some of these emails. They do reveal somewhat Hillary's motivations on interpreting the events as they happen and how she plans to claim such events vindicate her judgement and actions.
We should not discount how much vanity influences one's behavior. For this reason alone it's worthwhile that such emails are leaked to the public. Such vanity should reveal one danger of empire. Hillary hints at such dangerous delusions:
The continued chaos and bloodshed raging from the Maghreb to the Arabian peninsula should mute the hysterical media and Hillary apologists expressing fatigue over further inquiries of the Benghazi attack.
We should not discount how much vanity influences one's behavior. For this reason alone it's worthwhile that such emails are leaked to the public. Such vanity should reveal one danger of empire. Hillary hints at such dangerous delusions:
According to one email chain, her longtime friend and personal adviser Sidney Blumenthal praised the military success of the bombing campaign to destroy Gaddafi’s army and hailed the dictator’s impending ouster.
“First, brava! This is a historic moment and you will be credited for realizing it,” Blumenthal wrote on Aug. 22, 2011. “When Qaddafi himself is finally removed, you should of course make a public statement before the cameras wherever you are, even in the driveway of your vacation home. … You must go on camera. You must establish yourself in the historical record at this moment. … The most important phrase is: ‘successful strategy.’”
Clinton forwarded Blumenthal’s advice to Jake Sullivan, a close State Department aide. “Pls read below,” she wrote. “Sid makes a good case for what I should say, but it’s premised on being said after Q[addafi] goes, which will make it more dramatic. That’s my hesitancy, since I’m not sure how many chances I’ll get.”
Hillary doesn't want to be judged by the content of her emails, but she uses email to discuss with her confidants how she can transform Libya's degenerating into a failed state into a self-aggrandizing example of her "Doctrine."Sullivan responded, saying “it might make sense for you to do an op-ed to run right after he falls, making this point. … You can reinforce the op-ed in all your appearances, but it makes sense to lay down something definitive, almost like the Clinton Doctrine.” [1].
The continued chaos and bloodshed raging from the Maghreb to the Arabian peninsula should mute the hysterical media and Hillary apologists expressing fatigue over further inquiries of the Benghazi attack.
Much more critical concerns deserve analysis that the House and media excluded from this latest political theater. Republican House Select Committee members were certainly aware of national security laws limiting the range and content of their questioning in public:
Rather than their narrowly focusing on Hillary's decision making and actions taken leading up to and immediately following the Benghazi attack, the House Select Committee would have served the public better by attempting to make the legal changes necessary allowing a comprehensive disclosure of this tragedy. Such changes that will expand what information can be disclosed is necessary to ensure proper investigations occur.
A U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) report issued in October 2012 reveals that:
Theatrical settings like this feature nothing more than demagogic performances. The U.S. House hearings on Benghazi were predicated on a cynical premise: they could focus on Hillary's involvement in order to expose her incompetence and damage her Presidential campaign without exploring the underlying agenda which motivated the attack on the U.S. Consulate. This excessive focus on Hillary's involvement prevents their reviewing a more comprehensive body of facts that link the regime change efforts in Libya to Syria, showing U.S. using terrorists as tools to accomplish their foreign policy objectives. I can only infer that they refuse to conduct efforts to increase what information is disclosed to us because they support the perpetual regime change foreign policy. Also, they accept the risks incurred from using terrorists to help execute this policy. That is a strong accusation, but seems logical given the way the House Republicans (and Democrats too) have handled the investigation into the Benghazi attack.
The transcripts of this Congressional hearing shown no Congressperson advocating something resembling a 21st century Glasnost that, if implemented, could reduce U.S. involvement in such tragedies for fear of being promptly implicated. Of course that view presupposes the general public would strongly demand being properly informed. That view is simply not realistic due to continued public apathy.
Given the Republican House Select Committee members presumed awareness of such laws, their insistence of hearings of this nature suggests their only objective was staging a spectacle. They would uncover no incriminating admissions from Hillary, but somehow their subjecting her to a prolonged interrogation would further damage her reputation.The same national security laws constraining State Department and CIA personnel also prevent lawmakers, other than those on select intelligence committees, from being briefed on such missions. And even those privileged individuals could not raise related questions in public — or even in closed sessions that include committee members or staff without the appropriate clearances. [2].
Rather than their narrowly focusing on Hillary's decision making and actions taken leading up to and immediately following the Benghazi attack, the House Select Committee would have served the public better by attempting to make the legal changes necessary allowing a comprehensive disclosure of this tragedy. Such changes that will expand what information can be disclosed is necessary to ensure proper investigations occur.
A U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) report issued in October 2012 reveals that:
Weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the Port of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria. The weapons shipped during late-August 2012 were Sniper rifles, RPG’s, and 125 mm and 155mm howitzers missiles.
During the immediate aftermath of, and following the uncertainty caused by, the downfall of the ((Qaddafi)) regime in October 2011 and up until early September of 2012, weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles located in Benghazi, Libya were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the ports of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria. The Syrian ports were chosen due to the small amount of cargo traffic transiting these two ports. The ships used to transport the weapons were medium-sized and able to hold 10 or less shipping containers of cargo. [3]Arms shipments from Libya to Syria is important given that both the attack occurred in Benghazi and that arms were shipped from the port in that city to Syria. Presumably, the interlocutor of the weapons was involved in both regime change operations. But, the DOD report cited above redacted information that may have identified who actually shipped these arms [4]. The DOD certainly would not have conducted their research without determining who shipped these weapons. Without the DOD revealing who shipped these arms, we will unlikely never learn all of the relevant facts of this tragedy. Consequently, House Republicans interrogating Hillary was just theatrical futility.
Theatrical settings like this feature nothing more than demagogic performances. The U.S. House hearings on Benghazi were predicated on a cynical premise: they could focus on Hillary's involvement in order to expose her incompetence and damage her Presidential campaign without exploring the underlying agenda which motivated the attack on the U.S. Consulate. This excessive focus on Hillary's involvement prevents their reviewing a more comprehensive body of facts that link the regime change efforts in Libya to Syria, showing U.S. using terrorists as tools to accomplish their foreign policy objectives. I can only infer that they refuse to conduct efforts to increase what information is disclosed to us because they support the perpetual regime change foreign policy. Also, they accept the risks incurred from using terrorists to help execute this policy. That is a strong accusation, but seems logical given the way the House Republicans (and Democrats too) have handled the investigation into the Benghazi attack.
The transcripts of this Congressional hearing shown no Congressperson advocating something resembling a 21st century Glasnost that, if implemented, could reduce U.S. involvement in such tragedies for fear of being promptly implicated. Of course that view presupposes the general public would strongly demand being properly informed. That view is simply not realistic due to continued public apathy.
The House (both this Select Committee and its overall membership) show no viable willingness to change the laws more strongly limiting the U.S. government's power to classify and redact so many details on their reports. Yet, they embrace reaffirming the surveillance state that asserts preemptive and demonstrable claims over U.S. citizens' civil liberties. The U.S. Senate just passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 which as the name implies authorizes private companies sharing information about potential cyber threats with the U.S. government. But, a closer reading of this Act's provisions reveals it will likely enable the FBI and the NSA to conduct increased surveillance (i.e. warrantless domestic spying). This is the Senate version of the Bill. The House has their version as well. Both Senate and House will likely flesh out a final version before the end of this year. So the House Select Committee makes no recommendation that all DOD reports on the Benghazi attack be declassified, but Congress yet again is on the cusp of legalizing additional domestic surveillance. Loss of civil liberties pumps blood into Empires.
House Republicans believe they can investigate Benghazi insofar as they can embarrass Hillary without widening the scope of the inquiry thereby exposing the disastrous consequences of a foreign policy based on regime change. This same practice of manipulating the debate to produce propaganda also occurs in the current U.S. policy of fighting ISIS while supporting the various groups identified under the fictitious rubric of the "Syrian opposition" opposing Assad.
House Republicans believe they can investigate Benghazi insofar as they can embarrass Hillary without widening the scope of the inquiry thereby exposing the disastrous consequences of a foreign policy based on regime change. This same practice of manipulating the debate to produce propaganda also occurs in the current U.S. policy of fighting ISIS while supporting the various groups identified under the fictitious rubric of the "Syrian opposition" opposing Assad.
Meanwhile, those same Congresspersons serve and defend the empire. The U.S. House of Representatives Select House Committee on Benghazi released on June 28, 2016 their latest report on their investigation into the Benghazi attack. They issued a summary critical of the Obama administration but by implication the criticism is probably meant to stain further Hillary's image. That's my view but as Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy recommends please the report for yourself.
Hillary and her followers can repeat the scripted talking point that such investigations are partisan conspiracy theories intended to scapegoat her and damage her 2016 U.S. Presidential election campaign. They continue to repeat another scripted talking point that the Select Committee has spent (insert any amount of $ millions) and discovered no new information, etc. The Republican House Select Committee members' focus on trying to prove that Hillary was the primary agent directing this debacle offers to her rhetorical space to counter that she is being victimized by an overly politicized spectacle. In effect, the GOP Committee members continue in vain to pump political gains for themselves into their limited hangout. Therein lies the problem for those hoping the U.S. empire will recoil from seeing the world as its theater of influence.
The forces contributing to Libya's degeneration into a failed state consciously and methodically have spread to Syria. Will this tragedy that rages daily in Syria prompt our elites to abandon regime change? Judging from their handling of the Libyan experience, they will move us both forward to the precipice of a global war and backward into chaos and barbarism. So for now its more endless imperial wars while Congresspersons, White House surrogates, Presidential hopefuls and many in the media limit their discussions about such subjects to limited hangouts. Endless war, robust surveillance of the subjects will escape our critical eye while elites divert our minds with limited hangouts.
1. Parry, Robert. "Hillary Clinton's Failed Libya 'Doctrine.'" Consortiumnews.com. October 22, 2015. https://consortiumnews.com/2015/10/22/hillary-clintons-failed-libya-doctrine-2/
2. Hancock, Larry. "Why America Will Never Hear the Entire Benghazi Story." Who.What.Why. October 23, 2015. http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/10/23/welcome-to-the-circus-hillary-and-the-benghazi-committee/
3. Judicial Watch. "Benghazi Scandal: Obama Administration Knew Weapons Were Being Sent to Al-Qaeda in Syria, New Documents Show." downloaded this article posted on Global Research: Centre for Research on Globalization. article was posted on May 19, 2015. http://www.globalresearch.ca/benghazi-scandal-obama-administration-knew-weapons-were-being-sent-to-al-qaeda-in-syria-new-documents-show/5450504
4. Ibid.
2. Hancock, Larry. "Why America Will Never Hear the Entire Benghazi Story." Who.What.Why. October 23, 2015. http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/10/23/welcome-to-the-circus-hillary-and-the-benghazi-committee/
3. Judicial Watch. "Benghazi Scandal: Obama Administration Knew Weapons Were Being Sent to Al-Qaeda in Syria, New Documents Show." downloaded this article posted on Global Research: Centre for Research on Globalization. article was posted on May 19, 2015. http://www.globalresearch.ca/benghazi-scandal-obama-administration-knew-weapons-were-being-sent-to-al-qaeda-in-syria-new-documents-show/5450504
4. Ibid.
No comments:
Post a Comment