This is sort of crazy. It is Father’s Day, of course, and I looked around for the cell phone and realized we interred Raven’s ashes almost two years ago. Still, there is that inclination to grab the phone and do something, check off that box in the phantom “to do” list.
Oh well.
So, with Iraq in flames and reports of mass killings by the Sunni insurgents who have occupied the north, it is gratifying that our Government is behaving with the kind of resolution that we expect. With reports that militants had seized the second largest city in Iraq and seized a half a billion dollars in currency from the central bank, helped themselves to a vast store of US-supplied weapons, and raised the level of hysteria in Baghdad.
The Chief executive visited the village of Cannon Ball, North Dakota, an isolated wide-spot in the highway on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Nation. It is the President’s first visit to a Rez in his two terms in office, so I know this was high up on the priority list. There had to be some official business to over the costs of using Air Force One (and Marine One for local travel in California) for the weekend.
There is a certain eerie consistency to all this. Benghazi did not cause Mr. Obama defer his campaign fund-raising trip to Las Vegas the day after the attack, after all, nor did it cause him to visit the White House Situation Room that night while the attacks were actually in progress to find out what was up.
We still don’t know- nor may ever- what the reaction was on the part of the White House senior staff to the fact that the arms transfer facility run by the CIA had been overrun, and two Agency staff were killed defending it, with ten others wounded. Nor of Ambassador Chris Steven’s death and that of information officer Sean Smith, who were killed at the Mission itself. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon might have been unaware that Langley was working with MI-6, The Turks, the Saudis and the Qaratis to funnel weapons to the Syrian jihadis through southern Turkey.
I can understand it is hard to pay attention to all the stuff that a President might be held accountable for, but as it turned out, he wasn’t, so no big deal.
Secretary Clinton is a bit different. I heard her talking about her book on Friday, when the President was en route the Rez. She said the Accountability Review said the responsibility was hers, of course, but the actual blame was on some people several layers below her in the chain of command.
According to reporter Sy Hersh, knowledgeable sources told him that “The consulate’s only mission was to provide cover for the moving of arms. It had no real political role.”
So there we are. According to Hersh’s sources, a classified annex to the official report indicates an agreement to handle the details of the transfer operation was inked with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan in early 2012.
My vague understanding of foreign relations is that this sort of stuff is handled by the State Department, which suggests to me that Secretary Clinton’s testimony to the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees in January of last year might be construed as perjury.
It is possible it is a matter of nuance. When specifically asked by Sen. Rand Paul about the arms transfer, she acted surprised. “Turkey?” she said. “I’ll have to take that for the record.”
I suppose it is possible she didn’t know about the arms transfer deal her Department worked out and had the President sanction. If so, one might wonder who actually was the Secretary of State at that time.
Anyway, as Rev. Jeremiah Wright might say, the “pigeons came home to roost” as the Sunni ISIS rebels swept over the Syrian border carrying those same weapons and started rolling toward Baghdad, which is now being defended, in part, by the Iranian al Quds Force. Can you imagine?
The President is on top of this one, of course. The most advanced communications in the world support Air Force One on the western swing that occupies the long Father’s Day weekend. The First Couple is staying with Ambassador to Spain James Costos and designer Michael Smith on the President’s third visit to The Valley this year. It is Michelle’s first trip, and her first vacation in nearly three weeks.
Mr. Obama attended a Democratic fundraiser at a private residence in Orange County’s Laguna Beach Saturday morning, and later spoke eloquently at UC Irvine’s graduation ceremony at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. He talked about Global Warming.
No kidding. I can’t make this stuff up. Global Warming. He referred to people who disagree with the importance of the issue as believing the moon is made of cheese. I wonder: could it be brie?
Later, returning to Rancho Mirage by helicopter and motorcade, he got around the plush Sunnylands golf course at the former Annenberg estate in three hours and forty minutes. Military aides were positioned to get the word to him immediately if anything important came up.
As a taxpayer, would it be too much to ask that the President at least look interested?
Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303