Benghazi-non-gate

Our hearts go out to the families of those heroes we lost and to the wounded at Benghazi.

But, the Republican House is convening new hearings to finally blow the lid off what they think is the horrendous scandal of Benghazi or at least get some attention which failed today because of the rescued women in Ohio and the guilty verdict in Arizona.

Testimony today revealed the not so extraordinary information that there was a lot of confusion that night. Shocker!

Exceptions Make Bad Law, Except . . .

Respect the Rule of Law, please, people. The appearance of injustice has clearly occurred in the apparent abuse of the UK Courts and International Law when the Lockerbie bombing terrorist was released to Libya on the belief he was dying. Now, self-appointed masters of the universe are calling for a new, barely organized government of a nearly liberated Libya to turn over the terrorist to return him to prison. By what authority? I dunno. I guess it's the authority of political pandering. Big, big mistake, people. We might as well just occupy Libya and dictate democracy or whatever.

Huntsman Humanistically Explains Mormon History; Hatch Panders with Palin; and Libya Is Nearly Liberated

So, Jon Huntsman makes national news announcing he actually believes in science and local news in response to a national press question saying the LDS practice of banning African-Americans from the priesthood was "wrong." I suppose it is easy for some to be offended by a sense of lack of loyalty, but here's an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints:

Forget everything that I have said, or what . . .  Brigham Young . . . . or whomsoever has said . . . that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world. 

Elder Bruce R. McConkie. I dunno, but that sounds like it was "wrong" to me. That's why the Lord had to reveal a new course and "all the darkness and all the views and all the thoughts of the past" are gone. Don't let semantics offend so easily especially when outweighed by much bigger offenses. Let's move on, people.

Moderating My Idealism (with shoes on the ground) - But Still Passionate

CIA operatives in Libya? I hope so. But I also hope they are not engaging in violent overthrow of the Qadafi regime. Intelligence gathering is necessary. Coordinating with legitimate, indigenous Libyan opposition is entirely appropriate. But the CIA should not be creating or leading such an enterprise or actually engaged in covert, violent action. The Congress has responsibilities to oversee this in confidence under national security protections. They and the President are ultimately responsible to the people.

What we don't want is manipulation as in the Eisenhower Administration (he comes up again?) when we used covert operations to overthrow and set up governments in Guatemala and Iran for fear of the spread of communism. The whole Iran interference resulted in serious problems for us 20-some years later that continue still another 20-some years to the present. Nixon and Kissinger interfered in Chile to put Pinochet in power. (Pinochet was charged with crimes against humanity, why not them?) And don't even get me started with Reagan, Ollie North, Poindexter and company.

The President's North Star: Pragmatic Idealism

Or, "what can be done, ought to be done." I guess that is sort of like "passionate moderation."

I was struck by a particular phrase in the President's speech on Libya tonight:

our strength abroad is anchored in our strength here at home.  That must always be our North Star -- the ability of our people to reach their potential, to make wise choices with our resources, to enlarge the prosperity that serves as a wellspring for our power, and to live the values that we hold so dear.

Eisenhower, Obama, and the United Nations: Faith or Fear?

OK. It's time to fess-up. I changed my profile to reflect that I have a degree in International Relations from that bastion of liberalism, Brigham Young University. And I'm only being a little facetious because my liberal arts education and my significant but modest political shift from moderate Republican to moderate Democrat did occur there. (Which, of course, makes me a flaming liberal if not an outright communist to many people here in Utah). But, education happens.

This recent Libyan conflict really has my hope soaring along with the recognition, but not fear, of great risk. As I noted before, this could be the first time the United Nations has actually worked as intended. I'll get back to that later.

To the Shores of Tripoli - War? and Peace?

Yikes! I look at my last blog title "Paved with Good Intentions" and worry about the standard meaning coming true with the turn of events of US involvement in Libya. Yet I hope and pray that this Libyan conflict truly is still the way I understand it. So far, and hopefully it will continue to be that no US or other outside troops will engage on the ground in Libya. To this point, it is enforcement of a no-fly zone by first taking out the capacity of anti-aircraft action by Qadafi's forces which seems to be working as a united effort sanctioned by the UN. There appears to be much more international support and authority than there was with the control and manipulation of the "coalition of the willing" in Iraq only covered by a fig leaf of legality.