For the benefit of Democratic Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, (NH-02)…
- Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya.
- Libya is that somewhat large country in North Africa between Algeria and Egypt.
- That particular country, desperate apologists to the contrary*, is part of what most people call ‘the Middle East,’ – including, apparently, Ann McLane Kuster. From March of 2011:
Kuster said she supports Obama’s recent action in response to unrest in the Middle East. She said she felt the military intervention in Libya is appropriate because it’s “primarily a humanitarian mission and the international community is leading, not just the U.S.”
“I think that’s the right approach,” she said. “I think we’ve got to be very careful about not ending up in our third full-scale military operation putting American lives at stake.”
We all got that, right? Benghazi, Libya, Middle East?
Excellent. Now check this out:
Here’s the relevant part of the transcript:
CONSTITUENT: Can you address Benghazi? What are you going to do about Benghazi? Why isn’t Benghazi at the top of your issue?
REP. KUSTER: Well, I’m certainly not here to talk about it. We’re here to talk about the Middle East.
CONSTITUENT: That is the Middle East!
CONSTITUENT #2: Libya is like right in the middle of the Middle East.
CONSTITUENT: Benghazi is the Middle East!
Now, I know that Ann McLane Kuster is a progressive Democrat, and as such is rather hazy about all foreigners who are not comfortingly exotic. But one would hope that a Member of Congress could keep track of her own rhetoric, surely? – Not to mention, one does not cavalierly dismiss four American citizens (including an Ambassador) being abandoned and then murdered by enemies of the United States. This happened under a Democratic administration, Congresswoman Kuster: you are thus expected to at least pretendthat you don’t think that those people deserved their fate.
Do try to keep up.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*I am assuming that there will be people trying their best to defend a progressive Democrat’s latest geopolitical idiocy; there usually is. I await with some amusement to see how they explain why Kuster was couching Libya in terms of the Middle East back in 2011…
To be fair, I don’t really think of North Africa outside Egypt as the “Middle East”. Libya is no more the Middle East than is North Sudan. Maybe as a conglomerate, “The Middle East and North Africa” when discussing Islam or OPEC. That distinction though is immaterial to the discussion on or the importance of Benghazi though.