When Hillary Clinton went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Republicans opened their bags of overly ripe conspiracy theories and moldering fruitcake ideas and tossed everything at her. Every shot missed.
Republican senators and congressmen on the foreign affairs committees of both houses had insisted that the departing secretary of State come in for a full day of hearings about the deadly terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Some of them must have thought this was a great chance to do preemptive damage to the most popular choice for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Instead, she made them look like the clumsy bad guys in an Aaron Sorkin political drama.
The State Department‘s own independent investigative board has already answered most of the serious questions about the Benghazi tragedy in which four Americans were killed, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. The panel cited the failures of mid-level officials and suggested 29 ways to improve the system. Clinton said implementation of those steps was already 85% complete.
If there is ANYONE, and I mean, anyone, who had a right to blow up into a complete emotional collapse yesterday, it was Hillary Clinton. For twenty years now, she has been pilloried, excoriated, demonized, belittled, cursed at and spat upon, and yet, in front of the most hostile questioning I’ve seen coming from Capitol Hill since Anita Hill tried to warn America about Clarence Thomas (Another woman. Interesting.) she maintained her composure, breaking her equanimity only when talking about standing beside the President as the caskets of four brave Americans – Americans dishonored in life by the very men now verbally abusing their boss and now dishonored in death by these same men who ghoulishly use them as political props – and comforting their families.
She got angry, too. She got angry because these morons would rather score political points against her than get to the bottom of what happened in Benghazi and accept a heaping dole of responsibility as they and there party defunded embassy security, all in the name of…what, exactly? Tax cuts for the rich, is what.
In short, Congressmen and Senators of the right, the truism the rest of the planet lives by, “you get what you pay for,” was writ large in Benghazi and you guys tried to stiff the waiter. Shame on you.
She called you on it, and now you’re angry. Let me sum up her testimony for you: we’re on it, I’m out of here, get over it.
If you need further explanation, I’m sure Senator Kerry would gladly give you a briefing. Even tho you don’t deserve one.
My guess is that women will handle physical and emotional stress of combat, if anything, better than men do. They handle childbirth, which would turn the average man into a gibbering idiot, and many of them do it multiple times, on purpose. I’ve even seen them look forward to it. How many men would look forward to getting their kneecaps broken?
Think about it; when a couple breaks up, whose clothing winds up on the lawn?
I think the reason we have kept women out of combat has to do with the “cruel and unusual punishment” thing. Isn’t there something in the Geneva Convention about deploying “terror weapons” in war?
Thank you for finally outing yourself as the restless ghost of Henny Youngman.
Canada asks what the fuck took you so long (redux)?
Over history and in many cultures, women have proven their willingness to be at least as savage as men, although in the last few centuries, war has become mostly a male and ultra-macho pursuit. Unfortunately, for some men, macho includes rape. This change may expose more women to that risk. On the other hand, it may foster a she’s-my-buddy-and-my-equal attitude rather than a she’s-a-slut attitude,
Both the experience of combat and the training for combat tend to evoke our darkest capabilities and all too often dehumanize us. I hate to see that expanded. What’s next? Children?
Blatant sexism from the New York Post.