On Sept. 11, four brave Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya. This included our Ambassador, Chris Stevens, Management Officer Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, both Navy SEALS.
On Aug. 15 of this year, U.S. officials were told that the current security at the Consulate in Benghazi, Libya could not withstand an attack. They requested more security due to well-known Islamist militia terrorists in the region. This request was denied by our administration.
Weeks later, the Benghazi Embassy was brutally attacked on Sept. 11. During this attack, the Benghazi Consulate had contacted the White House; Washington had been informed of the attack just as it was beginning. In turn, the Pentagon ordered an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (drone) to fly over Benghazi to provide video to the White House. Hillary Clinton then notified CIA Director David Petraeus. But nothing was done.
For seven hours our administration sat in the situation room at the White House watching all of this take place in actual time. I can only imagine the suffering of the ambassador and our three Americans there. Nothing was done to intervene militarily to rescue, help, and bring to an end this attack. These Americans didn't have a chance.
The White House had also been notified that Ansar Al-Sharia and al-Qaida had claimed responsibility for the attack. Still nothing was done. The end result was the Benghazi Embassy was set ablaze and burned to its shell, and four Americans died, with no rescue.
Later Clinton came on national television blaming the attack on a YouTube video negatively portraying Muslims, which the United States had absolutely nothing to do with.
The fact that this attack happened on Sept. 11, the same day our country was attacked on our own soil in New York City, the fact that the Benghazi Embassy requested more security due to the presence of terrorists in the area, and actual threats from them, should have led to more protection for our Americans in Libya. But nothing was done by our administration to defuse this eventual attack, siege, and murder of our citizens serving their country.
At the present time our government has set aside a large sum of money to be given as aid to countries that have known terrorists living on their soil that hate Americans, and are being protected by these countries.
Make no mistake; they do want to kill Americans.
This money borrowed from China by the U.S. Government would be paid off by taxpayers in the U.S. if released to these Muslim countries. We really can't be sure where this money would end up. It quite possibly could end up in our enemies' hands to purchase weapons to be used against us, our allies in other nations or Israel.
We just can't be sure. History has shown us Americans' weapons have been used against Americans when finding their way to our enemies.
The center of intelligence committee is scheduled to hold meetings after the elections, according to former Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, on the Libya attack.
It was announced earlier this year that the United States of America is no longer the financial leader in the world for the first time in the history of America. We now take second place due to our huge debt from borrowing money to support other countries to become stronger; which we don't have to give.
We, the taxpayers, are paying this financial nightmare off.
In conclusion, this type of response and mindset is bad for the United States of America as a strong nation under God, was bad for Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith, and Navy SEALS Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, who lost their lives in Benghazi, bad for their families who must live their lives without them, and definitely bad for you and me as citizens of this great country we live in.
Jo Anne Cope is a Dunkirk resident.
