Reflections on "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi"

I have had my fill of snarky, smug reviews of "13 Hours"-- obviously written by folks who wouldn't know heroism and valor if they jumped up and bit 'em on the butt. And that is the "tell" in the sort of reviews I'm referring to-- their total cluelessness regarding certain positive qualities which, once upon a time, were considered to be attributes that one strove to cultivate in their own character. I'm speaking of virtues such as loyalty, bravery, camaraderie, patriotism, self-sacrifice, humility, and honor. These qualities are all on display front-and-center in the film "13 Hours," and yet so many of the reviews I've read fail to mention them even in passing.

And honesty and trustworthiness...don't get me started. Have "we the people" ever had a less trustworthy and honest government?

"With all due respect, the fact is, we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or because of guys out for a walk one night who decide to kill some Americans, what difference at this point does it make? --Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 1/23/13

To give credit where it's due, Hillary Clinton performed some pretty smooth verbal razzle-dazzle in the quote above. She implied that the cause behind the attacks in Benghazi was limited to "a protest" or "guys out for a walk." That particular type of faulty reasoning is sometimes called the "False Choice" fallacy A "False Choice" tries to trick the listener or reader into believing that their choices are limited to either this, or that, when in fact both choices may be true, or false. I am convinced that neither one of the false choices Ms. Clinton gave were the real reason(s) behind the attacks in Benghazi. I recently watched the movie "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" and it made me want to punch a wall, kick the cat, and cry in frustration. The government's and media's lies and cover-up continue unabated.

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The ones who fought in Benghazi, who were actually there, say that they were given orders to stand down and not rescue their fellow Americans-- they were ordered not to aid their fellow Americans. Orders which, to their everlasting credit, they disobeyed. Pundits and political apparatchiks who were not within a thousand miles of Benghazi on 9/11/12 assure us that no such stand-down order was given. Let's see...should I believe the word of political hacks whose lifestyle revolves around CYA, or the word of men whose honor and integrity have been forged and tested in the fire of combat? Hmm...decisions, decisions. Actually it is of course a "no brainer" -- I'll take the word of "the secret soldiers of Benghazi." The official narrative would also have us believe that there was simply not enough time to come to the aid of the embattled Americans. Bulls--t! There was time, more than enough time, plenty of time. A simple low level fly-over by a US jet would have given the "bad guys" second thoughts, and given the embattled Americans a much appreciated morale boost ("You are not alone. We have not forgotten you!") if nothing else. Why wasn't it done? WHY. WAS. IT. NOT. DONE? And please don't feed me some nonsense about Obama not wanting to jeopardize his chances of getting re-elected. No, there was something much more important at play here. Something that demanded Ambassador Stevens and the rest of the Americans be left to twist in the wind. And I, for one, would very much like to know what that "something" was. Shipping Libyan weapon caches to Turkey and Syria (and eventually ISIS)? You're getting warmer. Guess again.