Short term memory loss for long term political objectives????

The daily rag in our neighborhood is the mouthpiece of the developer, a huge ($ millions annually) donor to all causes conservative. Acknowledging that, most stories are wire service items and generally even handed. The editorial page, however, is quite another matter. In addition to the ignorance of many who feel compelled  to write letters demonstrating their political naivete, occasionally, an editorial cartoon of  surpassing venality will be published. Today was such a day.               

My response is the letter below, constrained to the paper's 300 word limit.

    "Many political centrists simply shake their  heads at the Daily Sun's almost exclusively ultra conservative lineup of syndicated columnists - Oliver North, Phyllis Shlafly, Thomas Sowell, et al. The editorial cartoon of Tuesday, June 24, however  didn't simply cross the line of taste, truth and fairness; it obliterated it.

     It showed an elephant above a newspaper headline stating:  "Benghazi Suspect Captured." The elephant is holding pictures (crude caricatures, really) of  President Obama and Hilary Clinton, while the caption at the bottom states "The co-conspirators are still at large."

   The clear implication seems to be that both Democratic office holders were part of some scheme that culminated in the attack on the embassy in Libya. While some may, legitimately or for political fodder, question administration actions after the attack, it is quite another matter to accuse them of "co-conspiracy." Conspiracy implies advance planning with bad intent, like, say, invading  Iraq, or ignoring Clinton warnings about  Al Qaeda in 2000 to focus on Iraq. 

       In fact, the late ambassador at Benghazi twice refused offers of additional troops to strengthen embassy security, from General Carter Ham (Commander, US Africa Command) in the weeks prior to the attack. The ambassador's death in that attack makes it impossible to ascertain his motivation. 

     A real case for co-conspiracy in its true sense (planning an action which resulted in not four, but  over four thousand American and over a million Iraqi deaths and manufacturing data to justify it)  can legitimately be leveled at Bush-Cheyney and their neo-con whelps.  It is truly amazing to watch Republicans  slander President Obama,  who, in pulling troops from an Iraq primed for sectarian  schism, simply obeyed the  law.   The U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces agreement was  signed by George W. Bush in 2008. It mandated that U.S. combat forces would withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, and all U.S. forces would be completely out of Iraq by December 31, 2011.  

     A similar accusatory cartoon featuring   Bush/Cheyney/Rumsfeld, vice Obama /Clinton, would  actually be accurate and fair. Don't hold your breath. "