Impeach?

            Some 420 pages of previously classified documents on the 9/11/12 Benghazi attack have finally been released.  These documents are the transcripts of secret testimony before Congress by high-level military personnel who had intimate knowledge of the facts surrounding the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Stevens.

            This testimony establishes incontrovertible evidence that President Obama and key members of his administration knew that this attack was planned and executed by terrorists, and not the result of a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Islamic video.  Defense Secretary Panetta and Joint Chief Dempsey, in fact, told President Obama of the nature of the attack less than two hours after it began. 

            One obvious conclusion can be drawn from this crucial testimony: blaming the attack on an anti-Islamic video was a lie.  The lie was uttered (perhaps unknowingly) by Ambassador Susan Rice five days later on five different Sunday talk shows.  It was repeated by Secretary Clinton not only on camera in a message to the American people, but also in the most disgusting way to the parents of the deceased as their caskets were being received on American soil.  As we all remember, the lie was repeated by the president on several occasions, including in a speech to the United Nations.  And Jay Carney, the president's smirking toady, regurgitated the lie to the press corps without a hint of shame, then and now.

            It is more than mere speculation that the purpose of this lie was purely political.  The truth would have shown how wrong the president was when his campaign speeches proclaimed that Osama bin Laden was dead, that al-Qaida was on the run, and that terrorism -- thanks to him -- was no longer a threat.  Had he told the truth he might have lost the election.

            Questions still remain.  Why did Dempsey and Panetta remain silent when they knew Obama, Clinton, Carney, and Rice were lying?  Of the two, Panetta is more culpable because he was a civilian and not in the military chain of command like Dempsey.  Anyway, who came up with the idea of blaming the video? 

            I remember pundits early on saying that if President Obama is ever proven to have lied about this, he should be impeached.  Now we have the proof.  Will he be impeached?  Of course not.  Republicans know that even if they succeeded in impeaching the president in the House, he would not be convicted by the Democratic-controlled Senate, and Republicans know they would pay a political price for that defeat, as they did with Clinton's impeachment.

            The repeated lies, the multiple scandals, the political shenanigans, the extra-legal actions, the disregard of the Constitution, all these violations of his oath of office define this president as a tyrant who places his personal power above the good of the country.  He won't be impeached, but he deserves to be.   We'll just have to wait for history to render the final judgment.