Better get ready for it. The misnamed clash of civilizations (because there is nothing civilized about them) is going to continue until it is resolved, one way or the other.

Why did we abandon the compound?

The larger question that is raised here is why the U.S. has abandoned this diplomatic outpost, so that anyone–whether reporters or civilians, friends or foes of the United States–can rummage through its rubble. The jihadists who attacked our consulate were surely hoping to drive us out of Benghazi, and they have now accomplished this purpose. I am at a loss to know why marines were not sent to secure the site of the compound and why efforts have not been made to rebuild. This is yet another failure that gives the people of the Middle East an impression of American retreat.

An impression that is apparently deliberate. But the media wants to pretend it isn’t happening, at least until Wednesday.

[Update a few minutes later]

“All jacket and no bombers“:

Back in Benghazi, the president who looks so cool in a bomber jacket declined to answer his beleaguered diplomats’ calls for help – even though he had aircraft and Special Forces in the region. Too bad. He’s all jacket and no bombers. This, too, is an example of America’s uniquely profligate impotence. When something goes screwy at a ramshackle consulate halfway round the globe, very few governments have the technological capacity to watch it unfold in real time. Even fewer have deployable military assets only a couple of hours away. What is the point of unmanned drones, of military bases around the planet, of elite Special Forces trained to the peak of perfection if the president and the vast bloated federal bureaucracy cannot rouse themselves to action? What is the point of outspending Russia, Britain, France, China, Germany and every middle-rank military power combined if, when it matters, America cannot urge into the air one plane with a couple of dozen commandoes? In Iraq, al-Qaida is running training camps in the western desert. In Afghanistan, the Taliban are all but certain to return most of the country to its pre-9/11 glories. But in Washington the head of the world’s biggest “counterterrorism” bureaucracy briefs the president on flood damage and downed trees.

I don’t know whether Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan can fix things, but I do know that Barack Obama and Joe Biden won’t even try – and that therefore a vote for Obama is a vote for the certainty of national collapse. Look at Lower Manhattan in the dark, and try to imagine what America might look like after the rest of the planet decides it no longer needs the dollar as global reserve currency. For four years, we have had a president who can spend everything but build nothing. Nothing but debt, dependency, and decay. As I said at the beginning, in different ways the response to Hurricane Sandy and Benghazi exemplify the fundamental unseriousness of the superpower at twilight. Whether or not to get serious is the choice facing the electorate Tuesday.

But let him keep the bomber jacket.

He won’t need it much on Oahu.

My thoughts on “absolute moral authority,” over at PJMedia.

[Update a few minutes later]

You know, the more I read this, the angrier I get: “He said … Clinton assured him that they were going to ‘arrest and prosecute’ the man that made the scapegoated YouTube video critical of Islam.”

Mr. Woods was probably in a state of shock, but my response would have been, “Really, Madame Secretary? Really? In response to the murder of my son by jihadis, you’re going to violate the First Amendment of the Constitution, and impose sharia law in the United States? Sounds to me like the terrorists have won.”

…of the media:

The unfortunate message is that a compliant media will endanger national security to enhance the reputation of this administration; but not post facto worry about finding how it was lost and why Americans were killed — if it might question the administration’s judgment. Of all the things written about the four Obama years, one of the most telling will be how an entire industry forfeited its integrity for political purposes and lost its reputation.

Its reputation should have been lost in 2008.

The president lied when he said he gave the order to do everything possible to save the people in Benghazi.

Which do you think will have a bigger effect on voters in a swing state, Nurse Bloomberg’s endorsement of Obama, or this devastating editorial in the Las Vegas Review-Journal?

At least more Nevada voters will know what happened in Benghazi.

[Update a couple minutes later]

At least Jake Tapper is reporting on it: “The Benghazi drip, drip, drip.”

People should realize that this is very much like 1972 (the Watergate break-in had happened that summer). We may be sparing ourselves another impeachment by removing the president on Tuesday.

It’s hard to square this with the official story:

The Benghazi coverup is much worse than you think. Clearly there were air assets on the scene above the CIA annex and they were denied permission to fire.

Tyrone Woods was painting a target with a ground laser designator (GLD). Those are only used when the air asset is overhead, ready to fire. The jihadis can use cell phones with night-vision capabilities to see the laser beam, which then pinpoints the location of the person using the GLD. As a former Navy SEAL, Woods would’ve known that. He would only have exposed himself if he thought that the mortar squad was about to be taken out. The air asset didn’t fire, and Woods and Glen Doherty were killed by the mortar squad.

There was either a Spectre gunship or an armed Predator or Reaper drone overhead, and it was denied permission to fire. That’s the only explanation that fits. Woods would not have used his GLD for any other reason than to paint a target for an immediate air strike.

Only the commander of AFRICOM and the president have the authority to tell the air asset to not fire in this situation.

So if so, who did it? Because whoever did killed those men.

…at least had 300:

It is heart breaking that the two defenders of the annex, former SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty who were in Libya as security contractors separate from the consulate, ran to the sound of the guns at the consulate–though they were unarmed–and picked up dropped weapons on the way (tip to Instapundit).

They didn’t know what was going on and didn’t have real-time information about what was happening, but they followed their instincts and ran to the sounds of the guns.

It is a good thing that they acted that way, or the American body count could have been much higher–or we’d be discussing Day 47 of America Held Hostage. The two Americans allowed the escape of 20 of our people in the consulate and then they set up a defense perimeter and held off an attack by 100-200 jihadis at the annex.

And they killed 60 of the attackers in their stand.

Our president said he is sharing information about what happened as he finds out. Why have I read this on a blog rather than on the news? Who would be disturbed to hear that our people performed acts of heroism with little hope of help?

Or is this account inaccurate? Certainly, our 20 people did escape the attackers. Those two men at least did that.

But I can’t doubt that it could be true. These were former SEALs. Certainly, they held for many hours. I’ll await further reporting about the jihadi body count. And if true, wonder why this is the first I’ve read of this epic defense. Somebody in the press corps might want to directly ask our president and government just what happened there.

Nah…why would they want to do that?

I think that we should start a meme to award both men a posthumous Medal of Freedom.

An interesting rumor. As Moe Lane says, the president should have the General debunk this immediately.

And at what point does DCI Petraeus noisily resign? A run at the presidency as a Republican would survive a stint at the CIA under a Democrat, but it won’t survive complicity, or remaining silent, in a coverup.

[Update a while later]

DrewM over at Ace says it doesn’t hold water.