With Memorial Day and the 4^th of July (celebrated as Independence Day in the United States) fast approaching, scribes all over the nation are dutifully dipping their quills into their inkwells to scribble the obligatory few lines on the topic: “What America Means to me”, again this year, as in every year since, well, since 1776, I suppose.

But, I must confess, I am having difficulty this year.  Each time I pull up to the keyboard, and type those few words, I have to confess, my eyes want to tear up and I get that lump in the throat that I used to associate with singing the national anthem and watching the flag march by, proudly held aloft by a veteran of the US Armed Forces. All of you Vets know exactly what I mean.  It is a common trait among those of us who have worn our nation’s uniform.

Ah, but this year, this year, the would-be tears are not only for those who have paid the price of our freedom with their body and blood - and sometimes even their sanity, it is for what we, as Americans, as a nation, have lost in recent years.

Near the top of my list of things we Americans have lost is PRIDE.  Pride at being an American.  Pride that was earned - that was paid for by the men and women who went before me into the jaws of hell and back to free a people in a country the name of which we often could not even pronounce. It was pride earned because Americans were a people who would lend a hand to their fellow man, far away, who yearned to be free from a brutal dictator.

America used to be thought of as a “can-do” nation.  It didn’t make a lot of difference what needed doing, America could, and would, do it.  It never occurred to us we could fail.  I mean, after all, we were AMERICANS!  We DON’T FAIL!

It was confidence.  Self-confidence, if you will.  We were a nation of rugged individualists who did not rely on government for a damned thing. As a matter of fact, the less government we had - the better.

The nation, itself, was founded largely by the outcasts of other nations.  Occasionally, other nations would send their criminals here as punishment.  I know that is difficult to believe but it happened!  They were people who had nothing to lose, with their backs against the wall they had one way to go and that was straight ahead - and the devil take the hind most! Those were the people who formed the bedrock foundation of the people the world would come to know simply as “AMERICANS.”  Unique in the history of the planet - there had never been a nation made of people like those Americans. They were different. They knew it and they loved it.

They were a people who wanted their freedom - and so they took it – and they took it from a world superpower, no less. They created an experimental system of government called a constitutional representative republicand made it work!  Some 80 years later they fell out, over state’s rights, and split into two separate countries and went to war against each other.   

The War for Southern Independence was unlike anything the world had seen before and since. They went at killing each other with workman like precision.  On more than one occasion soldiers would cheer and applaud the other side’s bravery in the midst of the battle! More Americans died in that war than in all the wars America has been involved in added together. Some say the way that war ended has much to do with where America finds herself today.  I cannot disagree with that.  As a result of that war’s ending we stand today as one nation containing two countries made up of 50 separate and sovereign states. At some point it is bound to unravel. 

I have concluded ignorance is the cause of America’s downfall. We Americans are, as a whole, stupid.  We are the least educated, dumbest, society on earth. How else can you account for the people we elected to lead the nation?  I mean… just LOOKat that bunch!  Now… look at what they have done to the country in just the last few months!  There is no easy way to say this – the election of Obama was a huge triumph for ignorance in America.  If you STILL do not believe me, stick around for oh, a year, maybe eighteen months, or so, and watch what is going to happen and THEN tell me I am wrong.

Come on folks!  Look at the fare on your TV.  Most of it is insulting to anyone with a slightly above average IQ. You must understand the comprehension level of the average adult American today is around that of a third grader, or below. The people who produce the garbage on TV have to dumb it down so the average American can understand it!  How else are they going to be able to sell it to the networks as vehicles for their commercials? 

Our public school system (the government schools, as many now refer to them) is absolutely pathetic.  It is a colossal failure.  The curriculum has been dumbed down so that we are graduating kids who can barely function in a world that will surely pass them by.  We know what is wrong with our schools and we know how to fix them - but we won’t. You must understand that for the government (we now have in America) to continue to control the reins of power they need MORE dumb Americans - not less. Our cookie-cutter schools are turning them out by the millions every year.

So, if you say America has passed her zenith, I certainly would not argue with you. Today’s America is but a caricature of the real America.  And I really, really, miss America!

J. D. Longstreet 

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Who knows the whole truth about why Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty along with State Department officials Chris Stevens and Sean Smith died in Benghazi 11 September 2012?

It’s now public knowledge that the ever evolving official administration stories on Benghazi are all bold faced lies. It’s clear that the four Americans who were brutally murdered in Benghazi did not have to die. What’s not clear yet, is who is responsible for these murders? Nothing the Obama administration has told the people about Benghazi is true… but who is responsible?

General Carter Ham and Admiral Charles M. Gaouette know the answer to this question. Where are Ham and Gaouette today? Why hasn’t Issa’s investigative committee called these decorated Military officers to testify before the committee investigating Benghazi?

We have known since 30 October 2012 that these two officers…

1.      Were ordered to STAND DOWN in Benghazi

2.      Ignored those orders

3.      Were relieved of duty for refusing orders to STAND DOWN

We know from the unclassified cables between Benghazi and DC and the subsequent Executive Brief, that cables were firing in all directions in the hours before and during the Benghazi attack that ended in the brutal death of four Americans.

General Ham was head of AFRICOM and Commander of the 2011 US-NATO operation to depose Gadhafi in Libya. Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette was in command of the Carrier Strike Group Three (CSG-3), then deployed in Middle Eastern waters during the attack on Benghazi. 

Both Ham and Gaouette reported receiving the same desperate cables for additional security and backup that Obama administration officials received and ignored from Benghazi. They did not ignore those desperate calls for help ringing out from the Benghazi installation on 11 September 2012.

No, both Ham and Gaouette attempted to launch ready response teams in the region capable of provided the much needed assistance during the seven hour long assault on Benghazi. Both were then relieved of command for their actions, described by the US Military as “allegations of inappropriate leadership judgment.”

General Ham immediately had a rapid response unit ready and communicated to the Pentagon that he had a unit ready to deploy to Benghazi. Then, General Ham received the order to stand down. His response was “screw it,” - he was going to help anyway.

Within minutes after issuing an order to deploy his ready response team, Ham’s second in command apprehended the General and told him that he was now relieved of his command. Ham knows who issued the order to STAND DOWN as well as the order to relieve him of his command at AFRICOM.

Adm. Gaouette had also received the startling requests for support as the attack unfolded in Benghazi. Like Ham, he readied a response from Carrier Strike Group Three (CSG-3). Gaouette was also ordered to STAND DOWN and like Ham, he decided to refuse those orders. Gaouette readied vital intelligence and communications operations for an extraction effort to be launched by Ham.

Stars and Stripes reported October 18, 2012 that General Ham is being replaced by Gen. David Rodriguez. They also reported on October 27, 2012 that Adm. Gaouette is being replaced by Rear Adm. Troy M. Shoemaker. The Navy stated that it was “replacing the admiral in command of an aircraft carrier strike group in the Middle East, pending the outcome of an internal investigation into undisclosed allegations of inappropriate judgment.”

What were the “inappropriate judgments” of these two decorated Military leaders? Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Navy's chief spokesman, declined to discuss the investigation.

What we know is that these two highly unusual acts to remove two highly decorated commanders is related to the 11 September 2012 strike on Benghazi. We also know that the congressional investigation has not yet called these valiant men in to give testimony.

We know that months’ worth of warnings and requests for additional security at Benghazi we ignored and denied by the Clinton run State Department and that someone gave the DoD order to STAND DOWN when American troops were in the region and ready to assist.

We know that the Obama administration manufactured a lie about some obscure anti-Islam youtube clip that had nothing whatsoever to do with the events of 11 September 2012 Benghazi. We know that the Obama administration is holding that filmmaker in prison today. We know that Benghazi survivors have been threatened and silenced.

But most of all, we know that Gen. Ham and Adm. Gaouette can provide very real answers to a laundry list of very important questions regarding the Benghazi attacks and Issa’s alleged investigation.

On 23 April 2013, Five House Committees investigating Benghazi issued a joint Interim Progress Report. In it, all five committees fail to ask the right questions and all five demonstrate a clear intent to keep the truth about Benghazi under wraps, though the report does confirm almost everything stated herein.

The attack in Benghazi of 11 September, 2012 is now almost eight months old and yet, the truth about that attack is still a distant fog sheltered by government officials engaged in blatant obstruction of justice, made possible by the help of a totally incompetent or complicit press.

If you want to know what really happened in Benghazi, demand that Issa’s congressional committee subpoena both Gen. Ham and Adm. Gaouette to testify before the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform.

And then, recall Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta once Ham and Gaouette have testified.

Someone is responsible for the murder of Americans in Benghazi and the lies that followed. That someone, in fact, all who are involved in the Benghazi murder and the cover up, must be held fully accountable.

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