Thursday, May 23, 2013

The Poetry of Benghazi

There is a moment in the film "Argo" where two officials are rushing to a meeting about the Iranian attack on the U.S. embassy. They are discussing possible responses when one realizes that military management of embassy events are under the control of the State Department, not a military or judicial arm of government. The bureaucrat looks at the other man with a puzzled expression but nothing is said.

CBS did a short article on Raymond Maxwell -- one of the four State Department officials disciplined over security lapses that led to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year. (U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in terrorist attacks at U.S. mission and poor security was blamed by the State Department's Accountability Review Board (ARB).) Maxwell is also a poet who has been publishing provocative verses since he was put on administrative leave December 18.

In "Trapped in a purgatory of their own deceit," Maxwell writes in part: "The web of lies they weave / gets tighter and tighter / in its deceit / until it bottoms out - / at a very low frequency - / and implodes...Yet all the while, / the more they talk, / the more they lie, / and the deeper down the hole they go... Just wait.../ just wait and feed them the rope."

In his poem entitled "Invitation," a commentary about being put on administrative leave December 18th after the ARB criticized pre-attack security in Libya, Maxwell writes: "The Queen's Henchmen / request the pleasure of your company / at a Lynching - / to be held / at 23rd and C Streets NW [State Dept. building] / on Tuesday, December 18, 2012 / just past sunset. / Dress: Formal, Masks and Hoods- / the four being lynched / must never know the identities/ of their executioners, or what/ whose sin required their sacrifice./ A blood sacrifice- / to divert the hounds- / to appease the gods- / to cleanse our filth and /satisfy our guilty consciences..."

CBS then writes: "The ARB, in essence, was seen to have cleared higher-ranking State Department officials, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, of direct fault on the issue of inadequate security.
It's unclear as to exactly what Maxwell and the other disciplined managers allegedly did wrong or how they were chosen for discipline."

The government sacrificing its citizens for the betterment of their betters?

No comments: