A largely overlooked posting on the White House’s Twitter account the very day of the assault on the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 is a painful symbol of the president’s portrayal of the world versus reality. Two hours after word first reached the White House, around the time President Obama was meeting in the Oval Office with then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, a photo of the 9/11 memorial ceremony from earlier that day appeared on the White House Twitter feed with the accompanying text: “President Obama: ‘The true legacy of 9/11…will be a safer world; a stronger nation & a people more united.'”
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Perhaps the unkindest cut of all from the administration’s perspective is that the three men in the photo are the same three who were gathered at the White House almost at the very moment of the tweet learning details of the burgeoning disaster. Obviously facts were thin, and likely classified, at that time, so it’s not surprising that the White House social media team would not have been aware of what was taking place. In retrospect, however, the concurrence of the tweet and the attack is devastating.
Whatever the long term prospects are for a safer world, a stronger nation, and a more united people, two years after Benghazi even the president’s most ardent supporters would be hard pressed to provide evidence of clear progress. With each passing week bringing tidings of a new or renewed conflict, a humanitarian crisis, or a terror attack or atrocity, only a die hard Pollyanna could make the case we’re headed toward a “safer world.” With military budget cuts and a lead-from-behind foreign policy broadcasting American weakness to the world, belief in a “stronger nation” would require an equally naively optimistic outlook. And while the president often insists that, despite the “most obstructionist” Congress ever, the American people are united behind him and his policies, polls continue to paint a continuing picture of a polarized America almost six years after President Obama was elected.
On the thirteenth anniversary of the original 9/11 attacks and the second anniversary of the Benghazi, the president is once again laying out his vision of how best to keep America safe and strong, hoping to build a united front for the challenges the country is currently facing.
