I respond to the Oct. 28 diatribe of Managing Editor Frank Miele against President Obama, this time on the Benghazi incident, in which he compares the intentional felonies committed by Nixon and his mob to the non-comparable murder of our ambassador and three of his protectors in Benghazi. He doesn’t blame the murder on the terrorists but bombastically indicts Obama who will not “avoid the judgment of history” or the terrible and swift “sword of that judgment.”

I have an ethical dislike of Mr. Miele’s writings which are pure far-right conservative propaganda, sophistry, immature and much worse.  I disagree with his use of so-called facts, which would take me pages to fully rebut. I will exam only his major theme.

Obama is rated as having done a top job in foreign matters by both military (including Colin Powell) and non-military conservatives. Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state for Bush 43, stated last month that the Benghazi matter, as do most foreign problems, needs more time to come up with definite answers. Backing her experienced assessment, note the Washington AP story published In the Inter Lake’s Nov. 3 edition, PageA8, which states in part, “Senior U.S Intelligence officials said Thursday that CIA security officers went to the aid of the State Department staff less than 25 minutes after they got the first call for help from the consulate, which was less than a mile from a CIA annex. The detailed timetable provides the first in-depth look at how deeply the CIA was involved in the rescue attempt, and it comes among persistent questions about whether the Obama administration responded as quickly and effectively as it could to the siege.”

I suggest the readers, at least who want the truth, read the rest of this article which rebuts the propaganda of the pathological liar Romney who by the way told a folksy, vague, story about how he had met one of the ex-military slain, and Romney said he, “realized how much we had in common.” The parents of the deceased ripped into Romney on his attempt to use their son’s death for political purposes.

Four deaths are important, but so are thousands of deaths or maybe just 250. I give you two examples of intentional gross negligence and intentional criminal conduct by Republican presidents directly causing these greater numbers of deaths to our military.

Remember the myth Ronald Reagan? For no good military purpose this celluloid commander-in-chief sent many hundreds of military, mostly Marines, into dangerous Lebanon in 1982 and based them in a difficult position to defend. I recall reading about some shelling of civilian buildings from our Navy causing civilian casualties and anger, then an inexplicable order from the top to weaken our perimeter of defense. It is axiomatic for a military to establish a strong perimeter of defense in dangerous situations.

Sure enough a vehicle speeds through the non-defended perimeter loaded with extremely high powered explosives and crashes into the building housing our troops, killing about 250 of them, mostly Marines. You may blame terrorists, but the fool Reagan set up this slaughter. Of course he later courageously stated (from his safe house) that we won’t cut and run. Wow! Then a couple of months later he quietly withdrew the survivors. Reagan never apologized for his criminal gross negligence. Frank, that’s about 250 on Reagan’s record, against the four that Obama did not kill. America gave him a pass on this matter (I didn’t), which should have led to an impeachment at least (just as Iran-Contra should have).

But then what about the many thousands of our military that Bush 43 and Cheney (a shadow co-president) and their mob murdered in a propagandized phony war in Iraq. Add the horrible wounds of countless thousands maimed for life and additionally the non-visible stress and brain injuries that may extend to a lifetime. There is no need to add thousands of words more to describe further malicious truths. These were intentional acts by the Bush administration and cronies who profited handsomely from this massive fraud.

I recall writing a letter to the editor in which I led off by saying the only way to save the lives of our military is not to send them to Iraq. I don’t recall Mr. Miele being against this war.

Ryan is a resident of Bigfork.