From a joint statement by Sens. Graham, Lieberman and McCain on the burning of the US consulate in Benghazi and murders of the US ambassador and three staffers.

“Yesterday's attack is a tragic and terrible reminder that – despite the hopes of the Arab Spring – the forces of violent extremism in the Middle East are far from defeated, and that the revolutions inspired by millions of people who dream of freedom and democracy can still be hijacked by small groups of violent extremists who are eager to kill to advance their evil ideology."

The main "hope" on the part of Tweedles Dum, Dum and Dee is that there in fact exist "millions of people" who dream of freedom  -- not "huriyya" --  and democracy  -- not sharia -- in the Middle East.

Alas, there is no evidence of the senators' dream-millions of Muslims with a deep and abiding connection to the values and principles the senators espouse. That's because such Judeo-Christian-derived values and principles are at odds with the Islamic culture that has, quite naturally, set the perspectives and formed the core of the societies across this region. (Except, of course, for the Jewish state of Israel.) The senators could examine 14 centuries of violent jihad that brutally converted northern Africa, large sections of Europe and the Near East into Islamic servitude to understand why the basis of such values and principles disappeared. They could, more conveniently. simply review recent Pew polling that reveals the results of the centuries of relentless Islamization: large majorities in Islamic countries actually like Islamic law ("strict sharia") and hope for the return of the caliphate. But the Three Amigos prefer to dream on.

“Despite this horrific attack, we cannot give in to the temptation to believe that our support for the democratic aspirations of people in Libya, Egypt, and elsewhere in the broader Middle East is naive or mistaken.

We cannot resign ourselves to the false belief that the Arab Spring is doomed to be defined not by the desire for democracy and freedom that has inspired millions of people to peaceful action, but by the dark fanaticism of terrorists."

Notice it's all about them. Evidence of their error in supporting al Qaeda-Muslim-Brother-generic-jihad revolutions across the Arab world is penetrating the collective dome, but they are trying to resist with all of their might. What we are looking at is textbook, Psych 101 denial.

The pivot:

“To follow this misguided path" -- [following evidence is "misguided"!] --"would not only be a victory for the extremists and their associates, but a betrayal of everything for which Chris Stevens and his colleagues stood and gave their lives."

I.e., if we face facts, the terrorists win.

In short, it would be a betrayal of our own best ideals as Americans and our own enduring interest in using our great influence to support the overwhelming majority of people in the Middle East who want to be free from the kinds of murderers and terrorists who killed our people yesterday in Benghazi.”

Translation: The facts aren't fitting our ideology, folks, so the facts must go. But fear not. Our ideology remains unscathed.

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