Good Mood

For twenty-five percent of Americans, Benghazi is the worst scandal in American history.  Incomplete talking points tragically resulted in one week of uncertainty.  By comparison, overstating and misreading intelligence reports about weapons of mass destruction, resulted in ten thousand dead Americans, countless more injured, and the expenditure of 2 trillion.

This blog has seldom been charitable to ultra conservatives.  But such callous disregard for dead and injured warriors, and waste of American treasure, could easily be called unpatriotic, or even traitorous.  But being in a good mood, I will merely call it stupid.

Ben Gauzy

 Republicans are looking for a smoking gun in an arsenal.  Raw intelligence is like numbers, it does not lie, but liars use raw intelligence.  Until it is evaluated, synthesized and correlated with other intelligence, raw intelligence is gauzy and shapeless.  In the midst of protests sweeping the Muslim world over an anti-Muslim video, it was reasonable to assume a connection to the Benghazi attack.  Given the heavy arms used, it was also reasonable to assume terrorist involvement.  The two were not mutually exclusive.

After an armed uprising of various groups and militias overthrew Gaddafi, Libya resembles a scene from BoardWalk Empire:  "Is that a gun?" gangster Rosetti asks, pulling his piece. "I got a gun... He got a gun ... he got a gun ... EVERYBODY GOT GUNS!" Not surprisingly,  Obama has been cautious about arming Syrian rebels for fear of arming extremists.

 Condemning Ambassador Rice for relying on intelligence community approved talking points, is a cheap shot. Senator McCain had his high noon moment in 2008, and he lost.  Perhaps, given his recent outbursts, it is time for him to ride off into the sunset.