HOW DARE THEY

How dare they

How dare the Republican Party wave the bloody shirt of 4 Americans, including an ambassador, killed in the terrorist attack on our diplomatic mission to Libya during the attack on Benghazi in September 2012.

Instead of being a reminder of the various risks our diplomatic corps take when it is stationed in foreign countries ranging from minor cultural differences, obscure customs and social graces, and strained relations in many historical examples, Benghazi has been turned into a political slogan to gin up right-wing paranoia.

The House has chaired a subcommittee on the Benghazi attacks for nearly four years.

Representative Kevin McCarthy (CA, R) admitted what the Benghazi hearings was all about in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

It was not about improving our embassy security. It was not about ensuring our diplomats are kept safe in hostile environments. It was not about citing the failures and learning those lessons.

It was all about placing the blame on President Barack Obama and eventually Hillary Clinton when she made her run for president in this election cycle.

And that is a dishonor to the memory of Tyrone Woods, Glen Doherty, Sean Smith, and Ambassador Chris Stevens who all felt the call to serve our country through the State Department and intelligence services.

No one blamed George W. Bush for the attacks on foreign embassies during his tenure nor skewered him for security failures in the worst attack on the American mainland. The amount of time spent investigating the 9-11 attacks, the Kennedy assassination, and Watergate break-in were shorter than the amount of time spent on investigating the Benghazi attack.

Democrats did not turn the attack on American forces in Beruit, Lebanon in October 1983 into a partisan witch hunt because there was the belief that politics ends at the oceanfront.

The thing that set off this piece were the two keynoters: Marcus Luttrell and Mark Geist

Geist claimed that there was a stand-down order given but PolitiFact rated that claim as “Mostly False.”

The two gentlemen got swept up in the blame Obama-Hillary crowd that they forgot one tiny detail and they should know better.

Who approves funding for embassy security?

The Congress through appropriations.

In 2011, the House cut the Obama Administration’s request for embassy security funding. Even the Secretary of State at the time testified before a House subcommittee that it was necessary to fund security for our embassies around the world.

The Secretary of State at that time was Hillary Clinton.

The House has been controlled by Republicans since January 2011.

Luttrell said that Donald Trump will leave no man behind.

Turns out that it was the Republicans who left them behind.

Once again, how dare the party of so-called personal responsibility take responsibility in their role to adequately fund security for our embassies.

How dare they indeed.