# What's the "final" word on the Benghazi embassy attack? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 31, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384 "2012-10-31T00:39:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/141 "2012-11-28T00:09:46Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > But that doesn’t account for the minimal security force ill-prepared for an attack and the strategy of holing up in the safe room rather than coordinating a defense with extraction. With everything going on the previous month the consulate should have been ready for something. Extraction to where? The safe room is where you go to wait out an attack. Every diplomat’s house has one. In an embassy, it’s generally the communications vault. How do you anticipate a fire with choking smoke? It’s all too easy to armchair-quarterback a situation like this, which is what the right has been trying to do over the past couple of months. I don’t know what people envision overseas posts to be like, but I suspect that it’s far removed from reality. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/142 "2012-11-30T04:59:42Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > But that doesn’t account for the minimal security force ill-prepared for an attack and the strategy of holing up in the safe room rather than coordinating a defense with extraction. With everything going on the previous month the consulate should have been ready for something. The main security force for US (and other) embassies in almost all countries is the local police/army. You get Baghdad/Saigon style in-country military protection only in very exceptional cases, usually involving actual wars going on around you. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/143 "2012-11-30T05:39:28Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > The main security force for US (and other) embassies in almost all countries is the local police/army. You get Baghdad/Saigon style in-country military protection only in very exceptional cases, usually involving actual wars going on around you. Unless I am mistaken, the point you make here has been made several times in this discussion. Each time it has been ignored or hand waved away by those hellbent on finding some wrong doing on the part of the Obama Administration. I suppose you can keep repeating it but I doubt it will do much good. The truth is of little interest to some folks when it comes to this topic. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/144 "2012-11-30T05:51:35Z")
> [@](#): > > …rather than coordinating a defense with extraction… That’s the ticket! We’ll staff all our embassies with highly-trained, heavily armed commandoes, who can go from cultural attache to Rambo in five seconds flat. Why, a bunch of fanatics armed wtih RPGs, automatic weapons and mortars? Child’s play. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/145 "2012-11-30T06:36:19Z")
Well, [according to](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/james-inhofe-benghazi_n_2204075.html) the Senate’s resident ace pilot and climate scientist: > [@](#): > > “This is gonna go down as the biggest coverup in history,” Inhofe predicted during an appearance on Fox News. “The administration deliberately covered this up and misrepresented what happened in Benghazi.” Biggest coverup in history. So there. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/146 "2012-11-30T06:36:46Z")
It would be nice if one of the conservatives believing the misinformation would actually look at the facts and retract their silliness. It would be nice. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/147 "2012-11-30T07:36:32Z")
It took me a while to grasp the pathology here, but I think I’ve got it down. See, Obama is a wimp and an appeasing weakling, like all Dems and lefties. He is sucking up to radical Islam with all this shit about “tolerance” and “perversity”. OK, “diversity”, whatever, like it matters… That’s why he went on the Apology Tour, bad mouthing America to our enemies all around the world. You never heard of the “Apology Tour”? Not from the liberal media you didn’t! Now, since blaming America for everything wrong in the world is crucial to his spineless groveling, the Obama Administration seized upon this historical documentary as an excuse to kiss some more turbaned butt. Terrorists were overjoyed at this display of weakness, and struck at the crucial Benghazi consulate, only a few hundred miles away from the Embassy. And had free reign, since Obama had ordered the armored division that usually guards a consulate office to stand down! And they had to cover that up, so they changed the word “terrorist” to “extremist”! And Ms Rice (the _other_ Ms Rice, not the honest, straight-forward Condi…) parroted their line. And that’s why she is unsuitable for SecState. Better someone with solid credentials, someone who’s record for patriotism has never been questioned. Like John Kerry. It worries me some that I understand this stuff. Not good mental hygiene. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/148 "2012-11-30T09:25:04Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Quick question: > Does anyone else feel that the big problem about Benghazi is the the U.S. apparently learned nothing from 1979 about embassy/consulate security during anti-American protests? 1. [Republicans cut administration requests to beef up embassy security](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-forget-about-big-bird/2012/10/09/5f9a411c-1258-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop): For fiscal 2013, the GOP-controlled House proposed spending $1.934 billion for the State Department’s Worldwide Security Protection program — well below the $2.15 billion requested by the Obama administration. House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 and $331 million in fiscal 2012. (Negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Senate restored about $88 million of the administration’s request.) Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Republicans’ proposed cuts to her department would be “detrimental to America’s national security” — a charge Republicans rejected. Ryan, Issa and other House Republicans voted for an amendment in 2009 to cut $1.2 billion from State operations, including funds for 300 more diplomatic security positions. Under Ryan’s budget, non-defense discretionary spending, which includes State Department funding, would be slashed nearly 20 percent in 2014, which would translate to more than $400 million in additional cuts to embassy security. 1. The best diplomats are a lot like soldiers, except they don’t carry arms. It’s possible to turn every American embassy abroad into a bunker. But this might not advance the national interest. 2. I trust there is scope for an investigation into the 4 deaths that occurred in Benghazi, just as the $3 trillion mistake in Iraq and the 4,282 American soldiers lost deserves a detailed review. 3. But delusional made-up crapola about Obama not calling it a terrorist attack (false - he did actually) or Rice saying that the attack might have been related to the video (as it happens, the latest info says that it played a role) takes us far off the mark. America deserves a better opposition party. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/149 "2012-11-30T17:41:13Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Terrorists were overjoyed at this display of weakness, and struck at the crucial Benghazi consulate, only a few hundred miles away from the Embassy. And had free reign . . . “Free rein,” I think it is. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/150 "2012-11-30T22:23:03Z")
Oh, and, BTW, it’s “straitlaced,” not “straightlaced”; “strait and narrow path,” not “straight and narrow path”; “dire straits,” etc. And “painstaking” is compounded of “pains taking,” not “pain staking,” so voice the _s._ Doprz we iz. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/151 "2012-11-30T22:52:43Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > . . . “strait and narrow path,” not “straight and narrow path” . . . This makes sense, and seems to have some support from the very old original King James text, but I think this is a battle you won’t win. The other version, “Straight and Narrow” is so very widely accepted as to have overwhelming support. You aren’t wrong, but people who say it the other way aren’t wrong either. ---
**Author:** ![DiggitCamara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@DiggitCamara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiggitCamara)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/152 "2012-12-03T23:39:59Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Oh, and, BTW, it’s “straitlaced,” not “straightlaced”; “strait and narrow path,” not “straight and narrow path”; “dire straits,” etc. > > And “painstaking” is compounded of “pains taking,” not “pain staking,” so voice the _s._ > > Doprz we iz. You forgot a “whose” which came out as “who’s” ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/153 "2012-12-06T15:55:59Z")
Am I not paying attention or has Benghazi fallen down the fiscal cliff? It’s not getting much press now that everyone is worried that their favorite millionaire might have to pay an extra two percent on their income. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/154 "2012-12-10T20:34:45Z")
Looks like Susan Rice has [more serious problems](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/world/un-envoy-rice-faulted-for-rwanda-tie-in-congo-conflict.html?ref=politics&_r=0) than Benghazi in the way of her confirmation. If it’s true that she’s been protecting Kagame and torpedoing efforts to condemn his actions, she should be axed for SecState. ---
**Author:** ![Untoward\_Parable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/51bf81/32.png) [@Untoward\_Parable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Untoward_Parable)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/155 "2012-12-10T21:45:48Z")
the final word is this: Who cares? Fox news has conflated this relatively minor issue for their political expedience so far outside it’s context that the issue has lost all meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/156 "2012-12-10T22:04:58Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Am I not paying attention or has Benghazi fallen down the fiscal cliff? It’s not getting much press now that everyone is worried that their favorite millionaire might have to pay an extra two percent on their income. Fox News is now throwing something else at the wall to see if it sticks. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/157 "2012-12-10T22:13:19Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > This makes sense, and seems to have some support from the very old original King James text, but I think this is a battle you won’t win. The other version, “Straight and Narrow” is so very widely accepted as to have overwhelming support. You aren’t wrong, but people who say it the other way aren’t wrong either. Well, the words “strait” and “narrow” being near-synonyms, the phrase “strait and narrow” is a more Biblical way of saying something – in the Old Testament tradition of Hebrew poetry, which is just full of parallelism, i.e., saying the same thing twice in succession in slightly different ways – e.g., “I am neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son”; “for three transgressions and for four”; “I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt”; “riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”\* \* > [@Zechariah 9:9](#): > > Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. Apparently this was taken as a messianic prophecy, and referenced in accounts of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem: > [@Mark 11:1-7](#): > > 1As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples,2and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here.3“If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ you say, ‘The Lord has need of it’; and immediately he will send it back here.”4They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside in the street; and they untied it.5Some of the bystanders were saying to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”6They spoke to them just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission.7 They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and He sat on it.8And many spread their coats in the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. > > 9Those who went in front and those who followed were shouting: > “Hosanna! > BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; > > 10Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; > Hosanna in the highest!” > > ``` > 11Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late. > > ``` But the Gospel of Matthew, OTOH, apparently was written by a Greek who did not understand Hebrew poetic parallelism, and included **two** donkeys in the story. > [@Matthew 21:1-6](#): > > 1When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,2saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me.3“If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”4This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: > > 5“SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION, > ‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU, > GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY, > EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’” > > 6The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them,7and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats.8Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/158 "2012-12-10T22:49:38Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Fox News is now throwing something else at the wall to see if it sticks. Ain’t nuttin’ gonna stick to that wall unless they clean the benghazi off it first. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/159 "2012-12-11T02:36:54Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Ain’t nuttin’ gonna stick to that wall unless they clean the benghazi off it first. This latest stuff could likely stick, since she’s been criticized by international human rights groups and other UN ambassadors for her failure to name Kagame as the responsible party in the Rwanda/Congo mess. The fact that in the past she worked for a company that supported Kagame isn’t helping things. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384/160 "2012-12-14T00:50:04Z")
Susan Rice has withdrawn her name from consideration as of today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-final-word-on-the-benghazi-embassy-attack/639384.md?page=9)