benghazi conspiracy = birthers

[Asher]

CFD pays well but not that well. My brother has a MSc in that and I out-earn him handily with a lowly BSc CS.

[Asher]

What's your solution Asher? You want Americans to kick down your door and search your home for explosives? It's the only way we can meet your absurd standards for embassy security.

Where did I ever say anything about my standards?

I'm just pointing out it's happened before and it wasn't a massive ****ing scandal until the Dems were in the oval office.

[Felch]

Where did I ever say anything about my standards?

I'm just pointing out it's happened before and it wasn't a massive ****ing scandal until the Dems were in the oval office.

It wasn't a massive scandal until an ambassador was killed, and a consulate was sacked and burned. Benghazi was a tactical victory for the attackers, the others were all defeats. How is that hard to grasp?

[Hauldren Collider]

CFD pays well but not that well. My brother has a MSc in that and I out-earn him handily with a lowly BSc CS.

How the hell would you know what they offered him? Anyway, he'd obviously be earning more than as a teacher at FCPS.

[snoopy369]

I assume Asher was comparing his salary to his brother's.

Also, pay in IT is ... confusing. Things you'd think pay a ton, don't. Not sure why - I assume it has something to do with the relative abilities of different people (ie, things where natural ability really matters have much higher pay scales for top people but pretty low pay for the average person).

[Asher]

How the hell would you know what they offered him? Anyway, he'd obviously be earning more than as a teacher at FCPS.

Reading comprehension fail.

[kentonio]

It wasn't a massive scandal until an ambassador was killed, and a consulate was sacked and burned. Benghazi was a tactical victory for the attackers, the others were all defeats. How is that hard to grasp?

Ah I see the standards we're working to now, that's fair enough. Obama failed miserably to protect a US embassy abroad with the loss of several US lives, including an ambassador and presenting the enemy with a tactical victory. Bush meanwhile failed miserably to protect a major US city with the loss of 3000 lives and presenting the enemy with a massive tactical victory. That's a fair comparison right?

[Felch]

I'd say 9/11/01 was a tremendous tactical victory for Al Qaeda, far exceeding the Benghazi consulate attack. I don't know of anybody who wouldn't agree to that, aside from conspiracy nuts who think that Dick Cheney was the brains behind the whole thing.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Ah I see the standards we're working to now, that's fair enough. Obama failed miserably to protect a US embassy abroad with the loss of several US lives, including an ambassador and presenting the enemy with a tactical victory. Bush meanwhile failed miserably to protect a major US city with the loss of 3000 lives and presenting the enemy with a massive tactical victory. That's a fair comparison right?

Kentonio espouses a 9/11 commision style investigation.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

If only someone could weigh in here with State Dept. experience, ideally someone who's also served in a war zone and been in an embassy during a rocket attack. But where could we find such a person?

Oh, wait.

Look, here's the deal: If there's one single factor that stands out in the whole Benghazi mess, it's that our embassy was not a secure structure. Why was that? It's because the Benghazi was the capital of the Gaddafi resistance, so we felt it important to have diplomatic representation there, and felt we couldn't wait years (yes years) until we could get a facility built to USG specifications. Was that a wise decision? That evaluation is above my pay grade, but it is a decision consistant with the emphasis on "expeditionary diplomacy" begun under Condi Rice and continued under Hillary. To the extent that putting diplomats in harms way is a bad idea -- and there are plenty of folks in the Foreign Service who think it is, not because they're cowards but because diplomats can't actually do there jobs in a war zone -- it's a bi-partisan bad idea.

And one other thing: there's nothing that makes the death of an Ambassador more tragic that the death any other diplomat. Period. To suggest otherwise is to fail to understand both the Foreign Service and the value of lives in a democratic society.

[Sava]

What should the US have done to prevent Libyan terrorists from acquiring explosives? What should the US have done to prevent Libyan terrorists from getting guns? Once you have the explosives and guns, it's pretty trivial to breach a wall and kill a few people.

Obama apologists

[MrFun]

If only someone could weigh in here with State Dept. experience, ideally someone who's also served in a war zone and been in an embassy during a rocket attack. But where could we find such a person?

Oh, wait.

Look, here's the deal: If there's one single factor that stands out in the whole Benghazi mess, it's that our embassy was not a secure structure. Why was that? It's because the Benghazi was the capital of the Gaddafi resistance, so we felt it important to have diplomatic representation there, and felt we couldn't wait years (yes years) until we could get a facility built to USG specifications. Was that a wise decision? That evaluation is above my pay grade, but it is a decision consistant with the emphasis on "expeditionary diplomacy" begun under Condi Rice and continued under Hillary. To the extent that putting diplomats in harms way is a bad idea -- and there are plenty of folks in the Foreign Service who think it is, not because they're cowards but because diplomats can't actually do there jobs in a war zone -- it's a bi-partisan bad idea.

And one other thing: there's nothing that makes the death of an Ambassador more tragic that the death any other diplomat. Period. To suggest otherwise is to fail to understand both the Foreign Service and the value of lives in a democratic society.

The best statement made in this thread. Others, like Felch, only express "concern" for political/partisan reasons.

[Felch]

The death of an ambassador is no more tragic than anyone else, but it is certainly a bigger disaster. It's like a President being assassinated versus the murder of an innocent bystander. They're both equal in the eyes of God, but it's absurd to treat the Kennedy assassination as just one of the thousands of murders that happened in 1963. Senior officials being killed is a big deal, and whitewashing it does nobody any good.

[DinoDoc]

But, but, bin Laden dead. Al Qaeda on run.

[Felch]

Also, is MrFun's total lack of concern over the Benghazi attack a sign of his political/partisan bias? I don't pretend to know his deeper thoughts and motivations, but it does seem a little strange.