Select Committee on Benghazi Final Report July 8, 2016

Terrorist Attacks on US Facilities in Benghazi

By: Select Committee on Benghazi

Narrated by: Leonard Bustos

The original purpose of the Select Committee's investigation was to determine how four Americans died and what measures could be taken to prevent it from happening again.

More specifically: How the United States of America, the most powerful nation in the world:

1. Failed to provide adequate security for more than 30 Americans put in harm's way in one of the most dangerous places on earth

2. Failed to send or assist in any defense or rescue effort after they came under attack

3. Failed to provide an evacuation plan should they survive an ongoing attack from more than 100 terrorists with very bad intentions who were armed with automatic weapons, RPGs, and mortars.

In my humble opinion, I find it difficult to understand how detractors of the investigation or any fair-minded person for that matter could say this investigation was not warranted, or even that it was a total waste of time.

Unfortunately, partisan politics entered the picture. The Obama administration was facing re-election, and the Democratic Party wanted to prevent any bad news from hampering their chances to gain power in the House and Senate.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton knew that her department failed to adequately protect the diplomatic compound and the ambassador, even though countless requests for more security were denied. Of course she also did not want to ruin her potential bid to run for president in 2016 by showcasing her incompetence.

On the other hand, fair-minded observers cannot overlook the fact that the Republican led Congress wanted to seize this opportunity to damage the Democratic party to not only gain control of the White House, but maintain control over the House and Senate as well.

Of course, I would be remiss in not acknowledging that the Republicans were going to take advantage of this situation as much as possible. That doesn't negate the fact that it was also the right thing to do.

©2016 Leonard Bustos (P)2016 Leonard Bustos