Ben There, Done That

Over the past couple of years, Hope n' Change has had a lot to say about the successful terrorist attack in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9/11. Which is why we think it is our duty to also comment about the newly-released report from the House intelligence committee (led by Republicans) which largely dismisses the many conspiracy theories which arose in the absence of White House transparency.

The report, which Hope n' Change is grudgingly willing to accept (while remaining mindful of Lindsey Graham's claim that it is "full of crap") says that there is no evidence of an intelligence failure, no evidence of a "stand down" order,  no failure to mount a timely rescue attempt, no evidence that the attack was related to secret arms sales, and that the White House narrative about the Youtube video was not deliberately intended to mislead.

So all of us on the Right owe great big apologies to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, right? Hardly.

We still don't know where Obama was or what he was doing during the attack. We do know that he didn't show much interest in it, that he didn't change his scheduled fundraising trip to Las Vegas the next morning, and that in his fundraising speech he compared his campaign volunteers to those who had given their lives in Benghazi.

We know that Barry and company stuck with the Youtube story much longer than can reasonably be justified, because they wanted it to be true in order to make the attack our fault. That's why Barry went to the United Nations and blamed not only the video but our Freedom of Speech for the attack. But according to the report, he wasn't lying - he was saying what he actually believed.

And Hillary? We now know with certainty that she doesn't really pay close attention to communications from the field in which people are begging for more security. In fact, she doesn't read a lot of her correspondence at all. And yes, it did "make a difference" whether the attack in Benghazi was a planned terrorist action or a spontaneous street demonstration. It just didn't make a difference to you, Hillary, because you were more interested in having your people comb through records in the State Department basement to try to salvage your presidential campaign.

In a nutshell, the report finds that nobody in the Obama administration went out of their way to deliberately make things worse - it was just partisan political "business as usual," screwing everything up at the expected and (sadly) accepted level.

Absent any stunning new revelations, Hope n' Change is therefore closing the books on the Benghazi tragedy. We're not fully satisfied with all the answers - but with so many other scandals and policy disasters to worry about, we're ready to "move on."

And may Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty rest in peace.

UPDATE: Here's an analysis worth reading about the report. It makes clear that the Lefties have very little to gloat about.

ADDITIONAL UPDATE:  After having 24 hours to review other material and think about it, Hope n' Change isn't actually quite so ready to "move on" after all. At the time of the original writing, we mistakenly assumed that the report included the results of Trey Gowdy's investigation, which substantially affected our opinion about the report's credibility.

But we were wrong - Gowdy's investigation is ongoing, and a lot of critical questions remain unanswered. So we will accept the GOP report as another piece of evidence, but won't make a final judgement until all the evidence is in.