The Abandonment of Benghazi

The Weekly Standard talks about Panetta testimony.

It was not Panetta's call to make about what resources were available.  To admit that Obama had no contact or interest in the situation in Libya after 5:00pm Eastern seems damning.  More damning, however, would be an admission that he was informed about what was taking place but refused to authorize engagement and rescue. 

According to Panetta, most of the 5:00pm conference focused on the embassy in Egypt.  This is all part of the narrative that the protests were caused by a video.  The riots and attacks were taking place on September 11th.  This is a significant date to these superstitious barbarians.

Does anybody think that the President's absence from the loop would have been anything other than the driver of the news cycle for the last several weeks if the President were named Bush, McCain, or Romney?  And that's the way it should be.  I would be sickened to learn that a Republican president had neglected his duty in this way, and it would be perfectly acceptable to me to excoriate a person -- be it the Commander in Chief or the Secretary of State -- for such flagrant abandonment of American citizens.  

G. Gordon Liddy related the story at the time, and it sounded so outrageous that I have questioned it, but it may have taken place.  According to Liddy, after the 1993 catastrophe in Mogadishu, Bill Clinton was being briefed on what had taken place by his military advisers.  At one point, Clinton is alleged to have asked why they risked so much to go in after the servicemen they knew were dead. 

Listening to Hillary, Panetta and the rest, you know they don't care.  You just wonder if they even understand.