Where is the Outrage?

          How long must we endure the continual lies of Faux News? They have alleged that the Benghazi attacks were, of course, either Sec State or POTUS' fault. That's incredibly naive and ignorant on its own, but to compound the felony, and play the usual partisan card we're so used to seeing, the commentator continued to say that things would have been different if George W Bush had been President. Dick Cheney said essentially the same thing as well. Both implied, or allowed the listener to draw the conclusions, that nothing of this sort happened under the Bush regime.

          Let's deal with the first allegations first. Hidden beneath the GOP misinformation campaign is the fact that House Republicans voted to cut nearly $300 million from the U.S. embassy security budget.

          Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) acknowledged  that he voted to cut funding for U.S. embassy security . When asked directly if he voted to cut the funds on CNN, Chaffetz said, "Absolutely. Look, we have to make priorities and choices in this country."  One of those choices forced on SecState Clinton was to beef up security in Tripoli, considered at the time a far more likely target. Republicans  have been trying to politicize the attack — which killed four Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya — suggesting, with zero credible evidence , that the Obama administration may have ignored intelligence that the attack was imminent, didn’t properly secure the Benghazi compound and is now trying to cover it up. Of course holding hearings on this subject will take some Americans' attention away from the economic hostage taking done by the GOP in budget considerations.

          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. 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.!

          [Then] GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, Rep. Darrell 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.

          OK, OK. we get it. Maybe the GOP did gut security funding, and four American dead is a tragedy, admittedly. Surely things were better under the Bush administration when the GOP controlled House of Representatives,  Senate and White House for six of eight years, and the House the entire time.  

          Nay, nay, Luther,  - seven embassies were attacked by terrorist s or hostiles during Bush's  8 years in office. Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Athens, Serbia, and Yemen. The death toll was well in excess of 50, and more than  20 were Americans. In fact 20 were killed in Bush's first term, five times the death toll in Benghazi.

          Sooo how did the ole cowboy respond?  What did Bush do?  Nuthin'.

          Well obviously Congress must have been outraged, How many hearings were held, what did they do? Nuthin'.

          And if that isn't enough to convince you that all the hoo hah over Benghazi is political witch hunting vice  love of countrymen? Consider the largest, and  most catastrophic attack and murder of Americans.  Sept. 11, 2001, is indelibly imprinted on our national psyche.  3,000 perished in the most brutal act of terror in our recent history—all under a Republican administration. George W. Bush and his team had nine warnings that al-Qaida would attack within the United States, but they did absolutely nothing. No one in that administration’s head rolled for that stunning incompetence either. Unlike Benghazi, the outgoing Clinton administration had clearly warned of al Qaida. FBI field ops warned of something amiss - all to deaf ears. Where was the investigation? Where was the outrage at the Bush Administration?  What did we all do? Nuthin'.

          But, you admonish me, don't say he didn't do anything! You are, of course, correct. In addition to giving cursory attention to Afghanistan where al-Qaida's evil genius resided, The ole cowboy, made war on Iraq at the cost of over $1,437,218,231,131, a million needless Iraqi deaths, and  another 4000+ American military casualties along the way. Where is the outrage?   It's right here!