Wasted Time and Money in an Ignoble Cause

     OK,  before Trump delivers his Clinton smear speech tonight: Let's get one thing straight. Regardless of what you may think about Hillary Clinton, know this about the Benghazi fiasco: There were barely token investigations of attacks on US embassies during the Reagan and Bush administrations, and none attacked the SecState. 

     Mrs. Clinton was targeted specifically because, even then, Republicans feared that she would be a Presidential contender, and in that, they were correct. Consequently, House and Senate Republicans wasted more time and money on "The blame game" than was spent on the combined investigations of: The JFK assassination, Watergate, 9/11, and Iran Contra scandal. 

     Several House Republican committee members and staffers , sickened by the actions of Rep. Trey Gowdy, have broken ranks and admitted that these investigations, chaired by Gowdy, were convened for the express purpose of discrediting Mrs. Clinton politically. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence concluded its two-year Benghazi investigation in November 2014 when it released a report exonerating the Obama administration of wrongdoing in its response to the attack. The report found evidence of contradicting intelligence among government officials and concluded officials did not intentionally mislead the public with information in the days following the attack. 

     Instead of taking concrete steps to enhance the safety and security of our diplomatic corps overseas, the Select Committee on Benghazi continues to squander millions of dollars and has nothing to show for it other than a partisan attack against Secretary Clinton and her campaign for president. As of right now as I write, the cost of just this committee's fruitless efforts is set to top 7 million dollars. Excluded from this one Committee's expenditures are the costs of the independent Accountability Review Board; the eight previous reports by seven Congressional committees; the time, money, and resources consumed by federal agencies to comply with Select Committee requests; or the opportunity cost of not spending this money elsewhere, like improving security for our diplomatic officers abroad. 

     When the Marine Barracks in Beirut was attacked in 1983, , no one blamed the Reagan administration, even though 241 American servicemen died. Rather we just fled Lebanon.