Those Responsible for Benghazi Should Be Fired

About Brad Bannon:

Brad Bannon is president of Bannon Communications Research, a political polling and consulting firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups, and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns.

While Hillary Clinton battled congressional Republicans, her colleague the Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that women could serve in combat positions. Secretary Clinton validated Panetta's order while she was under siege during the congressional hearings on the murder of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Libya.

House and Senate Republicans grilled the Secretary of State and she left the hearings well done. I rarely, if ever, agree with Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, but he did make a good point during Secretary Clinton's testimony. Paul commended Clinton for taking responsibility for the failure of the State Department to prevent the murder of four Americans in Libya. But he also asked her why she hadn't fired the people responsible for diplomatic security. Paul went on to say that if he had been president after the 9/11 attack, instead of George W. Bush, he would have fired a lot of people in the national security apparatus.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the Middle East.]

I hate to admit it but the man has a point. Somebody in the State Department was asleep at the switch protecting Ambassador Stevens and his staff, and a lot of people in the Bush national security apparatus must have been comatose before the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. Ambassador Stevens and thousands of other people died in the two tragedies and the people in charge didn't pay a price for their indifference and incompetence.

Though no fault of their own, millions of Americans have been fired in the last few years. If they saw that people in Washington who screwed up got fired, maybe people would have more faith in government.

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Tags:

Libya,

State Department,

Congress,

Hillary Clinton

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