Rand Paul’s Fantasy

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today and it was not without a few fireworks. 

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said several things that demonstrate his inability to perform his duty as a Senator with dignity.  He told Secretary Clinton that he would have fired her had he been President.  He also called Benghazi the worst tragedy since 9/11. 

Ok, two things.

First, the idea of a Rand Paul presidency is laughable at best.

Secondly, the worst tragedy since 9/11?  Are you kidding?  He didn’t say terrorist attack.  He said tragedy.  We are coming off the worst school shooting in a while.  Twenty elementary school kids are dead because of the shooting at Sandy Hook.  I’d say that is a much bigger tragedy than Benghazi. 

If he did mean terrorist attack, that’s not even accurate either.

September17, 2008 – Al Qaeda attacked the U.S. embassy in Yemen killing 17 people, including one American.  They used rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and two car bombs.

July9, 2008 – Armed men attacked the U.S. consulate in Istanbul killing three Turkish police.  After a five-minute gun battle, the attackers were killed.

June14, 2002 – A car packed with explosives detonated near the guard post of the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 10 and injuring 51.

All of these attacks happened under President George W. Bush who was supposedly really good at fighting terrorism.  I didn’t hear controversy over these.  I didn’t hear any senators telling Condoleezza Rice that she would have been fired if they were president.  These are not the only attacks during the previous administration but they were pretty bad. 

Senator Paul, Senator McCain, and the rest of the Republicans are acting like this is a huge deal and it simply is not.  I feel that they want there to be controversy simply for them to point at the Obama administration.  I understand that four American’s died and that is unfortunate.  It’s never good when that happens but this happened in a tough area of the world.  The United States is not well liked everywhere and this, unfortunately, is the cost of doing business in that part of the world.