Benghazi Continues To Not Be a Scandal

Last night, as I was mass-deleting email, I noticed a message from some conservative group touting NEW! Benghazi information that proved something or other. I almost thought about reading it, but why bother? My finger continued clicking the delete key and it was soon history.

Today, though, I see that it was apparently based on yet another bombshell from Judicial Watch:

Judicial Watch today released a new Benghazi email from then-Department of Defense Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash to State Department leadership immediately offering “forces that could move to Benghazi” during the terrorist attack on the U.S. Special Mission Compound in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012.

....Bash’s email seems to directly contradict testimony given by then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta before the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2013. Defending the Obama administration’s lack of military response to the nearly six-hour-long attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Panetta claimed that “time, distance, the lack of an adequate warning, events that moved very quickly on the ground prevented a more immediate response.”

....“The Obama administration and Clinton officials hid this compelling Benghazi email for years,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The email makes readily apparent that the military was prepared to launch immediate assistance that could have made a difference, at least at the CIA Annex. The fact that the Obama Administration withheld this email for so long only worsens the scandal of Benghazi.”

The copy of the email that Judicial Watch received was redacted, so perhaps their excitement is understandable. But here's the whole email:

Yep: just the same old stuff. There were forces in Croatia and Spain that could have responded, but it would have taken hours to get them to Libya. In the end, there was no hope that they could respond in time, so they weren't mobilized. This is exactly what Panetta and every other Obama official have been saying for the past three years.

Repeat after me: There is no Benghazi scandal. There may have been mistakes, but nothing nefarious or negligent.