Hank,

I couldn't tell if the following opinion was part of Max Boot's commentary, but it just doesn't make sense:

". . . "Why would our president not come to the defense of our consulate under attack? This is an attack on American soil. This was a 9/11 attack by an al-Qaeda branch in Libya. Therein lies the answer.

Obama does not believe in using the military to defend our national security, which he sees as aggressive, Republican, and cowboy. This was Obama's 9/11, not Bush's. He did not see the attack on our embassy as a jihadi attack on American soil. He saw a group of aggrieved Muslim citizens, with good reason to be angry -- the spontaneous mob enraged by an offensive video. He would follow a Democrat policy of promoting peace, not war, in which avoiding civilian casualties is the paramount goal.

The other answer is directly political. It would be damaging for Obama's already weak record to admit that there was a 9/11 attack by al-Qaeda in one of the supposed successes of the Arab Spring. Responding militarily would have made the weaknesses of Obama's foreign policy all too evident. An American military response would have undercut one of Obama's main campaign slogans: "GM is alive and Osama is dead.". . ."

It doesn't make sense to me because I don't see how Obama or anyone in the administration could have seen any possible benefit in not aiding the US diplomatic mission. And directly denying aid and directly giving a "stand down" order can only go from bad to worse. Since there is no potential political upside, I can't help but question the criticisms as anything other than more anti-Obama political attacks. The alternative is that Obama, Clinton, and other chief administration members are dumber than a box of rocks, which is only believable to a few right wing kook aid swillers.

The flip side is that there would be nothing but political gain to the adiminstration sending in reinforcements with guns ablazing, ala killing bin Laden, whether the effort was successful or unsuccessful. Consequently I'm not gonna' jump on the rush to judgement train.

Sg