Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi.
Why is this still an issue? Aside from the families who lost loved ones, and commemorating the lives of those who have died in service to their country, this is really not an issue, right?
Wrong. The Political Machine still believes there is juice to be squeezed from this tragedy, which is why Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa from California is issuing subpoenas to the new Secretary of State. Part of this may be because he smells blood in the water, what with Kerry’s recent PR snafu with intimating Israel will be an apartheid state. However, the real point is why Issa is issuing such subpoenas to an individual who had nothing to do with the situation.
The PR motivation for this is that Benghazi is a topic that the right wing of the political spectrum will milk in the name of patriotism to skewer a president they do not like. It can be boiled down to that ultimate cause. Regardless of the fact that the Secretary currently sitting as head of the State Department was a sitting senator at the time of the attack, there is still a PR campaign that can potentially give the Republicans the ammunition they need to achieve their goals.
While the Republican part is great at manipulating the PR around this tragedy to suit their needs, the Democrats are ignoring some salient points in their counter PR campaigns that could easily help them. No one is talking about the fact that former Secretary, Hilary Clinton, asked for more funds to be given to embassies to increase their security details, and that the Republican controlled House rejected the idea. What is also be ignored is that the personnel at Benghazi’s post did not evacuate while the might have, and that was ultimately the cause of their demise, not a former Secretary’s lack of interest, which was vehemently proven.
The reason for the renewal of this PR stunt is to further discredit a Secretary of State who is currently under duress for a mistake recently made, and to pressure a sitting president. There is really no purpose for this PR campaign, except to rile citizens on a charged subject and make more headlines.
The takeaway here is that even when it’s unwarranted, an active PR campaign is better than none at all.