"What difference does it make?"
Typical "breitbarting".
Why don't any of the haters use the whole quote? Context makes all the difference.
“With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they’d they go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again Senator.”
Normally, I would agree. Mistakes occur. Not that a person responsible should not be hung out to dry and rightfully so....
Would I have sent in 20 guys to save 4 when they are surrounded by 200? Think Somalia. I think that's what those folks were thinking. I would have sent over one of those new fangled F35's ....
Now afterwards is the major issue. Few people are going do more than say "oh, 4 soldiers dead, that's a shame" if 4 guys were ambushed in Iraq, right?
In this instance, the administration orchestrated, and I think its crystal clear now that they did, a misstatement of the known facts to the American people; a willful and wanton deception to the American people. Nixon did not get screwed because of the Watergate break-in but of the cover-up than happened (or tried to occur) afterwards.
And for what purpose? Simply to cover their butts about the ultra lax security at the facility.
The soldiers, when they arrived at the facility, may have said "we're screwed", who knows. The CIA facility was, what, less than a mile away, but they could not get access to the area of the doomed compound and they barely escaped.
I've been assigned to locations where I knew if SHTF, I was likely screwed...but, you're a soldier...you do your job and follow orders and hope for the best. Sometimes the best ain't good enough...and that's the way it goes. Its the risk you assume when you put on a uniform. No need crying about the risk. Your in a socialist society ~ people with common sense and brains don't float to the top in a socialist system.