There have been a number of social media posts lauding the administration's response to the attack on our Baghdad embassy, comparing it to the response to the 2012 attack on our Benghazi consulate. These posts invariably show Donald Trump in a complimentary light, versus Hillary Clinton as an indecisive, feckless leader who abandoned her people.
So, for the record (and these are facts, not spin):
Multiple Congressional investigations -- all headed by the GOP majority -- found that the State Dept and the US Government's inability to rapidly respond to the event in Benghazi was not the fault of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. They identified long standing problems and shortfalls that dated back decades.
Adequately protecting diplomatic facilities has been a concern since the 1970s at least. In 1979 our Islamabad embassy was destroyed by a mob. In 1983, our embassy in Beirut was attacked by a car bomb. In 1998, our embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were leveled by truck bombs. And so on.
After each attack, the State Dept requested additional funds to improve embassy security. Congress repeatedly failed to fund those requests.
The Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force (or MAGTF) that was dispatched to Baghdad last week -- that the administration is doing victory laps over -- was commissioned in 2013 by the Obama administration Defense Department to provide a coherent rapid response capability for embassy security *because of Benghazi* and because they were frustrated by Congress's preference to point fingers and cast blame rather than fund an actual response capability.
So, yes, the Trump administration did respond quickly to the Baghdad embassy attack, for which they deserve credit. But they did so using a capability the Obama administration ensured they possessed.
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