Private Mars Rocket II

The House Select Committee on Benghazi has released their final report. After much Strum und Drang, there's nothing there. Specifically:

1) Ambassador Stevens died before anybody could have done anything.
2) Nobody in any level of command issued a "stand down" order. The closest to such an order came from the CIA chief in Benghazi who may have had his team wait a couple of minutes while he was trying to get local help - help that the team leader wanted.

There were a few new items. First, the only military unit available to respond, a FAST platoon, was in Rota, Spain. That's 4 hours flying time to Benghazi. Alas, the unit doesn't have C-130s available - they have to come from Ramstein, Germany.

The unit commander testified that he saw TV news of a problem around midnight local time and started recalling his troops from liberty. He got the order to go to Libya at 2:39 AM local time. To be clear, Stephens had been dead for hours, the consulate had been overrun for hours, and the CIA annex had been attacked once by then. He'd already recalled his troops and were getting them packed up, but that's when he got the order. At 5:45 AM local time, FAST reported that they were ready to go.

They did not have a C-130, as Ramstein had not been ordered to send one. The general at Ramstein, also acting on TV news, had gotten some birds prepped. Yet the C-130s didn't arrive from Ramstein for another six (6) (!!!!!!) hours, and FAST spent several hours on the ground deciding whether or not to travel in civilian clothes and with what weapons.

What is clear to me from reading the report is a shocking lack of urgency in any of the military units involved, from the immediate reports of the Secretary of War on down to the European commanders. What was also clear to me was a very low, peacetime, level of readiness for a problem. Having said that, the fault seems to lie at the level of uniformed officers, not Clinton.

Benghazi!11!!

Over at Simberg's Flying Circus, the Usual Suspects are screaming "Benghazi!" again (or still, more accurately). This was prompted by a question from some editorialist about "where was Obama?" The answer is provided by the GOP in their majority report of the Armed Services Committee (PDF at link). Obama was in the Oval Office when he was told the consulate had been overrun and Stevens was missing. He told the Secretary of Defense and the Chair of the Joint Chiefs to "do everything they could" and they did.

Alas (again, see link above) no military forces were at a high enough state of alert and close enough to get there in time to do anything. Despite that fact, The Usual Suspects are upset that Obama didn't sit up all night and watch planes being loaded, or whatever he was supposed to do.

Science Fiction

The blog Obsidian Wings has an interesting article on world-building in science fiction. Money quote: the political differences in SF that are causing trouble are over the value of certain kinds of people, not over ideas. Of course people take opinions about their personhood personally, it would be bizarre not to. Refusing to spend mental time in a world where the creator despises you is basic self-protection, especially if the "real world" is one where you're already a second-class citizen. (emphasis in original).

This led to a humorous take on monarchy - a peasant's view of King Arthur.

Hugos

Orbit shot themselves in the foot by deciding to not include their novels in the free Hugo packet. In the short run, it will get them one more sale (me, of the McGuire book) but in the long run it's stupid.