Yesterday the ex-General and ex-CIA chief  David Petraeus testified in closed session about the attack on the US ambassador in Libya last September 11th,  which killed 4 Americans.

Conservative Republicans have been trying to make a big stinking issue out of the Benghazi  attack and subsequent misinformation which was reported to the public.  

McCain and others have suggested that the story that was presented to US mainstream media -- that the attacks grew spontaneously out of protests against an anti-Muslim video -- was a politically motivated plot to hide the truth.  Talk show pundits allege that the government wanted to suppress any data that might suggest Al Qaeda was behind the attack.  The purpose was to fluff-up Obama's reputation as a successful warrior against terrorism.   

The foolishness of this accusation is obvious. It assumes that the Obama administration would rather be seen as ineptly under-staffing the embassy with protection from a rabble of random protesters than to acknowledge that Al Qaeda was behind the Sept 11 attack.  But seizing on any opportunity to embarrass Obama, critics -- including Mitt Romney -- could not wait to make it seem like a dastardly plot to insulate  Obama from blame in an evil plan to mis-inform the citizens.  They irresponsibly leaked details of the attack, which would only serve to compromise intelligence sources and hinder the subsequent investigation.  

Now, we hear that the general has testified that the CIA knew it was a terrorist attack within a day or so after the killings, but withheld the info to protect their informational assets, and not to tip-off Al Qaeda that they were watching them.  This seems credible to me.    

I have often heard that "The simpler explanation is more likely to be true than a complex one."

In this case, we see that the State Department decision to understaff the Embassy resulted in an un-necessary loss of life and destruction of property. The simplest explanation: government bureaucracy and ineptitude allowed the situation to get out of control.

The subsequent politicizing of the event by conservatives is unworthy of people who call themselves patriots.