The Difference It Makes, At This Point

I wondered why we didn't have an account of the brave resistance to the September 11, 2012 attack on our diplomatic outpost at Benghazi. Now we have one for the initial defense of the outpost.

It is embellished with assumed dialog, but it paints a picture of staff reacting on the assumption that help would be sent and that they only had to survive long enough to be rescued rather than defeat the attackers.

Their assumption was wrong. Backup from State Department or CIA para-military assets at the annex and from Benghazi was on the way. But nothing more from our military was allowed to go in Harm's way.

So we lost that battle. And the Islamists won. On the 11th anniversary of the original 9/11 attacks.

Yet somehow, too many believe what difference does it make, at this point, what we did or did not do that night.

The difference is whether we will win this war or lose it, learning to accept loss of freedoms and periodic deaths from jihadis on the theory that our bathtubs are a more serious danger on a day-to-day basis.

Of course, our bathtubs don't aspire to kill 100,000 of us at a pop in a nuclear assault if their god is with them.

Tip to Real Clear Defense.