Benghazi

Fresh off a loss, the Republicans have decided that hyping up the Benghazi incident is the way to get back in the game.  They should not waste their time.

Democrats spent years trying to bring down the Bush II presidency on various alleged foreign policy / security goofs including 9/11 preparedness, 9/11 initial reaction, and starting two wars for dubious reasons.  The end result was Bush II was relatively easily re-elected in 2004.  Bush II's repuation and political standing were finally eroded when the economy began to stall in 2006 and finally go into freefall in 2008.  The fact that Saddam never had weapons of mass destriction nor planned the 9/11 attacks never really harmed his presidency at all.

Therefore, regardless of how incompetent Obama's administration was or wasn't and whether the attacks were done by terrorists or not, it doesn't matter.  The reality is most Americans are unable to answer very basic questions about the world outside our borders.  It doesn't matter whether you ask people in San Francisco or Kentucky, most would probably not be able to find Libya on a map, nor would they really care.

As uninformed as Sarah Palin is her misstatements about Africa being one country and the queen being the head of the UK governments are largely shared by a large portion of Americans.  In fact, I'm convinced this little quiz I am putting below would be failed by 50% plus of Americans of all politcal stripes.  Here it is, five questions and no wikipedia allowed.

1.  Mitt Romney said Iran is Syria's only ally in the Arab World.  What is incorrect about this statement?
     a.  Iran and Syria are not allies.
     b.  Syria is in fact allies with Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt in addition to Iran.
     c.  Iranians are not Arabs
     d.  Mitt Romney did not say this
2.  Who helped Apartheid era South Africa build a nuclear weapon?
     a.  Soviet Union
     b.  Pakistan
     c.  Israel
     d.  North Korea
3.  On a per capita basis which country is closest to China?
     a.  Jamaica
     b.  Sweden
     c.  Germany
     d.  Canada
4.  Where is Somalia?
      a.  West Africa
      b.  North Africa
      c.  South Africa
      d.  East Africa
5.   Who is not in the "G-8"?
      a.  Japan
      b.  China
      c.  Russia
      d.  Italy

Enjoy.