A horrible attack by a radical terrorist group on an American outpost in the Middle East resulted in the death of Americans serving their country. As the president geared up for reelection, and with the economy in bad shape, he initially depicted the tragedy as inevitable. A fact finding commission headed by a high ranking retired government official was appointed. Its report blamed serious command and intelligence failures and said that the mission was not prepared to deal with the terrorist threat at the time due to a lack of training, staff, organization, and support
The above excerpt was originally published in The Atlantic.
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