In a blog post in the National Review titled “No, Niger isn’t ‘Trump’s Benghazi’,” David French answers the calls that the mission in Niger was “Trump’s Benghazi.” He states that while there are many reasons to thoroughly investigate this tragedy, there is not any evidence at this time that would point to any kind of cover-up by the Trump Administration.

                Mr. French dives deep into the particulars of both this mission in Niger, which was one where the special forces soldiers were training allied forces, and also the terrorist attack in Benghazi, which lead to the death of U.S. soldiers, and an ambassador. He also looks into the cover-up by the Obama administration. Mr. French’s conclusion is that, though the ambush in Niger is an extremely sad tragedy, it is nothing more than what happens all the time in the war on terror. In contrasting Niger with Benghazi, Mr. French says that the cover-up/lie of the spontaneous demonstration of a you tube video is why Benghazi deserved much more scrutiny than Niger does.

                While I enjoy David French’s writing style, the telling thing to me here is his background. On reading his bio on the National Review website, it struck me that not only is he a veteran, in this case U.S. Army Reserves, but he is also a lawyer, “concentrating his practice in constitutional law and the law of armed conflict.” To me this lends quite a bit of credibility to his writing on this subject. You would expect him to know what he is talking about.