In an effort to deflect some of the blame for the September 11, 2012 attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi President Barack Obama called on Congress to "support and fully fund" his budget request for embassy security, according to The Huffington Post.
A day after announcing the resignation the head of the IRS, Steven Miller, the president turned his attention to another scandal currently simmering in Washington, the attack in Benghazi that left four Americans dead. In the past week, the White House has been under the microscope as hearings have been held to determine if the terrorist attack was covered up in order to avoid a negative response from the American public so close to the 2012 election.
"I am intent on making sure that we do everything we can to prevent another tragedy like this from happening," Obama said. "But that means we owe it to them and all we serve to do everything in our power to protect our personnel serving overseas."
An independent accountability board recommended additional Marines and funding would help to beef up the security situation at U.S. embassies across the world.
Some experts think that while additional security funding wouldn't hurt, it wouldn't necessarily solve the problems that led to the attacks in Benghazi. Retired Ambassador Tom Pickering spoke with The Huffington Post about some of the changes that need to be made.
"We need to find ways to put the security in place, maybe with tree plantings, other kinds of things," Pickering said. "My sense is, look, we owe our people as good as we can do, but we have to get them out of the embassies and we have to make our embassies look as though they are part of the landscape. Not some prison somewhere."
President Obama was speaking in the Rose Garden alongside Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The press failed to ask any questions about the discussions the two leaders had regarding Syria and instead focused on domestic issues instead, The Guardian reports.
The president re-iterated his stance that the Congressional hearings on Benghazi are worthless if they devolve into partisan finger pointing, what is needed is action that prevents a similar tragedy in the future.
"We need to come together and truly honor the sacrifice of those four courageous Americans and better secure our diplomatic posts around the world," Obama said. "That's how we learn the lessons of Benghazi. That's how we keep faith with the men and women who we send overseas to represent America."
