Benghazi!

A New History of the Fiasco that Pushed America and its World to the Brink

Now available

From 2004-2006, Ethan Chorin was one of a handful of US diplomats posted to Libya in the wake of rapprochement with Colonel Gaddafi. Six years later, he was in Benghazi (planning to meet the next day with Ambassador Chris Stevens) when the U.S. mission came under attack—an event that still reverberates through American domestic politics and foreign policy in disturbing and unexpected ways, as Chorin explains in BENGHAZI! A New History of the Fiasco that Pushed America and its World to the Brink.

Despite hundreds of hours of Congressional hearings, a deep dive into Hillary Clinton’s personal email, and the trial of two suspects (ultimately acquitted), there are many unanswered questions about what happened in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. This has something to do with American intelligence failures, Chorin argues, but even more so with political infighting and miscalculations on the part of both Democrats and Republicans. As Chorin writes: “Understanding Benghazi’s significance and its kinetic power— not just as an attack or a scandal, but also as a consequence and prime mover in two decades of world history—requires exposing context: domestic context, regional context, historical context. It requires examining the repeating themes of American policy in the Middle East and transitions between American administrations, and the increasingly toxic rhetoric that accompanies these transitions, figuring out why the United States makes the same mistakes over and over again, and—more to the point—doing something about it.”

To tell this story, Chorin draws on his own bone-chilling experience during the Benghazi attack, his expertise as a former diplomat and scholar of Libyan history, and new interviews with Libyan insiders, eyewitnesses, and various senior Obama officials, including Hillary Clinton. Democrats and Republicans agree on little when it comes to Benghazi, but both sides are likely to find themselves feeling vindicated by some of Chorin’s revelations and conclusions, while strongly contesting others. There is plenty of blame to go around—but also plenty of opportunity if we are willing to finally learn the lessons of Benghazi, ten years on.