This is in response to the letter from Peter Cipolloso (May 17).

We can all agree that four U.S citizens lost their lives in the attack on the Benghazi embassy.

Cipolloso stated he was a counterintelligence professional for the Department of Army and the Defense Intelligence Agency. I would assume that he was working in the intelligence community during the time U.S. officials decided to invade Iraq, but perhaps he wasn’t.

I question if he or others, who believe Benghazi was a cover-up for political purposes, have the same outrage regarding the lying and deception that got the U.S. into a war with Iraq. How many Americans lost their lives in that conflict?

Based on the “best available intelligence,” the U.S. entered a war in Iraq and suffered the losses in Benghazi.

When a bill went through the U.S. House to provide more money for the security of the embassies, why did the Republicans vote it down?

If the intelligence agencies had the information regarding the attack on the embassy in Benghazi, why weren’t the people pulled out? It is so easy to Monday morning quarterback.

It is my opinion that Cipolloso’s outrage regarding the current administration’s playing politics with people’s lives is no more than him playing politics, but to what end?

Cipolloso suggests that President Obama was derelict in his duties; was George W. Bush derelict in his duties regarding Iraq?

Norman Smith, Poland