On Christopher Stephens

Occasionally I wonder if an official story is a cover for a much deeper, and forever unknown, tale of intrigue. Those moments come mostly when the cover story implies an unbelievable stupidity on the part of elected officials. Case in point - when your ambassador worries, you listen. When he worries with a country's leader, you listen more.

I’ll often wonder if we really know
The stories hidden deep, when the façade
Is something rather obvious, and odd.
The warnings were, as warnings often go,
Unheeded, and too obvious.  If I
Can make a better case for giving ear
To those upon the ground than any here
In Washington, whose voices often lie,
And say whatever’s needed to obtain
The most apparent gain, I can conclude
That Stephens died from some internal feud
Of deafened politicians – or, my main
Initial guess – we’ll never know the sum
Of this event, that made the nation numb,
The story kept beneath a hidden thumb.
(‘Cause nobody could be this freaking dumb.)