Analysis: The Hillary doctrine

The partisan political theater, of course, was top-notch. Rand Paul's declaration that he would have fired Hillary Clinton; her angry rebuttal of Ron Johnson's insistence that the administration misled the American people about the Benghazi attack; John McCain's continued - and legitimate - outrage at the slapdash security the State Department provided for its employees.

Amid the posturing, though, ran a separate question: what strategy, if any, does the United States have to counter the militant groups running rampant across North and West Africa? Clinton herself summed up the sad state of play during her tense exchange with McCain.

"We've got to get our act together," she said.

While the attention of American politicians has rightly focused on the safety of American diplomats, the key players in battling Africa's jihadists are local leaders and security forces. The record of the United States and its allies in training security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan is checkered at best. Africa will be yet another test.

Read more at The Atlantic.