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First, Aid the Living
National Review Online ^ | October 21, 2012 | Bing West

Posted on 10/22/2012 3:51:08 AM PDT by billorites

A U.S. ambassador is missing and his diplomatic team is desperately fighting off terrorist attacks. Our commander-in-chief and his national-security team in Washington are listening to the phone calls from the Americans under attack and watching real-time video from a drone circling overhead. Yet the U.S. military sends no aid. Why?

On September 11, at about 10 p.m. Libyan time (4 p.m. Washington), Ambassador Chris Stevens and a small staff were inside our consulate in Benghazi when terrorists attacked. The consulate staff immediately contacted Washington and our embassy in Tripoli. The White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and numerous military headquarters monitored the entire battle in real time via the phone calls from Benghazi and video from a drone overhead.

Our diplomats fought for seven hours without any aid from outside the country. Four Americans died while the Obama national-security team and our military passively watched and listened. The administration is being criticized for ignoring security needs before the attack and for falsely attributing the assault to a mob. But the most severe failure has gone unnoticed: namely, a failure to aid the living.

By 4:30 p.m. Washington time, the main consulate building was on fire and Ambassador Stevens was missing. In response, the embassy in Tripoli launched an aircraft carrying 22 men. Benghazi was 400 miles away.

At 5 p.m., President Obama met with Vice President Biden and Secretary of Defense Panetta in the Oval Office. The U.S. military base in Sigonella, Sicily, was 480 miles away from Benghazi. Stationed at Sigonella were Special Operations Forces, transport aircraft, and attack aircraft — a much more formidable force than 22 men from the embassy.

In the past, presidents had taken immediate actions to protect Americans. In 1984, President Reagan had ordered U.S. pilots to force an airliner carrying terrorists

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: benghazi; christopherstevens; seansmith; shadowwars; threatmatrix

1 posted on 10/22/2012 3:51:09 AM PDT by billorites
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To: billorites

Obamacare


2 posted on 10/22/2012 4:10:15 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: billorites
For our top leadership, with all the technological and military tools at their disposal, to have done nothing for seven hours was a joint civilian and militaryfailure of initiative and nerve.<./B>

It wasn't a 'failure' - the deaths of these brave men - outnumber 10 to 1 was a choice. A choice remade repeatedly over a period of almost seven hours. Every few minutes someone turned to the person beside them and asked...

3 posted on 10/22/2012 4:10:54 AM PDT by GOPJ (Obama on Benghazi - - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE-aorbApBw&feature=plcp)
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To: billorites

Is someone at the White House ‘in’ to snuff films?


4 posted on 10/22/2012 4:12:34 AM PDT by GOPJ (Obama on Benghazi - - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE-aorbApBw&feature=plcp)
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To: GOPJ

Obama has these people on his conscience-—no wait—he has no conscience, and they were white people that got killed.

Back to the Golf game.It’s getting dark.


5 posted on 10/22/2012 4:13:31 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: billorites

No help was sent because our muslim -in -chief didn’t want to offend the muslims that were killing our ambassador OR those muslims who were responsible for protecting that embassy.


6 posted on 10/22/2012 4:34:04 AM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like it)
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To: billorites

How convenient for Obama that all those gay people who knew him are so dead.


7 posted on 10/22/2012 4:34:32 AM PDT by Hardraade (http://junipersec.wordpress.com (I will fear no muslim))
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To: billorites

8 posted on 10/22/2012 4:41:52 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: billorites

This was an act of war.

The US military should be in full possession of Libyan oil assets and the Libyan infrastructure, such as it is, should be smoldering.


9 posted on 10/22/2012 4:45:52 AM PDT by Arm_Bears (Re-distribute my work ethic, not my wealth.)
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To: Arm_Bears

Agh! This is what makes me so angry. I am currently having a running fight with a cousin who has a PHD in international affairs and he is pro muslims and berating me for my anti-islam stance...i guess i just don’t have the education or resources to fight him properly but I wish i did, i wish i could explain eloquently exactly why islam and muslims should be despised.


10 posted on 10/22/2012 5:20:19 AM PDT by annelizly
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To: billorites

This is treason, plain and simple.

The Kenyan anti-Christ has committed [another] act of treason.

Losing an election should be the smallest and first punishment meted out to this minion of Satan.

It should end with criminal prosecution resulting in the normal punishment for high treason.

Why am I skeptical that justice will not be served against this vile monster?


11 posted on 10/22/2012 5:34:52 AM PDT by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: billorites

I love criticizing Obama wherever plausible, but I think he and Hillary blew it long before the Benghazi attack began.

Once the attack started, we had no reasonable military options. We faced a very confused, nighttime situation, with uncertain intel, against a foe of unknown strength that habitually uses one incident to bait ambushes. The status and exact whereabouts of Americans and staff were unknown. Whether the consulate “guards” were conducting the assault, resisting it, or just trying to survive was unknown.

Shelling and strafing from an AC-130, or launching Hellfire missiles from a drone are great options for killing everyone in the area. That includes the U.S. Ambassador and all friendlies. Sending U.S. troops into this situation would likely end up with downed helicopters, dead soldiers, and executed diplomats. I do not blame any commander for eschewing some desperate, ad hoc adventure, even if brave men were ready to try. The odds of this ending well were almost nil.

Obama, Hillary, et al., failed long before the attack, when they ignored warnings and intel, when they did not either approve adequate security, or keep personnel out of unprotectable areas (perhaps they considered these folks “expendable”). They failed when they forgot what 9/11 means to the Islamists, that we are in a war against Islamic extremists that we cannot win by unilateral happy thoughts on one hand while we hunt down and kill Al Qaeda leaders on the other. Who’d a thunk they would try to reciprocate, or disrupt U.S. influence in Libya?


12 posted on 10/22/2012 6:57:23 AM PDT by Chewbarkah
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To: annelizly
He will be pro-Moslem until the moment they appear on his doorstep, scimitar in hand.
13 posted on 10/22/2012 7:03:00 AM PDT by Excellence (9/11 was an act of faith.)
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