Long ago I was a SEAL officer and I attended many joint and combined operational planning meetings in the USA, abroad, and on ships at sea. This type of rescue mission is called a “NEO” operation, for Non-combatant Evacuation Operation. Every embassy and consulate has and practices all kinds of emergency evac plans, in concert with the US military.
For example, Marines and SEALs practice NEO ops prior to deploying on every float, as a VERY high priority mission. They involve full dress-rehearsals, with civilian role players, helos, landing craft, rounding up stranded stragglers, opfor ambushes, role-playing “angry mobs,” fighting your way to LZs or even beaches while protecting a gaggle of civilians down to babies etc. Conducting successful NEO ops is a TOP TOP TOP military and state department mission priority. I cannot emphasize this enough. NEO ops are planned and practiced over and over and over.
When the alarm goes off worldwide that an embassy or consulate is being attacked, the entire U.S. military swings into rescue mode, without waiting for any orders from the White House. The military does all of the operational planning and begins to execute the rescue op.
The one thing they CAN’T do is cross an international border without permission from POTUS. So the US Military will be inbound full-steam-ahead to make the rescue, and all they need from POTUS is a “proceed” order. In this case, they got a “stand down” instead.
This is at the POTUS level, it is not a decision taken at State. State and the military (JCS) should be in the Situation Room with POTUS soon after a critical incident like this begins, so all decisions can be made in real time. (I have heard nowhere that POTUS went into the Situation Room at all. Apparently he went to the Oval Office briefly, but not down to the Situation Room, where the “war planning” screens, full staffs and commo tools are all located for dealing with a major crisis.)
But if POTUS punts after a brief Oval Office meeting with Dempsey and Hillary and goes upstairs to the family quarters....the stranded Americans will die.
Only POTUS can give the order to cross international borders. Only POTUS can allow US warplanes to give air support to Americans battling on the ground in a foreign country. If POTUS makes himself unavailable, the Americans will die.
Even the VEEP or Secretary of State cannot make that call. The VEEP can only do it if the POTUS is determined to be medically unable to perform his functions. If the POTUS goes upstairs and turns off his phone, there is nothing anybody can do about it. Nothing. And the besieged Americans will die.
On Friday an anonymous Pentagon insider (”Doug”) called into Rush with a lot of new details about this disgraceful fiasco. But what we really need now is for a high-ranking officer with insider knowledge to go public, risk his pension and career, and tell the truth.
The blame for this humiliating and shameful national disgrace is pointing directly at the POTUS, and America needs to know why the inbound rescue operation was aborted.
BTTT
Video: Obama ducks questions on why help wasn’t sent to Benghazi
Video is at Hot Air.
Tried to setup a Direct link...didn't seem to work with my gear.
See Travis’s comments.
I have been saying this for a couple of weeks now. Even before the Col. Hunt interview came out. I didn't serve and I don't know squat about the military or gov protocol. It just seemed self-evident to me. What could be a bigger emergency than this? The national security implications are obvious. The foreign relations implications are obvious.
This is so much more than turning our backs on 41 people who work for us in a high risk environment. As if that's not bad enough. This sends a message to the world that the U.S. is weak and cowardly and duplicitous beyond measure. Not only does this make our enemies believe we are weak it tells all nations that we can't be trusted. If the POTUS would do this to his own ambassadors what deceit and treachery would be beyond him?
Apparently he went to the Oval Office briefly, but not down to the Situation Room, where the “war planning” screens, full staffs and commo tools are all located for dealing with a major crisis.)
Who, with all of that available to them, could possibly not go to see and hear all that they could. Just out of simple curiosity. Even if you had no authority to do anything but observe how could anyone tear themselves away from that? But a president could find that uninteresting? He's a sociopath.
If the President truly has to be on top of all this stuff minute by minute as it unfolds, if he can’t tell them in advance that they have his okay to do thus-and-such, well we do have a problem here, Houston.