[A Navy Vet]

"Something else. It was pitch-black. 2am. It wasn’t stated what kind of weapon hit the Chinook - whether it was a Manpad, a heat-seeking missile, RPG, etc. But the hit was deadly accurate in the pitch dark in the middle of the night."

Here's something for you to think about: Not only are all kinds of weapons sold to or traded by the bad guys, but they also have access to night vision equipment.

Please understand that I'm not making excuses for the poor tactical operation, which is where I place the blame. I'm just not seeing any grand conspiracy. We have enough with the Benghazi debacle, not to mention the "Fast and Furious" gun-running operation.

[butterdezillion]

We have night vision equipment as well. Why didn’t we have anybody there who could have laid down protective cover? They could have seen who was armed and where they were. It could have been an armed drone and the camera-man could have found where the armed elements were and had the drone fire specifically at those armed elements in the area. This was after 3.5 hours of firefights. We knew there were armed terrorists there, including a high-value target. Why send our people in totally defenseless, knowing that the enemy has the capability of night vision?

That’s not a tactical mistake. That is suicide. Except the person who ordered it was not who was sent into certain death so instead of suicide it’s actually more like murder.