On FOX News this morning Norman R. Augustine the retired chairman and chief executive officer of the Lockheed Martin Corporation, the nation’s largest defense contractor,told Neal Cavuto:
“Airpower alone will not be successful and boots on ground will be needed.”
Obama: No U.S. Forces on the Ground in Libya . . . Except for Those Guys.
By Jim Geraghty
Posted on March 23, 2011 3:46 PM
NPR: “President Obama said Wednesday it was ‘absolutely’ out of the question that U.S. ground forces would be used in Libya.”
How would the president describe the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit? There is no such thing as a purely air-based combat mission; planes have problems and pilots end up on the ground, and then U.S. forces have to end up on the ground, hopefully briefly, to rescue them and bring them home safely. Ask Scott O’Grady how much time you can spend on the ground while patrolling a no-fly zone.
Details on the recent rescue:
The Kearsarge then sent up two MV-22 Ospreys carrying Marine rescue teams. As they were en route, the Harriers dropped two laser-guided bombs near the crash site, apparently to keep Libyans on the ground from approaching the pilot.
With additional helicopters hovering overhead for security, one of the Ospreys landed and picked up the pilot. He was then taken aboard the Kearsarge.
The weapons systems officer was recovered by what U.S. officials described as Libyan opposition forces. He is safe, officials have said.
There are about 2,200 Marines off the shore of Libya right now. http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/262910
March 24, 2011
Are U.S. Troops Already on the Ground in Libya? | O’Reilly Factor
Special Guests | Col. David Hunt & Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer
RET. COL. DAVID HUNT, U.S. ARMY: Yes, absolutely. You’ve got British service been in there about three weeks ago and actually got captured and released. The French GIGN have been in there and our special forces and our U.S. intelligence operatives and their assets. We do not conduct operations like this, large scale air operations, without people on the ground. They have been very successful, very good, not a lot of contact with the rebels because you don’t know who to talk to. But, yes, we have got intel gathering and rescue guys and special operations guys on the ground, have had them for about 12 days.
O’REILLY: Now, do you agree with that, Col. Shaffer?
LT. COL. TONY SHAFFER, FORMER ARMY INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: Yes, I have heard from my sources — I got a call from one of my key sources on Monday and that’s exactly what’s going on. Let’s be really clear here. You have got to have these individuals doing what Dave just said, especially when you are talking about trying to protect, and the stated goal here, Bill, is humanitarian support. So you don’t want to have weapons hitting the wrong targets. So, Dave is very good on the fact that we have special operations guys sitting there with laser designators. Bill, you saw…
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/transcript/are-us-troops-already-ground-libya#ixzz1HiPalxMr
David Hunt says it would be foolish to believe we don’t have covert ops troops on the ground now and further points out that some 2200 marines on a ship in the Mediterranean aren’t there for a relaxing cruise.
Could this possibly mean that the bamster is lying?
Oh my Bush!
For what? The 'rebels' are working with AlQaeda. So if we help them they'll let us assist with taking down a New York sky scrapper?
I have NO desire to spill American blood to help a group working with the terrorist group that caused 9/11.
Obama, Clinton and Soro’s won’t stop until the muslim brotherhood is in charge. It will be a kinetic overseas contingency operation pay no attention to Marines/Army headed out. The boots on the ground are NATO’S and the Swiss Miss Lady on a unicorn; then Obama will get another peace prize and the MSM will cheer.
WCTI-TV in New Bern reports that Marines, assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) at Camp Lejuene, are “preserving the sanctity of the city [of Ajdubiyah] and the safety of the civilians within it.”