Posted on 11/05/2012 12:20:11 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
As Americans fought for their lives in Benghazi, Libya, the Pentagons options for direct intervention were narrowed to one: a fleet of F-16 fighters parked across the Mediterranean at NATO's air base in Aviano, Italy.
How the best military in the world came to having only one real choice in a terrorist attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other U.S. citizens is the story of an ill-equipped commander.
U.S. Africa Command, which oversees military options in North Africa, had no access to AC-130 gunships or to armed drones, such as the Predator, that could have killed the attackers from the air.
The command also lacked ground forces and had to look to others for help. Two quick-reaction special operations units one from central Europe, the other from the United States would arrive in Sicily, but it was too late for insertion into Benghazis chaotic streets on the evening of Sept. 11 when the attack erupted. The siege by militants at the U.S. Consulate and a CIA base ended hours before the morning of Sept. 12.
..............But on Sept. 11, AfriCom was still a command in paper only, as one former Bush administration official put it.
The military source told The Times, AfriCom has very few assigned forces.
Gen. Ham lacked what is called a commander in-extremis force, which other combatant forces have set up to respond to crises such as Benghazi. He also lacked the assets to assemble a generic quick-reaction force..........
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
The timing of this leak is suspicious, and the info impossible to verify.
Freepers recognize that even if true, this in no way exonerates Obama, but voters who follow this story in a cursory way or via headlines and soundbites might see it as a mitigating factor in regard to Obama's lack of response.
Clinton’s military service is exactly twelve years less than mine. Mine began in 1956 and I can assure him that we were a fully integrated military then and when I left the service. Many of my fellow military men (granted, women were in short supply in the 50s and 60’s) were black and Americans of Mexican heritage. I saw very little bad blood between the troops, and as a noncom leader of men, would not have tolerated it.
So for him to suggest that it has been his record, and that is exactly what he implies, is unvarnished BS. I believe that Harry Truman was the democrat who integrated the armed forces, and he was the last one to have the balls to win a war by any and all means.
The article doesn’t explain THIS:
The questions concerning General Ham’s role in the September 11 events continue to percolate. Congressman Jason Chaffetz, Utah Republican, said that General Ham told him during a visit to Libya that he had never been asked to provide military support for the Americans under attack in Benghazi. Former United States Ambassador to the U.N. John R, Bolton also mentioned Mr. Chaffetz’s account, and contrasted it with Mr. Panetta’s statement that General Ham had been part of the team that made the decision not to send in forces. “General Ham has now been characterized in two obviously conflicting ways,” Mr. Bolton concluded. “Somebody ought to find out what he actually was saying on September the eleventh.”
They sat in the situation room, well, Obama after his 5pm meeting with Biden and Panetta, for hours and there's no way they did everything, and it was the State Department that supplied the back-up Troops from Tripoli according to what we learned from Bing West on Greta.
TRANSCRIPT: Presidential debate on foreign policy at Lynn University
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/22/transcript-presidential-debate-on-foreign-policy-at-lynn-university/
Obama Now with respect to Libya, as I indicated in the last debate, when we received that phone call, I immediately made sure that, number one, that we did everything we could to secure those Americans who were still in harms way;
Initial phone call to Washington which would have been 9:40 p.m. at the consulate, 3:40 p.m. in the Eastern Time zone;
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/10/198791.htm
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:...I neglected to mention from the top that that agent from the top of this incident, or the very beginning of this incident, has been on the phone. He had called the quick reaction security team, he had called the Libyan authorities, he had called the Embassy in Tripoli, and he had called Washington.
Why have we not considered the October suprise that went sour [Pres. O/Muslim Brotherhood deal]for the kidnaping/Big O release of the ambassador? This was caused by the direct disobedience of the Seals.
No, I have not. I would love to have a source on that for my extensive bookmark file. I have heard that two surveillance drones were assigned to Libya but no confirmation on whether they were armed or capable of being armed.
Indeed.
Al Qaeda Plants Its Flag in Libya
Benghazi: A Sea of Al-Qaeda Flags Nov. 5, 2011
I think Panetta was the one who put that out there. I don't think I buy that. A Delta Force team and 100 Recon Marines with air support from an AC-130 or an Apache helo could deal with that I believe. Do we ask for guaranteed outcomes now before going to defend 41 Americans who volunteered to serve in harm's way?
That’s how it read to me.
That is true. Nothing redounds to this administration’s benefit.
AfriCom has very few assigned forces.
I can't say that that isn't true but it sure doesn't sound believable. If we parse that statement (thank you Slick Willie for teaching us that we need to do that) 'few' could be a relative term. Few compared to other theaters?
They want us to believe there weren't enough assets to affect a rescue of 40 people against a force of about 150-200 taking just a few hours in a port side city on the Mediterranean. So, what does Africom consist of? A leaky rowboat, a Piper Cub and a rundown office staffed by techies and paper pushers? Does 0bama plan to scale them back and drydock the rowboat?
I know I read it. I don’t remember the source, and I have been to so many websites I doubt that I can backtrack it easily.
However, I will keep an eye out and if I happen across it again, I will let you know.
Thank you.
it's one of their lines. There are quite a few actually, routinely changing as actual facts are leaked.
Originally for weeks it was the video, then "We've always said it was a terror attack". Then they couldn't put forces in because they didn't know what was going on (except for the 2 highly trained former SEAL warriors and multiple CIA assets on the ground that they were in direct and continuous communication with and live video from the drones).
Now we are to believe that there were no assets, none, air or otherwise that could have been deployed from Sigonella, a huge US, NATO and Italian air and operations base 480 miles away, "The Hub of the Mediterranean" that could have gotten there in time? No Warthogs, no AC-130s, no fighters, no bombers, no copters, no armed drones, hell, not even a P-51?
Originally for weeks it was the video, then "We've always said it was a terror attack". Then they couldn't put forces in because they didn't know what was going on (except for the 2 highly trained former SEAL warriors and multiple CIA assets on the ground that they were in direct and continuous communication with and live video from the drones).
Now we are to believe that there were no assets, none, air or otherwise that could have been deployed from Sigonella, a huge US, NATO and Italian air and operations base 480 miles away, "The Hub of the Mediterranean" that could have gotten there in time? No Warthogs, no AC-130s, no fighters, no bombers, no copters, no armed drones, hell, not even a P-51?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/04/what-laser-capability-did-benghazi-team-have/
Basically they just have a NATO sign on a false-front building so those darned Ruskies don't get any frisky ideas. /s10
You know they actually rented those planes from Hollywood to bomb Gadaffi out of existence right?
Don't forget that there were on the ground live streaming security cams from the main compound too if not the annex as well. I think Leon was expecting the Ansar al Sharia guys to call in their positions and give them some live cam-feed from their side of the firefight. Without that you just couldn't know enough.
It's a logical speculation though and there has been no solid denial that there were no AC-130s available or even that there was not one in the air over Benghazi. If they could truthfully say there was not wouldn't they have said that by now?
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