Top Intel Chief Testifies: We Should Have Sent Help For Americans in Benghazi
Katie Pavlich | May 01, 2014
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-QfULYQ_po8
Testifying in front of a House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill, retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Lovell said the military should have and could have done more to help Americans who were killed in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. Lovell is the former deputy director for intelligence at Africa Command. His testimony today is the first testimony from a member of the military who was at Africa Command during the time of the Benghazi attack on the U.S consulate. [Bolding is mine]
Many with firsthand knowledge have recounted the heroism displayed by the brave Americans in Benghazi that night. They fought the way they trained. That is in the record. Outside of Libya there were discussions that churned on about what we should do. These elements also fought the way they were trained. Specifically, the predisposition to interagency influence had the military structurein the spirit of expeditionary government supportwaiting for a request for assistance from the State Department. There are accounts of time, space and capability discussions of the question, could we have gotten there in time to make a difference. Well, the discussion is not in the could or could not in relation to time, space and capabilitythe point is we should have tried. As another saying goes: Always move to the sound of the guns, Lovell said. It is with a sense of duty as a retired General officer that I respectfully submit these thoughts and perspectives.