Posted on 05/12/2013 12:54:54 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Obama administration got some backing Sunday for the way in which it responded as terrorists attacked the US diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, last September – a night of violence and confusion during which Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a Republican who served in both the Bush and Obama administrations, said if he had been at the Pentagon at that time, "Frankly … I think my decisions would have been just as theirs were.”
Republican critics have said a Special Forces team or overflights by fighter aircraft based in Italy might have prevented the US losses or at least frightened off the attackers. Mr. Gates disagrees.
Such actions, he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, “without knowing what the environment is, without knowing what the threat is, without having any intelligence in terms of what is actually going on the ground, would have been very dangerous."
"It's sort of a cartoonish impression of military capabilities and military forces," Gates said, referring to morning-after analysis. "The one thing that our forces are noted for is planning and preparation before we send people in harm's way, and there just wasn't time to do that."
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
TF61?
Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Gates is right.
In that case, the administration knew ahead of time that resources couldn’t be sent to quickly protect the embassy.
The question is: Why weren’t the embassy personnel removed to safety well before the attack? Other western countries got their people out once the danger was realized.
Gates can defend the logistics once the attack took place, but he can’t defend the stupidity (or purposeful risk-taking) of leaving the personnel in place.
So Gates spent too much time in the local bathhouses wherever he was, or did he prefer Turkish steam rooms.
What? Does the US only have one plane? Why not put a larger number of troops in multiple types aircraft, maybe a couple of special forces in another, get an assessment of the situation en route, make a plan and reassess before taking action. Instead we stood down before we stood up.
Mr. Gates, four dead Americans would most likely beg to differ with you, if they could, but they can’t you see, because of the decision you share with 0.
Afghanistan is more northerly than Libya so Predators work there coz it is cooler.
Predators do not work at night over the hot Libyan desert.
I didn’t realize Robert Gates’s middle name was McNamara.
I’d give a few years of my life if Patton could be sent back as an unfirable head of the joint chiefs.
With Love...
Post #3: “Based on everything I read, people didn’t really know what was going on in Benghazi contemporaneously,” he said.
FLASHBACK:
http://www.kansas.com/2012/10/13/2531377/ex-defense-secretary-robert-gates.html
October 13, 2012
Gates declined to comment on the Sept. 11 raid on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens, a State Department computer specialist and two former Navy SEALs. The raid has spawned a congressional hearing and drawn criticism from Romney and the GOP about the Obama administration’s handling of security at the consulate, and for the way it described the attack first as a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim Internet video, and later as a terrorist act.
“I learned a long time ago not to take a position until hearing all the facts, and I don’t know what all the facts are,” Gates said.
Hicks: Special Forces ‘Furious’ Upon Being Told to Stand Down video at link"According to Benghazi whistleblower Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission in Libya, special forces were “furious” when they were told to stand down during the Benghazi attack. “I will quote Lieutenant Colonel Gibson,” Hicks told the House Oversight Committee in hearings today, “He said, ‘This is the first time in my career that a diplomat has more balls than somebody in the military.’”"
This might be considered a stand down too.
Whistle-blower: Botched talking points hurt FBI probe of Benghazi attack"Another whistle-blower questioned Wednesday why more military assets were not deployed sooner during the Benghazi terror attack. Mark Thompson, a former Marine and official with the State Department's Counterterrorism Bureau, said he was rebuffed by the White House when he asked for a specialized team -- known as a FEST team -- to be deployed. This is a unit made of special operations personnel, diplomatic security, intelligence and other officers."
Here is a third way a "stand down" policy was implemented IMO.
Blow-by-Blow: How Obama & Hillary Left Americans to Die"Nordstrom further testified in writing that Hillary Clinton waived security requirements for the Benghazi consulate despite high and critical threat levels in the six categories of security standards established under the Overseas Security Policy Board and the Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 1999. The waiver can only be authorized by the Secretary of State, who cannot delegate that responsibility to someone else. ”If the Secretary of State did not waive these requirements, who did so by ordering occupancy of the facilities in Benghazi and Tripoli?” Nordstrom wrote."
What decision(s) did Obama even make that night?
If I was president I would have ordered another drone up, armed this time. I will bet money they could have scrambled another drone but stand down were the orders for everyone
Well, as soon as We the People find out just what it was that BO actually DID do on the night of the attacks, then that’s when we’ll be able to decide for ourselves, with our congressional representatives’ assistance, whether he did the right thing.
And if our Congressional Reps don’t do their jobs, we’ll fix that problem, too.
But Ben Ghazi never was going to, isn’t and never will go away. and the only way we can live with it is to get to the truth and then fix the problem. We are NOT accepting this treatment of our embassy people. They are not owned by the State Dept nor the White House, therefore their minions cannot fix it.
We are not going to take this political appointee’s word for it.
Nice try, though.
To go to sleep.
It seems civilian girls can do a damn better job that these girlie men leaders we have in DC. We have one hell of a military and yet under these girlie men leaders we lose SEALs by the dozens (operation Extortion 17), we lose an ambassador and staff, we lose a consulate, for the 1st time since 9/11 terrorists attack us on our turf....
Yet, it is the republicans who are the problem.
Not to mention the drone was probably armed. We just got done dropping bombs all over Lybia, I am sure we or NATO still have no fly zones
well of course he would have made the same decision. He’s stands with the ‘winning hearts and minds’ boondoggle. Stupid is as stupid does.
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