Posted on 10/19/2017 8:17:33 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain says the Trump administration needs to explain how four U.S. soldiers were killed in Niger. Bryan Black, Jeremiah Johnson, Dustin Wright, and La David Johnson were told not to expect enemy contact on that mission to meet with community leaders two weeks ago.
It will take an investigation to determine if any warning signs were missed, but Sen. McCain says the administration is not being upfront and he's demanding more information about the attack.
In a pre-mission briefing they were told "no enemy contact expected," but the group, about 40 in all, were attacked by militants, who the Pentagon now believes are part of an offshoot of the ISIS.
"The patrol that was attacked last week had actually done 29 patrols without contact over the previous six months or so. No indication that this was going to occur," said Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr.
Their attackers were described as "well-trained, well-equipped, and well-organized," and with no armed aircraft overhead to call on for air strikes against their attackers, the soldiers were trapped.
The first aircraft to arrive were French mirage jets.
"Were able to have close air support overhead about 30 minutes after first contact," McKenzie said.
But it was too late for sergeants Bryan Black, Dustin Wright, and Jeremiah Johnson who were mortally wounded.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
"The patrol that was attacked last week had actually done 29 patrols without contact over the previous six months or so. No indication that this was going to occur," said Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr.
Sounds to me like the Law of Averages caught up to them.
I swear, Trump could cure brain cancer and McCain would bitch that he put his oncologist out of work.
And that goes double for McCain.
McCain is getting more shrill because - Tick Tock, Trump and George Webb are getting closer.....
I think it stems from the “#bring back our girls” kidnapping the media drove during the Obama admin.
Ditto. This isn’t hard to figure out—even for McCain.
Our troops have been in Niger for years. We built a drone base there, for UAV missions across North Africa. SF arrived about the same time, to help train local security forces in Mali and Niger, and to support the French, who have conducted a counter-insurgency campaign in their former colony for years.
The patrol was essentially a training mission, in a supposedly safe area, despite its proximity to the border. Very clear that the local ISIS affiliate did its homework on our training patterns and set up a deadly ambush. BTW, the area was considered “safe enough” that the patrol had no UAV support, and medevac/CAS support (if needed) was entrusted to the French.
Predictability in ops and training (and assuming that safe areas will always remain that way) can have deadly consequences.
He isn’t dead yet?
D@mn.
Okay, need to check again tomorrow.
I think I’ll put a daily reminder on my smart phone calendar, “Check to see if John McCain is dead.”
John McCain got plenty of ‘splainin’ of his own to do.
Which we shall not be witness to.
Crash McCain still thinks people listen to him.
Something is coming and he knows it will bring him down(his name in history and that hurts his family). Trump warned him this week he would fight back if he kept it up and it would be ugly. You can only play the impending death card for so long and continue down this path. He needs Trump destroyed but is to far gone mentally to realize the smarter play was to go away quietly. Either way, his name is trashed and his family hurt, he is just making it worse unless a coup happens.
We are going to see a lot of retiring and spending more time with the family of the smarter swamp people.
He should be removed from the committee fr even commenting.
They shoukdnt. His brain is comprised.
Okay John, let’s get 0bama and his regime in for Congressional hearings.
Well, they put the soldiers there in the first place, not Trump.
5.56mm
In the older movie, Star Trek II, The Wrath of Kahn, Kahn says to Captain Kirk: “To the last I grapple with thee. From hell’s heart I stab at thee. For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.” Obviously, McCain is very bitter because Trump got elected POTUS instead of him. So, in his final days, he, like Kahn, is lashing out and trying to hurt the president in any way that he can.
Nobody warned the POWs in the Hanoi Hilton that McCain would be a snitch and a mole.
I don’t think asking why we are deployed somewhere is an unreasonable question.... If this had been under Obama’s watch folks here would be demanding it.
No fan of McCain, but that question is not unreasonable.
Oh come on guys... this sort of crap is what has made Free Republic a mere shell of what it used to be.
I am no fan of McCain, and I do believe he has a bit of a personal vendetta against Trump, but this kind of nonsense.
Other than being broken by torture and drafting a “confession”, there is no evidence for any of this snitch nonsense, and it is disgusting to see anyone claiming so.
Free Republic is better than this, or at least it used to be.
You should do a little research.
Very odd, not sure what he is trying to do other than stop President Trump on every single issue.
Yes I may have responded to this, a bit knee-jerk.
I think McCain needs to bring down the volume just a bit. He did not win the nomination. Trump did.
I credit the guy with choosing Palin as his running mate. I really do. But for crying out loud.
He really, really needs to tone it down.
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