Somehow, according to Bloomberg, this blows away Conservative arguments
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was alerted about 50 minutes after the start of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and dispatched troops from Europe within hours, according to the Pentagon.
A timeline released today by the Defense Department counters statements by some Republicans before the Nov. 6 election that President Barack Obama’s administration failed to respond to requests for military aid or for rescue efforts during the Sept. 11 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. More congressional hearings and briefings on the attack are scheduled next week.
First of all, why did it take 50 minutes to alert the Pentagon? Second, um, can Bloomberg point out what PBO actually did to save our people under assault for 7 hours? Talking about it and moving some assets somewhere else is not the same as actually rescuing our people.
While Obama ordered “all available†Pentagon assets to respond to the attack, no armed planes were near Benghazi at the time, Panetta said today in a letter to members of Congress.
But, hey, we were able to get a drone up and over in 70 minutes. Did the two intrepid Bloomberg reports think to ask how long it would have taken to fly jets from a base in Europe or off a freaking aircraft carrier? Or one of the Marine ships in the Med which carriers Harriers, helicopters, and Ospreys? You know, since we could get a much slower drone over the compound? Bloomberg tries to play with the timeline, but
(Fox) New Pentagon details show that the first U.S. military unit arrived in Libya more than 15 hours after the attack on the consulate in Benghazi was over, and four Americans, including the ambassador, were dead.
That means that they arrived around 22 hours after the attacks began. That sounds like either a breakdown in communication or a bunch of political hacks failing to make a decision in a timely fashion.
His explanation, however, did not satisfy McCain. In a statement Friday, McCain said Panetta’s letter, “only confirms what we already knew — that there were no forces at a sufficient alert posture in Europe, Africa or the Middle East to provide timely assistance to our fellow citizens in need in Libya. The letter fails to address the most important question — why not?
The US has teams all over the world ready to go at a moments notice. They train for situations which are fluid in which information is limited, and they go in and kick the ever loving sh*t out of the bad guys. Why no deployments?
I guess when a “gutsy call” needed to be made the first time, Barry just wasn’t up to it.
Yeah, remember that many reports say that Obama had to be pushed and cajoled and berated to give the go sign for the Osama operation.
Too bad he didn’t have three tries to get Benghazi right!
Come on guys. It takes time to get your nails done, get the hair right, to figure out what to pack, etc. There’s also the decision on what medications to take with you.
So, no one is asking why it took 50 minutes to know? And, what do they mean by it took 50 minutes after the start of the attack? The start of the shooting? Or, the start of when signs were pointing to an imminent attack?
Hey, here’s a side question: Why were several members of Seal Team 6 punished for helping out with a vdeo game… but none have been punished for helping with the number of movies that have come out lately – especially the one from last year that hyped it even starred members from the Seals.