A U.S. ambassador is missing and his diplomatic team is desperately fighting off terrorist attacks. Our commander-in-chief and his national-security team in Washington are listening to the phone calls from the Americans under attack and watching real-time video from a drone circling overhead. Yet the U.S. military sends no aid. Why?
On September 11, at about 10 p.m. Libyan time (4 p.m. in Washington), Ambassador Chris Stevens and a small staff were inside our consulate in Benghazi when terrorists attacked. The consulate staff immediately contacted Washington and our embassy in Tripoli. The White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and numerous military headquarters monitored the entire battle in real time via the phone calls from Benghazi and video from a drone overhead.
Our diplomats fought for seven hours without any aid from outside the country. Four Americans died while the Obama national-security team and our military passively watched and listened. The administration is being criticized for ignoring security needs before the attack and for falsely attributing the assault to a mob. But the most severe failure has gone unnoticed: namely, a failure to aid the living.
By 4:30 p.m. Washington time, the main consulate building was on fire and Ambassador Stevens was missing. In response, the embassy in Tripoli launched an aircraft carrying 22 men. Benghazi was 400 miles away.
At 5 p.m., President Obama met with Vice President Biden and Secretary of Defense Panetta in the Oval Office. The U.S. military base in Sigonella, Sicily, was 480 miles away from Benghazi. Stationed at Sigonella were Special Operations Forces, transport aircraft, and attack aircraft — a much more formidable force than 22 men from the embassy.
In the past, presidents had taken immediate actions to protect Americans. In 1984, President Reagan had ordered U.S. pilots to force an airliner carrying terrorists to land at Sigonella. Reagan had acted inside a 90-minute window while the aircraft with the terrorists was in the air. The Obama national-security team had several hours in which to move forces from Sigonella to Benghazi.
Fighter jets could have been at Benghazi in an hour; the commandos inside three hours. If the attackers were a mob, as intelligence reported, then an F18 in afterburner, roaring like a lion, would unnerve them. This procedure was applied often in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Conversely, if the attackers were terrorists, then the U.S. commandos would eliminate them. But no forces were dispatched from Sigonella.
In the meantime, while untrained and poorly led by American standards, the terrorists at Benghazi were proving to be lethal. They forced the Americans to abandon the consulate, with the ambassador still missing, and fall back to an annex a mile away. When the terrorist gang followed the Americans, looters took the opportunity to ransack the empty consulate. But when they found Ambassador Stevens unconscious on the floor, they stopped looting and rushed him to a hospital. Unfortunately, the doctors could not save his life. Not knowing who he was, they took the cell phone from his pocket and called numbers. By about two in the morning, the American embassy received word that the ambassador was dead.
At about the same time, the 22 men from the embassy in Tripoli had arrived at the Benghazi airport. They drove to the annex to assist in its defense against persistent terrorist attacks. Around 4 a.m. Libyan time — six hours into the fight — enemy mortar rounds killed two of the defenders on the roof of the annex.
The fight began at 10 p.m. and petered out at dawn when the Libyan militia came to the aid of the Americans.
It is bewildering that no U.S. aircraft ever came to the aid of the defenders. If even one F18 had been on station, it would have detected the location of hostiles firing at night and deterred and attacked the mortar sites. For our top leadership, with all the technological and military tools at their disposal, to have done nothing for seven hours was a joint civilian and military failure of initiative and nerve.
Secretary of State Clinton has said the responsibility was hers. But there has been no assertion that the State Department overruled the Pentagon out of concern about the sovereignty of Libyan air space. Instead, it appears passive groupthink prevailed, with the assumption being that a spontaneous mob would quickly run out of steam.
Firefights, however, wax and wane from dusk to dawn. You cannot predict ahead of time when they will stop. Therefore a combat commander will take immediate action, presuming reinforcements will be needed.
The administration wrongly blamed a mob for the attack. Yet ironically, Mr. Obama’s chances of reelection would have plummeted were it not for the human decency of a mob that took the ambassador to the hospital before the terrorists returned.
If the terrorists had taken his body and, with no Special Operations Forces hot on their trail, taunted America the next day — claiming the ambassador was still alive — the Benghazi tragedy would have escalated into an international disaster. The U.S. military sent no aid. Why?
— A former assistant secretary of defense, Bing West is co-author of Into the Fire: a Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle of the Afghanistan War.
Replies
Because the Military was told NO by the Oh I can't call him that NO... By Obummer.... I refuse to call him the CNC I just can't do that. After all he wants a "Private Security Force" as powerful as our Military. Maybe he should have sent ACORN in to save them. ACORN could have signed them all up to vote for him Geeze what an ASS.
obummer wanted them dead.
Anyone involved in making the decision not to send help should be charged with accessory to murder, tried and hanged.
Amen!
It seems odd that the attackers would take an unconscious person they found on the floor of the embassy the the hospital as attacking the embassy would seem to have been to kill or maim everyone they could. So why did the attackers really take the ambassador tho the hospital? Did they want him alive so they could use him for something else? Didn't Egypt state the previous week they were going to get the blind sheik released somehow? Is this just another of Obama's plans to make himself look good by trading the blind sheik for the ambassador?
From what I know they wanted to hold him for ransom, for the release of one of their radical captives in Gitmo.
It is so frustrating to me that nothing or no one is being held accountable for these crimes. Why? What are we waiting for? Immediate action is needed. I doubt that Washington or any of our other founders would wait around to hang anyone who committed such treasonous acts. We the people need to stand up and be the voices for these fine men who suffered such a brutal death while working on our behalf. We can not tolerate this and if nothing is done now, Obama just may win the election and if we do nothing now to go after him, I imagine it will be next to impossible if he does win. Also, we need to be loud and clear with our Senators and Congressman that we will not tolerate their dereliction of duty. We held them to the fire once and it is time to do it again. Demand townhall mtgs, demand Romney and Ryan stand up to the plate, call the media and do anything and everything necessary to make your voice be heard before we are silenced-now is the time.
All these lying, arrogant officials in DC need to be called out for their actions and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Unfortunately, it seems to me that because only a very few of our congressman and others in leadership, Obama and his gang may escape their just and due punishment. I wish a lawyer would help the families of these men (and also the parents of the border security guard who was gunned down) would sue our gov't and put these criminals away for good.
The Ambassador's and the Navy Seals' blood is surely on the hands of everyone in DC who did NOTHING to help these warriors and I would not want to be anyone of them when they WILL BE held accountable for these cowardly, treasonist acts when they are face to face with our God, who is the Kiings of all Kings, ruler over heaven and earth! It is written in the NT that everyone of us will be held accountable for every word we utter.
The first thing to remember is the security responsiblity lies with nthe State Department. They were in a position to request
assistance from adjacent units theough the NATO and USAREUR commands. In fact they have comm links to both. Then the request should have been duplicated to the US.
Lets hope, BO doesn't use the Military against us, WE THE PEOPLE !!! OR worse UN TROOPS....
Just makes me want to weep. I have wept many times over seeing what is happening to our country. When is someone going to arrest this bastard in the White House? No one has any balls to arrest this traitor????