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Jewish World Review Oct. 25, 2012/ 9 Mar-Cheshvan, 5773 Journos like to ask questions --- but not these By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
We know now the staff at our consulate in Benghazi battled their attackers for nearly seven hours. Could the U.S. military have intervened? If it had, might Ambassador Chris Stevens, Information Specialist Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods still be alive?
Probably, thinks military historian Francis "Bing" West, a former Marine officer and assistant secretary of defense.
At the U.S. naval base in Sigonella, Sicily -- 480 miles from Benghazi -- there were F-18 fighter-bombers, Special Operations forces, transport aircraft and AC-130 Spectre gunships.
"Fighter jets could have been at Benghazi in an hour; the commandos inside three hours," Mr. West said.
The attack began about 10 p.m. Benghazi time and lasted until dawn. Military intervention might not have saved Ambassador Stevens, who was pronounced dead at 2:00 a.m. But Mr. Doherty and Mr. Woods were killed by mortar rounds fired around 4:00 a.m. For them, help would have arrived in time.
"It is bewildering that no U.S. aircraft ever came to the aid of the defenders," Mr. West said. "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."
Beverly Gunn, mother of Special Operations pilot Maj. Ben Gunn, said "the aspect that turns our hearts and stomachs is the fact President Obama's people watched the attack for 5-6 hours and never 'called in the Cavalry.'"
"They stood, and they watched, and our people died," Gary Berntsen, a retired CIA officer who commanded counter-terror missions, told Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News.
Why?
The administration is no more willing to give a straight answer to this question than it's been to explain why security in Libya was kept low despite repeated protests from Ambassador Stevens, and why -- for two weeks after it was clear this was a well-planned terror attack carried out by an al Qaida affiliate -- did the president say it was a "spontaneous" response to a Youtube video.
All are serious questions which deserve answers. But the most important, Mr. West said, is the administration's "failure to aid the living."
"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," he said.
I doubt it was the military's nerve which failed.
Three times Mr. Obama cancelled plans to raid Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan, said Richard Miniter is his book, "Leading from Behind," published in August. His source, who Mr. Miniter did not name, is someone in the Joint Special Operations Command who had "direct knowledge" of the operation and its planning.
It was then CIA Director, now Defense Secretary Leon Panetta who actually ordered the bin Laden hit, he was told by a "senior and sensitive intelligence community source," said retired Army MajGen. Paul Vallely Oct. 11. The president -- who was on the golf course at the time -- wasn't even told the raid was under way until the helicopters carrying SEAL Team Six crossed into Pakistani airspace.
The hesitant, risk-averse Barack Obama they describe fits better inaction on Benghazi than does the he man macho stud of the endless bin Laden victory laps. He "loves being president, but can't make a decision," said retired Army intelligence officer Ralph Peters last year.
The death of bin Laden has not led to the death of al Qaida, which last month launched its most successful attacks since the original 9/11. The president's foreign policy, which was based on outreach to Islamists, is in shambles.
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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.
© 2011, Jack Kelly |
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