VICTOR SHARPE: SEVEN AND AHALF HOUR IS A LONG TIME TO DIE
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/sharpe/130208
It is no wonder that the Obama Administration has been stonewalling and obfuscating because of the need to protect the Commander in Chief who should have immediately ordered the military to take every possible step to protect the beleaguered Americans in that doomed consulate; but he didn’t do anything for seven and a half long hours until it was too late and the Americans lay dead and butchered at the hands of Islamists and jihadists screaming the Islamic triumphalist war cry, Allahu Akbar (Allah is greater).
When asked before the Senate Armed Services Committee by Senator Lindsey Graham as to whether any DOD assets, aircraft or individual soldier was ever sent or put in motion to help the people in the Benghazi consulate before the attack was over, outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta admitted the attack ended before they could get off the ground.
In other words, for seven and a half long hours no U.S. military assistance came to the rescue of the ambassador, and the three soldiers alone defending the consulate – and that is a shameful indictment of President Obama and all those who surround him, including Secretary of Defense Panetta, Secretary of State Clinton, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey and Chief White House advisor John Brennan – the same one who is being questioned at his confirmation hearing to become Obama’s next CIA chief.
If this attack against an American consulate and its staff had occurred during President Reagan’s time in office, Reagan would have wasted not one minute before defending the ambassador and those with him with all possible means. His staff, including Jim Baker and Ed Meese, would have kept him informed minute by minute. CIA Director at the time, William J. Casey, would have been providing real time information to the president. What a disaster the current Obama Administration is compared to that of President Reagan’s.
And, according to Fox News, Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, before the ongoing Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, claimed that military aircraft and other assets were too far away to get to the scene in time.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in response suggested that, “For you to testify that our posture would not allow a rapid response – our posture was not there because we didn’t take into account the threats to that consulate – and that’s why four Americans died. We could have placed forces there. We could have had aircraft and other capacity a short distance away.”
Dempsey admitted that, “the military never got a request for support from the State Department.”
“So it’s the State Department’s fault?” McCain asked, curtly.
“I’m not blaming the State Department,” Dempsey said.
McCain responded: “Who would you blame?” There was no definitive answer.
The bottom line is that there has been a colossal cover up over the Benghazi outrage and a special oversight or investigative committee should be created to finally uncover the truth.
© Victor Sharpe
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