Contributor Opinion.
Robert David Steele Vivas.
“Pending a national IG investigation in the public interest, Benghazi appears to have been a six part failure: a) CIA did a Khost Kathy — obliviousness ruled; b) State felt no responsibility for a CIA base under official cover, never mind Ambassador being at risk; c) JCS lost sight of why a Marine Corps-Navy team should be on call everywhere and left the Med without a MEU; d) Secretary of Defense misplaced his center; e) White House chose to waste seven hours during which any of a variety of assets could have swept in within 1-2 hours to stabilize the situation; and f) General Ham’s deputy was all too eager to relieve his boss. The safety of US personnel is an inherent responsibility of Command that cannot be delegated, only shared.
Benghazi appears to be a microcosm of everything that is wrong with both our political system and our bloated confused military chains of command. Note: this is a perfect example of why Inspectors General need to rise to a new standard, working together to find and seal — in a constructive manner, not a punitive manner — the seams between and among the disparate cultures and capabilities of the various and generally isolated pieces of the larger enterprise of governance.”
Claude Nougat.
“The problem here is that in America it has become a highly politicized question and people seem to have lost sight of a few simple truths.
Truth # 2: given the conditions in Libya, special safety measures are a must to protect Embassy staff and the Ambassador in particular.
Truth # 3: the American Embassy in Tripoli had such measures in place but the Ambassador went on mission to Benghazi relying on the assurances for his safety that were given to him by the people around him (CIA included).
Then something broke down. People around the Ambassador underestimated the risks, such mistakes can happen. The results were tragic but it is still the case and here we reach: Truth # 4: a mistake was made, people died, that is the way you’d expect it in a place like Libya. Full stop.
“This is a responsibility that no one is addressing and that is of the American Congressional republicans who were dead set against sending more troops or aid to these outposts especially in Libya where this “arab spring” was taking place. Remember please that a female American journalist was gang raped when she ventured out too far into the crowd of “arab spring” muslims.
The muslim people are against Americans and anyone living in the West but in truth our Republican members of the house and senate were as much to blame as anyone for this Benghazi debacle because they were holding the money and sitting on it so that this very thing would happen in Libya. I believe their plan backfired on them when Romney lost the White House. They thought 9/11/12 Benghazi would destroy the Democrats and Obama’s chances of re election – they were wrong.
If anyone is to blame for 4 brave Americans death it is the American Republican GOP.
On a funny note – I got an email this weekend from my cell phone service: Credo Mobile who told me to write to the speaker of the house Boehner and tell him to take michelle Bachmann off the “intelligence committee”. I thought it was a joke come to find out it was true. I laughed all the way to sleep that night. Thought you’d love the irony. ”
