Translation: I’ve worked at an airport and I read things about FedEx, therefore military operations are the same.
And for someone who is asking for a lot of cites, you haven’t provided any on these points. It’s just more unsubstantiated nonsense: I’ve seen [easy thing] done, therefore [hard thing] is easy.
Seriouly, just go back and read the last six pages of this thread. There are ample cites on those pages and you’ve ignored them. Why are you going to pay attention to new cites? You keep talking about “stand down” orders and saying there isn’t transparency, but I quoted a press release from the Republican-controlled House Armed Services Committee which states there was no stand down order. That has been quoted more than once over the last several pages, and you have ignored it each time it was posted. In fact, I called you out at least once on ignoring that cite, and you ignored that, too.
One can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. We’ve led to you the water many times already, but you insist on pretending you’re in a desert. There’s no way we can help you if you don’t read what’s been posted.
Actually, you have nothing. I asked for a cite. You currently can’t provide one. It’s a simple process for the WH to provide this information and it’s been asked for by Congress.
A cite for what? That a special forces team in Europe was not used? There are any number of potential assets that were also not used; do you want explanations for why each of them was not used, too?
Where’s your preferred assumption leaning, toward someone in charge figuring that team wouldn’t be of much help, or someone in charge saying “fuck the diplomatic staff, let them all die screaming” ?
It would have been better rather than to map out every power lines surrounding the CIA Annex to have stationed a half dozen MRAPs on location that could evacuate all staff when an attack unfolds as it did.
It was a CIA site for God’s sake. Why didnt they plan an escape route or mortar defense where they were working and living?
So I have to pick from your choices because you didn’t read through the thread? They should have launched any asset available as contingencies toward the unknown. It’s not a function of having a solution when it’s launched. It’s a function of having a solution available when needed.
In my business dealings I’ve contracted multiple carriers for the same run because the cost of failure was a lost contract. Customers don’t care why you failed. It’s not something that happened very often but that’s the nature of getting things done.
In this case there were lives at stake and nobody could have known how the situation was going to unfold. They couldn’t. They would only know that in order to have a solution available the assets would have to be there when needed. In this case the time en-route and the intel available gave them something to work with.
And I’ve never suggested people be sent into harms way without knowing what’s going on. They had a considerable amount of time en-route to work out a solution. They had the whole Pentagon, CIA, NSA, to tap into for information and solutions and they had people and drones onsite to provide real time intel. This was a goldmine of assets to work with.
How is what I suggested different from the group eventually sent? What changed in their level of safety? They could have mortared everybody and everything with additional terrorists joining the fray.
When people say “knowing what’s going on”, they don’t mean “wondering out loud what they might face Out There”. What the fuck are they supposed to do on the plane to improve their local intel ?!
Again : one drone. One. 1. Uno. Eins. Ichi. To cover the whole city. Not that drones are the best way to gain intel, but still, that key point seems to elude you again, and again, and again. So, once more with feeling : a drone. They had A drone.
And the Pentagon, CIA, NSA are not Divination-specced wizards, either. If they don’t know, they don’t fucking know.
Particularly since, to much grousing on the part of people who have to *work *based on their shitty intel, the CIA, NSA et al. have let the HUMINT side of things go to the dogs over the past two decades because they’ve started believing their own bullshit regarding the amazing awesome capabilities of high tech gizmos. And as a result their intel kinda sucks now that they barely have people on the ground, with fingers on various pulses, any more. The new way is cheaper, way less risky, and sucks.
You’ll be pleased to learn, then, that a team flew from Tripoli to Benghazi, and tried to locate Stevens before reinforcing the annex.
A FAST platoon flew from Spain to Libya.
Another team flew from Fort Bragg to Sicily, a nearby staging point.
Are you professing that the C-110 team, which was training, was available? If so, please present evidence. Note that a lack of evidence to the contrary isn’t evidence, that actually is a fallacy.
What they’re suppose to do is what they’re trained to do. Communicate with ground assets over the best routes to take and alternate courses of action. Just as if they were sitting in a room. Again, it’s not WW-II. It’s old technology to teleconference between 2 or more locations.
It doesn’t have to cover the whole city. But it could.. It’s actually getting a little scary how little you know about what’s been going on the last couple of decades. While they could track every single person and vehicle in Benghazi I don’t see a practical need to do so. they need to cover the areas they wish to operate in.
Don’t know what exactly? The people to be rescued? Their exact location? The layout of the city? The number of people involved in the attack? Communications within this area?
this wasn’t a mission to track and kill a terrorist who could be hiding anywhere on the planet. It was a rescue mission. They know the who, what, where and when of the situation. The “how” is the planning stage.
You keep throwing up archaic roadblocks as if it was 50 years ago. By your logic we could have sent help when it was eventually sent because: the Pentagon, CIA, NSA are not Divination-specced wizards, either. If they don’t know, they don’t fucking know.