I don’t know!
What an odd response.
I have not criticized Obama, let alone “steadfastly criticiz[ed]” him anywhere in this thread. To quote myself in Post #6, “bad things happen even to good Presidents.”
I did not question why assets “weren’t moved to Libya”; I queried about the availability of rapid-response assets “on September 11 across the highly unstable southern Mediterranean front.” It was not a point about beefier security in Benghazi itself (that potentially is a separate issue, but one not raised by me in this thread). It was about the overall preparedness in the middle of a tinderbox region.
There were many times for someone to have had foresight here:
[ul]
[li]The Arab Spring has led to increased Islamic fundamentalism, anti-westernism and open al Qaeda affiliations. The US should have assets ready to across the region generally. It didn’t.[/li]
[li]September 11 is a well-recognized anniversary notable to an organization (al Qaeda) that revels in the symbolic. The US should have had assets ready in the most critical areas (e.g., the areas that were unstable and known to have al Qaeda sympathizers and little local police capability). It didn’t.[/li]
[li]When the head of al Qaeda used September 10 to eulogize a comrade who fell in June, and called on Libyans in particular to avenge that death, the US should have double-checked its Libyan security. We’ve seen no evidence that it did.[/li]
[li]When the Cairo embassy walls are breached by a mob led by the brother of the head of al Qaeda, and the US flag torn down and replaced by an “al Qaeda” flag, the US should have put all local (local = most able to be in Cairo on short notice) on alert. We’ve seen no evidence that it did.[/li]
[li]When the Libyan consulate was breached, the US should have done what it could - and other whatever rules of engagement were necessary - to get defensive assets on site. It didn’t.[/li][/ul]
In one of Leon Panetta’s news conferences about Benghazi, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs excused DoD’s non-performance on the ground that it was too busy: “It was 9/11 everywhere in the world.”
Is there a more damning statement possible? He is identifying the day as one of special significance and heightened vigilance – while acknowledging complete impotence in perhaps the only location in which a US diplomatic mission exists within artillery range of an al Qaeda affiliate’s headquarters.
Gross incompetence, cover-up or both.
Nah , like a commenter on that article said: “And therefore Bush should had stopped [the original] 911”, Many on the left do think there was gross incompetency and then it was compounded by the bigger one of Bush’s decision to use the incident to then attack Iraq. Perhaps you think then that we should had done the same?
Most people really do have a high threshold about what gross incompetency is, clearly you are not aware of what those levels are.
The final word on that, no quote-marks necessary, is “manufactroversy.”
Indeed - his last posts were in the morning of Nov 6. What else was happening that day?
He seemed to be conjecturing that morning about Romney serving two terms.
I’m thinking that his was one of the credit cards that Romney cancelled.
I think there are lots more damning statements. It’s a pretty good observation that it was 9/11 everywhere. The US could have airplane hijacking, truck bombs in tunnels, increased attacks on barracks throughout the world, ship loads of ANFO detonating under a bridge, sniper attacks on civilians, bombs in the New York subways, and on and on. They needed heightened security everywhere. They had had riots the day before in other middle-east cities, should they have pulled security from there?
This is just Monday-morning quarterbacking. The cries of incompetence are particularly ridiculous given the much more serious attacks that occurred under Republican administrations.
Sure they could have done better and somewhere in the chain of command there will be consequences, but to make the death of four people into an issue of the overall competence of the Obama administration is just dumb.
Not sure if this is the appropriate thread but this seem relevant to the topic:
Well this makes sense. How can the Republican senators possibly keep complaining about the lack of information, if they go to a briefing for information?
It would totally mess up their complaint.
What would they have then? Nothing. And that would make the baby Jesus cry.
God, this thing. i’ve never seen anyone try so hard to win by losing.
i cannot wait until this is a non-news event…but i assure you i will constantly remind my republican conspiracy-monger friends about how certain they were.
…by friends i mean parents
“I’d rather have my grievance!”
So… Do we have a final word yet?
I’m not sure how you spell it, but it’s the sound a whoopie cushion makes.
If a whoopie cushion makes a sound, but there are no Repulicans still around who care to listen, is that still a sound???
I think the perfect “final” word should come from Thomas E. Ricks, veteran defense reporter and author when he was invited to Fox News:
Not likely to be invited to FOX soon. 
Perhaps we should send Mr. Scott some Tucks Medicated Pads. He’s got to still be hurting from that one.
Quick question:
Does anyone else feel that the big problem about Benghazi is the the U.S. apparently learned nothing from 1979 about embassy/consulate security during anti-American protests?
As I mentioned, there was some fine-sounding legislation passed that laid out security requirements for new embassy construction worldwide. These included specs for wall thicknesses, street setbacks, blast windows and a whole host of other measures. Then, because of the enormous cost, congress could only fund it piecemeal. As a result, very few embassies meet the requirements. I can think of three off the top of my head: Cairo, Iraq, and Uganda (a recent construction). A backwater shithole like Libya is going to be way down the list for funding new embassies, I would think, and even if it’s not, the embassy would come before the consulate.
But that doesn’t account for the minimal security force ill-prepared for an attack and the strategy of holing up in the safe room rather than coordinating a defense with extraction. With everything going on the previous month the consulate should have been ready for something.
Well, to be fair, the money had already been spent installing the cameras with a direct feed to the White House so that Obama could sit in his hot tub and chortle when he watched good American Patriots killed.