Something To Think About Concerning Benghazi

Yesterday Bing West posted an interesting article at National Review. The title of the article is “First, Aid the Living.” The article points out that President Obama’s national security team was listening to the phone calls from the Americans under attack and watching real-time video from a drone circling overhead. Why didn’t they send help?

The article reports:

Our diplomats fought for seven hours without any aid from outside the country. Four Americans died while the Obama national-security team and our military passively watched and listened. The administration is being criticized for ignoring security needs before the attack and for falsely attributing the assault to a mob. But the most severe failure has gone unnoticed: namely, a failure to aid the living.

By 4:30 p.m. Washington time, the main consulate building was on fire and Ambassador Stevens was missing. In response, the embassy in Tripoli launched an aircraft carrying 22 men. Benghazi was 400 miles away.

It seems to me that the responsibility for sending (or not sending) aid rests with the Commander-in-Chief, the President.

The article further reports:

It is bewildering that no U.S. aircraft ever came to the aid of the defenders. 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. 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.

Secretary of State Clinton has said the responsibility was hers. But there has been no assertion that the State Department overruled the Pentagon out of concern about the sovereignty of Libyan air space. Instead, it appears passive groupthink prevailed, with the assumption being that a spontaneous mob would quickly run out of steam.

Remember the 3 am phone call that was talked about during the last Presidential campaign? Unfortunately four people are dead because this administration didn’t think the call was important.