The Pub Discussion Board

I don't normally comment on this kind of thing, but this comment so PISSES ME OFF that I need to rant, so you get to hear it.

Fox News wrote:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said there was not a clear enough picture of what was occurring on the ground in Benghazi to send help.

"There's a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on here," he said Thursday. "But the basic principle here ... is that you don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on."

So, according to Mr. Panetta, our military is incapable of acting unless we know EXACTLY what's going on?  They are incapable of performing operations without a crystal-clear picture of the situation?

Thank the Guardians our police departments don't operate this way, or we'd all be dead by now.  And I am reasonably confident that our military is better trained than our police departments.

Someone needs to tell Mr. Panetta that our military, ESPECIALLY our Special Forces, are quite capable of handling minimum-information situations.  You knew the one and only thing you needed to know in order to send in reinforcements:  That an UNARMED American citizen, IN THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY, was being attacked by armed foreigners on foreign, but sovereign American soil.

You didn't need to know anything more than that, Mr. Panetta.  You should have been advising the President to order in reinforcements the moment the attack began.  (More to the point, the consulate should have been guarded by Marines, like it's supposed to be, but that's another issue altogether.)  You say that you cannot send in troops unless you know "what's going on"...  But, according to the administration you serve, we STILL don't know what was going on, SIX WEEKS LATER*.  So are we NEVER going to support our people in the field?

Will sending in troops to a situation which is somewhat unclear put them in harm's way?  Yes, it will.  And, not to be cold about it, but that's what they're there for.  They are ARMED, TRAINED, and VOLUNTEERS.  I'm pretty sure the ambassador didn't volunteer to get shot at or burned to death.  I'd imagine, had you asked any of the servicemen waiting in the various places around that area, if, knowing what little they knew, they were willing to go in to rescue those Americans, they would have, to every last person, said yes.  Don't put this blame on the military, Mr. Panetta.  The blame here is on the decision-makers, like it usually is.

You, Mr. Panetta, have your head so far up your ass, I cannot imagine that you're not speaking out of your belly button.  The utter insult this represents to our men and women in uniform, that they are supposedly incapable of handling an emergency for which they have not been fully briefed...  You should resign your post immediately.  You are not worthy of the men and women you command, and they don't deserve to have to put up with a dickhead like you.  It is decisions like this one that get people killed.  And IT DID.  And that blood is partially on your hands.  Live with that.

Eric Storm


* No, I don't believe we don't know what happened still.  I'm reasonably certain that, this administration's assertions notwithstanding, we were quite clear on the events within a day or two, and that the rest has been them trying to cover their ass.

Original news article posted at: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10 … z2AXmEuCWQ