As disgusting as that motivation is, did any of us expect anything less?
No, I'm interested in why we didn't order our military near Libya to head for Libya to fight that war on terror battle unfolding in Benghazi?
Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the State Department’s Sean Smith were killed in the early stage of the jihadist attack. By then, the actions that would surely have saved their lives — e.g., an adult recognition that Benghazi was no place for an American diplomatic facility, or at least the responsible provision of adequate security — had already been callously forsaken. It seems unlikely AFRICOM could have gotten there in time for them on that fateful night, though that does not come close to excusing the failure to try.
Former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty are a different story. They fought valiantly for many hours after our military learned, very early on, that the battle was raging. Unlike AFRICOM, the SEALs did not stand pat. They ran to the sound of the guns. After saving over 30 of their countrymen, they paid with their lives. The armed forces, General Lovell recalled, knew that terrorists were attacking them. Yet no one came to their aid.
We had plenty of troops in Europe and we did not know how long the fighting would last. Yet we did nothing. Why?
Did the presidential reelection campaign slogan that bin Laden was dead and al Qaeda was on their heels lead our civilian and military leadership to act as if the war was over and so not think in terms of wartime actions when the enemy attacked us that day?
That's the biggest scandal. Foolish me, I did expect more from our leadership than that.
