Any Commander would be relieved of command in a heart beat.
In this case the only option is impeachment. I know.....never happen with GOP-e running the show in the House. However, the process could start now, probably take many months to come up for a vote and conclude when the Republicans take control of the Senate in 2014. Conviction is another issue. At least this Marxist being impeached would be fine with me.
Everyone was AWOL that night...Hillary was in Asia, but a traveling SecState has access to all forms of secure communications, including video-teleconferencing, from her plane or at the local U.S. Embassy. Yet, her “communication” that night consisted of a brief phone call with Barry around 10 pm eastern time.
And what about General Dempsey and SecDef Panetta? They provided the initial update in a scheduled meeting with the President at 5 pm, but where were they in the hours that followed?
In fact, Congress missed a golden opportunity yesterday when they were questioning General Lovell. He should have been asked about several things, including (a) When was the secure VTC established between AFRICOM HQ in Stuttgart, and the national nodes in D.C. (State, White House, Pentagon) and who was running the show at those various locations.
Lovell has sketeched an outline of a national command authority that made the conscious decision to ignore a terrorist attack while four Americans died. You’d think the GOP would have the guts to fill in the details. But then again, a lot of prominent folks in the Grand Old Party (McShame, Lindsey Graham) were on-board for the arms running operating out of the consulate, so the Republican establishment doesn’t want the investigation to go “too far.”
Another poster this thread, without irony, claimed it made “no difference where he was.” There’s an eerie ring to that.
My reply would be that here was a CINC in the WH who knew that in real time a terrorist attack was occurring on a US diplomatic facility and that lives were at risk, but he couldn’t be bothered to monitor events - as they happened - from the Situation Room and make decisions that could have at least made the effort to come to the aid of our men on the ground.
I cannot imagine any other president who would not have been in that room, even the hapless Jimmy Carter.
This is dereliction of duty, as you state. And of course, it begs the question: what was so important that Barry couldn’t be there.
Many on this thread, myself included, believe he was, shall we say, “amusing” himself. We’ll see if we ever get an answer to this question, but at least it’s being asked.