OK Clausewitz, now it's REALLY getin deep...“Fog of war”? Please. Ridiculous.
can anyone give a link where the complete transcripts to the military officers testimony is shown ? Now released , but where ?
ONLY FOG was in the White House... everywhere else was pretty clear..
OK Clausewitz, now it's REALLY getin deep...Bull chit and lies. That’s all this is.
I’m getting really sick of this “fog of war” excuse being used for every screw-up that nobody wants to take responsibility for.
According to this article, drones can’t see well at night...
I ran this by a contact who has info about such things and he openly began to laugh calling it “ ridiculous and an outright lie”. We have the most advanced weapon systems on earth that can see anywhere, anytime, in any condition yet we are supposed to believe a bit of darkness and gunfire will obscure an advanced reconnaissance platform designed to relay battlefield information in real time.
And one other thing, there is little chance that was a predator. The military calls every drone a predator because the ones in operation are top secret.
I’m thinking...more like “choom of war”.
I’ve read the first eight transcripts. Here are some highlights for me.
There was an AC-130 in the region. The OPS Admiral didn’t know the capabilities of this Air Force aircraft.
There wasn’t an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean.
The Air Force made the statement to the OPS people in Germany that it would take 16 hours from notification to get an F-16 from Aviano to Benghazi.
Communications were actually not bad.
One of the facilities in Benghazi had been used by Americans fairly extensively during the fighting to overthrow Qadaffi.
Lots of discussion over what “stand down” means.
imagine “Fog of War” being used as an excuse under a Republican administration...
If they had KNOWN MORE about the gunfire..?!
For crying out loud HQ had PERFECT radio comms the whole time and had REAL TIME VIDEO of the scene…!
If that is not far above the average situation awareness afforded HQ for a dynamic tactical situation, then TELL ME WHAT MIGHT BE…?
Maybe they feel they required a PSYCHIC on-scene, or a HobbitEsque all-seeing EYE..?
Maybe HQ required real-time radio with the ATTACKERS…?
THIS IS RIDICULOUS.
I’ve been retired for a while now, and I don’t have all the Field Manuals.
The incident in Benghazi has always looked like a “Raid” to me. That has a specific meaning in the military. I think it was a successful raid for the enemy. It knocked us back on our heels. For you John Boyd fans (I’m one), the enemy got “inside” our OODA Loop. We were reacting to them and never caught up.
We used to talk about three proximities of combat. I think they were “Close”, “Near” and “Far”. It looks to me like everyone was concentrated on the Close battle. Higher headquarters should have looked more at the Near and Far battles.
The most disturbing thing is that there has been no After Action Review to learn from this. That may have been a political decision, but it’s a bad decision.
This fighting and killing and dying is a hard business. Not everyone in the business should be there. Make a mistake at Costco, and sales might be down this month. Make a mistake in the military and lots of good people can get dead.
These two, plus Connie Cass, to whom this piece is attributed are all AP foreign correspondents.
Two of them are Salon contributors.
I perused the article.
It said nothing new since what we have heard “earlier this year”.
Gen Ham says, “with no distractions, etc” could mean admin telling him to not go in, for all we know, for all this hit piece tells us.
It is blaming the military.
If they’re going to do that, I hope whatever’s left of the top brass can decipher, and people reading can decipher, that means the military and whatever obstacles were directed at them from their supervisors.
I hope people can miraculously figure out that an operation of this significance, State Dept people in country, it hardly gets more sensitive than that, that the military does nothing on that level without approval, ad that saving a consulate, evacuating, protecting, is a very simple, deadly, perhaps, but simple operation, at least compared with what the writers here have been ordered to try to tell/sell us.
The military did not fail.
Sean Smith did not in any way fail.
Lord give us a break!
Leadership plays a huge role in the problems at Benghazi. And the leader at the top is President Obama. He has no military experience. Maybe it’s important for the American Commander-In-Chief to have some military experience. The choke point between the American people and the American military is the President. The President has to show leadership. I have yet to see where Obama displayed any leadership during the Benghazi incident.
People here at Free Republic have rightly stated that experts focus more on logistics than tactics. But leadership is critical. Would Third Army have been able to relieve Bastogne without the leadership of Patton? Probably not. The leader sets the tone. What was the tone set by President Obama in this? He went fundraising. Does that send a message of urgency and concern?
We can analyze Benghazi with an electron microscope, but the truth is always going to be that Benghazi belongs to President Obama.
The fog of war is no excuse to being totally unprepared.
Military and Law Enforcement officers immediately respond to “shots fired” and never wait, you move and call in for instructions. Now they may be called off for extenuating circumstances, but at the outset you drop everything and move - lives may be at risk.
That concept may be old fashioned for the moderns.
B
S
The only 'fog' that hampered the military response in Benghazi is the one that surrounds Barry's head.
No, what hampered it was that he was not even there to give the cross border authority so the military could act.
The others involved just basically sat there and watched them die.
Can you tell me why Amb. Stevens was in Benghazi the night he was killed?
Do you know why we were the last flag flying in Benghazi when the British had left and the Red Cross bombed?
Do you know why requests for additional security by Amb. Stevens were denied or unheeded?
Do you know why no assets were deployed during the siege. Were other countries asked for assistance?
Do you know why Susan Rice was picked to appear on 5 Sunday talk shows when HC claims she hates appearing in that venue?
Just finished reading the ninth transcript. General Ham. Issa and Chaffetz asked the tough questions. They aren’t whimps.
You analyze Benghazi in chunks of time. You have the time prior to the incident. You have the time when the incident is going on. You have the time after the incident. Most of the questioning for all 9 people focused on what happened prior to the incident. Embassies belong to The State Department. Most of what went on before the incident falls to The State Department. They are the ones who could have prevented this, not the military.
Could the military have done better during the incident? Probably. The Air Force has two big strengths. They can attack from above and they can get to the battlefield fast. Did either of those happen at Benghazi? Why not?
No American military Officer wants to be a goat. They get to the top by believing that they never make mistakes. Well, they do. I have seen Officers who eat bullets for breakfast but could never admit they were wrong or accept criticism. Too bad.
Ambassador Stevens worked out of the facility in Benghazi during the overthrow of Qadaffi. It was probably a well known American facility and a target for some time.
These transcripts are just a little bitty teeny tiny piece of the incident at Benghazi. I stick by my earlier opinion that Benghazi is Obama’s baby.