Robert Lovell: Go, go, go
Retired Brigadier General Robert Lovell who was “running” intelligence at AFRICOM (the Pentagon’s African Command) on September 11, 2012, the night that the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya was attacked, testified to the House Oversight Committee today. From the Washington Times;
Retired Brig. Gen. Robert Lovell also told the House Oversight Committee that the decision not to respond with military action was likely have been made outside of the Defense Department. He said the military should have tried to mount an operation because there was no knowing how long the attack would last or whether it would expand.
“Go, go, go,” the general said.
He said the military was waiting on a request from the State Department — a request that never came.
Hasn’t this administration seen all of those bad movies about what happens when the Defense Department waits for the State Department to give them permission to act? But, I’m sure it’s not completely the fault of Hillary Clinton and the State Department. Leon Panetta and General Dempsey were in the White House during the attack on the consulate compound, and they could have made a dramatic appeal (like those in the same bad movies) to apply military force to the situation. Panetta and Dempsey are too focused on being political hacks to worry about lives lost. Besides, if they start looking bad, they always turn on Clinton after she gets elected and redeem themselves.
The Defense Department has maintained it did not have assets available to respond quickly enough to make a difference on the night of the attacks. Some units were ordered to get ready to deploy to Tripoli, the country’s capital.
[…]
Under questioning from Rep. Elijah Cummings, Maryland Democrat, Gen. Lovell acknowledged that those efforts did happen. He said his message was that the military should have been better prepared, not that it didn’t try at all.
“My point is that there’s more that we should be able to do,” the general said. He said the problem wasn’t with the military, but that the interagency communication and interaction broke down.
This might end someone’s presidential aspirations, but I wouldn’t count on it. But, MSNBC Is Now Admitting There MAY Be Something To This Whole Benghazi Thing. But I’ll never bet against the low-information voters again.
But don’t bother checking at the Washington Post for news on the testimony, they’re still talking about the capsized Korean ferry.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Terror War
Finally a senior officer with the courage to speak out.
He could have resigned (retired) in protest, then spoken out. THAT would be real moral courage.
Nope — general officers can be recalled and court martialed and they would have done it — this is an administration debacle and not a military failure.
Court-martialed for what? Telling the truth? Bring it. If the good general had the balls/moral courage, he’d have welcomed a very public court martial. I don’t follow your logic.
If any officer of any grade resigns their commission, at that point they can say or do anything they want as long as they don’t reveal improperly any classified information. And no one can recall them for shit. Unless the crime is committed before the resignation, the DOD has absolutely no authority over them.
Every word he said is the truth — he just couldn’t say all of it.
Yeah, he could be recalled and what, court martialed for answering questions under oath in Congress? Actually, it is now being said that his two cents isn’t worth two cents b/c he was not in the chain at the time such that he had first-hand knowledge or any decisionmaking authority. In other words, it’s color commentary. Next item.
Meh … his testimony ain’t the whole loaf of bread, but I guess a slice is better than nothing.
Dave. I can’t get with that courage description for this guy. First, he’s retired so what’s he got to lose? Second, he was under oath. Where was he Sept, Oct, Nov, or Dec 2012. How about during 2013? As I see it, it’s safe for him to speak out now so he’s singing like a songbird.
I think… I *hope* that this is the death knell of the Obama administration.
Since they seem so obsessed on breaking precedent, I think it would be more than appropriate for them to do it again: The first President to be impeached successfully (Nixon resigned, so he doesn’t count).
The problem with that is: President Joe Biden.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Joe Biden, best insurance policy ever…
For whatever reason, I find Biden to be the better of the two. He may be on the wrong side of the line, but he hardly has the intelligence or the backbone that Obama does to break the law and trample on the Constitution,
Biden is a dumbass but at least I don’t believe he is an evil America Hater. Obama is all three.
Biden would do less damage.
But that doesn’t mean that he won’t do evil, America-hating stuff to the country if he thinks that it benefits him politically.
Nope. Every warrior we have isn’t worth the maintenance of one welfare recipient to at least two camps: this administration and the welfare recipients who support it.
Translation: Only a direct attack on our welfare state by the Progressives themselves would damage this presidency and its administration. Nothing else will shake it, no matter how egregious.
Ain’t gonna happen, certainly not while John Bonehead is Speaker. As I like to point out, that sniveling SOB to this day will not appoint a special committe that would have the power to subpoena people and documents. Why? Whatever the answer, you can bet that it would be his ass if that question were truthfully answered. And a special committee poking and prodding and threatening witnesses with contempt and perjury is not something he wants. But you can dream.
why do republicans care about 4 dead americans in benghazi and not over 4000 dead in iraq or 3000 dead on 9-11 or over 1000 dead in katrina? Oh! Thats right the black man wasn’t president then! I am now off to the may day celebration. HAPPY MAY DAY! Don’t forget kent state day may 4!
Do the dead mean anything to you, you son of a bitch?
Hey, fucktard! We care! We care far more than your pissant party and everything thing that you believe in, so please go bugger yourself with a bloody pole!
I think that’s the most I’ve ever sworn on the internet, actually. Hopefully that’s okay with you guys.
Did you swear, Wanderer? Where? 🙂
I don’t know if you are familiar with VWP, but nothing we say or don’t has any effect on him. Drug-sotted dead brain, he is.
Critique:
1. Deserved? yes
2. Level? relatively mild
3. Use of “colorful” language? could use more
4. Insults? OK, could be improved
5. Imagery? could be improved; suggest using “occotillo stalk”, “100′ length of barbed wire twisted into a 3-inch-thick hank”, or “barrel cactus” in place of “pole”
Overall: Not a bad first effort. With practice, you’ll do better. (smile)
Well, you must not have read any of my posts, then, if you’re asking if it’s ok to use colorful metaphors on this blog. 🙂
Farflung Wanderer…He does bring it out in folks doesn’t he? Don’t worry I would have said much worse. Besides, he only comes here to see if he can get a rise. Just for shits and giggles.
Quick to play the race card ain’t ya…because you have nothing else to offer. And it’s Americans who care about all of them, but I don’t suspect a low info socialist like you to see that. May the 4th be with you , too, loser.
“Hey everybody-look over there! Racism, or at least whatever implied or inferred racism I can pull out of my ass! Misdirection and blame shifting! Every trick in the lefty playbook by a predictable troll, etc, etc, etc!”
oh hey! It’s everyone’s favorite (not) pooh flinging shit posting monkey! I thought you were banned Vietnam Trollposter?
No mention that most of the losses in AF are under the current admin’s plan to quit. Doesn’t fit the narrative.
Kent State Day? You mean when the government finally started doing something about a bunch of dirty hippies? Not a bad thing to celebrate.
Now run along to Stormfront you mange-ridden sperm burper.
Hey fuckstick, we can re-enact Kent State if you like. I can be a Guardsman and you can play a stupid drug-addled hippie throwing rocks at someone armed with a rifle. I’m pretty sure we know how that ends shit-for-brains. Fuck off and die you Commie piece of shit. You Commies have a body count that runs into the HUNDREDS OF MILLION so don’t come here and try to lecture us you walking piece of pig shit.
This guy would really piss me off if I thought that he was anything other than some jackwagon trying to get some sh!t started
Why do we care you ask? Because most of us have ethics and believe in the concept of you never leave someone behind or hang them out to dry. I don’t care if POTUS was neon green with flaming red hair or blue with white hair and antenna, he and his administration left and Ambassador hang in the wind. If he and his are willing to do so for such a high level person, how will he treat the average citizen? Heart of the matter: they broke the faith!
I never cared about the little things. But after reading VWP’s post I smelled the wafting scent of feces and failure with just a hint of patchouli oil.
We don’t care? Fuck you, you piece of dog shit. I saw friends die in Iraq. I had to evac the body of a man I had known for years. Fuck you, you cum gurgling gutter slut.
I’m waiting for Jay Carney’s nose to get so long he can’t get in the white house door anymore…it’s what thing to spin a little story in a positive direction, quite another to make up entire stories from whole cloth….
You’ll never see that.
It’ll be hidden in the crack of the chief exec’s ass.
Ace has a post up where he notes that the lapdog media has shifted from “it’s not true and you’re crazy to believe it” to “of course it’s true and you’re crazy to make a big deal out of it.” They’ll spin this just enough to muddy the water and confuse the issue and do their best to drag “the one” across the finish line, and her cankleness to the starting gate.
Two of students shot at kent state were not involved in protest they were simply walking to class. AS for race card thats what racists call it when they get caught. I am sure thats what bull connor called it when he unleashed his police dogs on john lewis and other civil rights protestors at edmund pettis bridge.
Next time you are visiting Ray Nagin (in jail) ask him why he was putting his family on a plane at the NO Airport 24 hours before he called for the evacuation of the city. Then, call HIM a racist.
They have WiFi access in Red Square now?
Remind me again who it was that got the civil rights acts threw Congress? That’s right the GOP and LBJ, because most of LBJs party wouldn’t support him.
Then again the only history you subscribe to is revisionist leftist propaganda.
Don’t forget Eisenhower’s Civil Rights Act of 1957.
And the deployment of the 101st to make sure things got done. That was going an extra mile, with no disregard to what would happen to him (Eisenhower) for using the military that way.
The man was certainly as brave there as he was any other day.
And LBJ didn’t even want to do it. He was a massive bigot, he only did as such because he knew it’d make his party look good.
And there we have the lefty mind in all it’s idiotic glory-pointing out the shortfalls of the administration is just like Bull Conner releasing the hounds on peaceful protesters. You have to be some kind of extra special stupid to believe that, but it’s exactly what fucktards like vwp strive for.
You do realize that Bull Connor and George Racists weren’t members of the GOP – don’t you, jackass? They, along with every other advocate of legal segregation in the US, were Democrats.
Just like you, they knew they were wrong. And they kept spewing their idiotic BS anyway.
Idiot.
Dude’s busy chanting right now….can’t be bothered with facts. Catch him later after he demolishes a bag of cheetos.
How the fuck would you know what happened at Kent State, commie? You weren’t even alive then. Don’t try to lie and say you were, because there have been too many instances, where you wrote something so epically stupid, that someone who was alive and well during Vietnam would have known better. You’re just a little college fuck that couldn’t get laid in a whorehouse with $300 pinned to your shirt.
I remember learning about the Commander In Extremis Force on Blackfive shortly after September 11, 2012. IIRC, a guy who was either in a CIF team, or knew what they were about, stated plainly that going in with zero to little intel was there specialty.
Giving the lie to Panetta’s, “We couldn’t just go in all half-cocked, too dangerous because of no intel, etc, etc, etc,” BS.
It is my utterly sincere hope and prayer that the names of Barrack H. Obama, Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta, Martin “the dumpster” Dempsey, and anyone else involved that that just let those men die, will live in INFAMY, for as long as there is a United States of America.
May the Lord, who is Just, make it so.
Anyone have any intel on why Gen. Carter Ham retired? Old age? Disgust? Forced out?
I know there was a lot of speculation at the time but I have never seen any substance….just rumor.
republican party traded abraham lincoln for strom thurmond some time ago. the racists left the democratic party some time ago and brought their white sheets and burning crosses to the republican party where they felt wanted. Happy MAY DAY!
Blah, blah, blah, delusions, blah, blah, wishing for skittles, blah, blah, yeah, blah, blah.
It’s like Robert C. Byrd never existed.
Truly.
owb wow! that is the most intelligent and incitefulll thank you have ever said!
Really. We are still waiting to hear anything intelligent, or even intelligible, from you. While entertaining, your displays of ignorance should embarrass you.
But then, folks like you rarely value things like truth or knowledge of facts. Your loss, not ours.
Carry on. Making fun of those like you who are apparently incapable of rational thought is kinda pitiful. We can just take your rattling on as gratitude that we secured your freedom to act stupid in public for you.
“insightful” dumbass.
There is an online comic called “xckd”. One of the strips has a character making a computer virus (ALERT: I don’t understand a good quarter of the jokes, they sometimes revolve around programming. This one didn’t, though) that replays every YouTube comment aloud so that people would realize how stupid they sound.
We need that for our protestor friend here. I think every time he speaks, a third grade teacher resigns in disgrace.
VWpissant, do you have something even remotely intelligible to say, or did you just show up here because your local Public Library finally allowed you back into their free internet room when you’ve run out of glue and spray paint to sniff?
vwp you have got to be the most deluded narcissistic asshole I have ever had the displeasure of reading. But just for shits and grins, I am assuming that you believe that the white house and state dept are totally innocent?
And if they are not innocent then all that should be swept under the carpet to hide it from people (like families) who have questions about actions that should have been taken? If either is the case then I seriously suggest reading some good history books might clear your mind a tad.
I honestly hate his guts. Not only is he obliviously stupid, he’s rude as hell (all trolls are). That you would go on a site where you know you aren’t wanted just to spout nonsense is completely classless. I thought he had learned his lesson, he disappeared for a while, but apparently the pile o’ crap that has landed on the administration has brought him back out.
He/it is like that one elusive cockroach that keeps crawling out from under one’s refrigerator!
@VWP…
Strom Thurmond left the Democrat party when he changed his views on race becoming an advocate for equality. He carried on a love affair with a black American and fathering a child that he did not deny or neglect. Facts are pesky things. You ought to get some.
Is there any way to do an ISP backtrack of VWP’s rants to find his mom’s basement, so someone can press the vaccuum release valve between his ears? Or barring that, stomp his ass into the mud?
I like him. I find him to be very funny and a good reminder of what decent and rationale people are up against. Sure, he makes some of us want to beat him him within an inch of his waste of a life but, when it comes down to it, he’s just a spineless asshole who is stuck somewhere bewteen 1968 and 1972 and whose comments are largely taken from dated bumperstickers.
As near as I can tell, no one was court martialed for the Kent State shootings. Overlooked in the accounts is the fact that an ROTC building on the campus was torched a day or two before the Guard WAS CALLED OUT. (Emphasis b/c some morons act as if the Guard just showed up on their own.) Also overlooked is the fact that rocks and other potentially deadly items were thrown as Guardsmen and that some believed they were being sniped and that outside agitators had primed the situation. In short, it was rather chaotic and confused and ripe for violence. Shit happens.
There are also disputed reports of pistol shots being fired shortly before the OH ARNG opened fire, 2/17 Air Cav. But it’s never been conclusively proven whether that actually happened or not.