{"id":35824,"date":"2013-05-26T18:15:20","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T22:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=35824"},"modified":"2013-05-26T19:15:19","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T23:15:19","slug":"missing-the-benghazi-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=35824","title":{"rendered":"Missing the Benghazi Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

“E<\/em><\/big><\/b>nergetically will I meet the enemies of my country. I shall defeat them on the field of battle for I am better trained and will fight with all my might. Surrender is not a Ranger word. I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy and under no circumstances will I ever embarrass my country<\/em>“<\/p>\n

-The Ranger Creed<\/p>\n

Watching the Republicans blunder about in the investigation of what happened in Benghazi kind of makes me want to scream.\u00a0 Who altered the talking points, and why doesn’t really matter to me.\u00a0 At best they are an after thought to what the investigation should<\/em> be focusing on.\u00a0 Namely, we left our ambassador, his staff and the GRS staff at the CIA annex Oscar Tango Foxtrot in the hopes it would all blow over.\u00a0 We have documented accounts of at least three <\/em>stand down orders for the GRS staff both in Benghazi and in Tripoli.\u00a0 We also have the (then) acting chief of mission, Gregory Hicks’ testimony that the Special Forces team that was in Tripoli specifically for the purpose of protecting the missions there was given a stand down order from higher (presumably AFRICOM).\u00a0 There is no evidence that any of the numerous tier 1 teams in Europe were even aware of what was happening in Libya, let alone given a WARNO.\u00a0 Despite the assurances of the former SecDef Robert Gates, most experts in military matters agree that they could <\/em>have gotten at least something<\/em> in the AO in time to at least assist with the final attack on the CIA annex.<\/p>\n

The conclusion quietly reached by a lot of former soldiers, and a lot of SOCOM veterans as well as a lot of active operators is that one of two things happened; either there was a conscious choice not to rescue our people, in the hopes that it would “blow over,” or there was so much dithering that by the time anyone actually made a decision it was already too late.\u00a0 Both are completely antithetical to the warrior mentality.\u00a0 Regardless of what “considerations” need to be made, you rescue your people first.\u00a0 Indeed, Woods and Doherty (as well as their unnamed teammates) openly defied orders, because that is just what warriors do.\u00a0 The heroism that it took to load up and take on crows ranging anywhere from 60-100 armed with technicals that had anti-aircraft guns with a small SOF team can not be understated.\u00a0 It rivals the heroism shown by MSG Gary Gordon and SFC Randy Shughart.<\/p>\n

Republicans should have asked Hillary Clinton why the hell she ordered Stevens to Benghazi in the first place.\u00a0 They should have asked her, if she “takes full responsibility,” why the hell wasn’t she asking daily<\/em> about the high threat posts around the world.\u00a0 I can understand the SecState isn’t going to read every single memo, but you’d think that an area that was supposedly as important as Libya was to her, she’d have asked more than passing questions about what the hell was going on.\u00a0 One would have thought Dame Clinton would have\u00a0learned<\/em> from her husband’s failings in Gothic Serpent, and maybe made sure that her missions were properly supported.\u00a0 Why haven’t Republicans in both houses asked even the most fundamental questions of her?\u00a0 Why did they allow her farewell tour to be just that?\u00a0 It’s painfully clear that the GOP has a dearth of chutzpah, else they would have hammered this administration about pretty much everything it has done in the last 4 years.<\/p>\n

What I think is required is for veterans to remind the GOP the important part of Benghazi: someone screwed up royally, then compounded that screw up by denying any support to our foreign service personnel and CIA officers.\u00a0 This administration doesn’t know how to treat warriors and is openly suspicious of the motivations of sheepdogs.\u00a0 They embarrass themselves, and by extension the rest of America with their befuddled tepid responses.\u00a0 That we don’t call them out on it, or remind them the seriousness of the consequences of their actions leaves some of the culpability in our laps as well.\u00a0 We need to stop being the “crazy PTSD riddled vets” and start being cogent coherent advocates for a responsible posture in our foreign affairs.<\/p>\n

Most of all, though, I think we need to get someone with big brass ones that’s willing to call out all<\/em> politicians.\u00a0 Warriors are men and women of action.\u00a0 The words we live by have power behind them because the words are inspired by deeds.\u00a0 They are not the silken words of career politicians but the honest words of those who have seen the tiger, and know too much bullshitting will get you killed.\u00a0 What we need is a veteran that isn’t afraid to look into the cameras and perhaps more importantly get in the faces of our political critters and say these immortal words: “RANGER THE FUCK UP!<\/em><\/strong>“<\/p>\n

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<\/dd>\n
<\/dd>\n
R<\/big><\/b>ecognizing that I volunteered as a Ranger, fully knowing the hazards of my chosen profession, I will always endeavor to uphold the prestige, honor, and high esprit de corps of my Ranger Regiment.<\/dd>\n
A<\/big><\/b>cknowledging the fact that a Ranger is a more elite soldier who arrives at the cutting edge of battle by land, sea, or air, I accept the fact that as a Ranger my country expects me to move further, faster and fight harder than any other soldier.<\/dd>\n
N<\/big><\/b>ever shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong and morally straight and I will shoulder more than my share of the task whatever it may be, one-hundred-percent and then some.<\/dd>\n
G<\/big><\/b>allantly will I show the world that I am a specially selected and well-trained soldier. My courtesy to superior officers, neatness of dress and care of equipment shall set the example for others to follow.<\/dd>\n
E<\/big><\/b>nergetically will I meet the enemies of my country. I shall defeat them on the field of battle for I am better trained and will fight with all my might. Surrender is not a Ranger word. I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy and under no circumstances will I ever embarrass my country.<\/dd>\n
R<\/big><\/b>eadily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective and complete the mission though I be the lone survivor.<\/dd>\n
Rangers Lead The Way!!!<\/em><\/strong><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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“Energetically will I meet the enemies of my country. I shall defeat them on the field … Missing the Benghazi Point<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":631,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress-sucks","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}