A Tale of Two American Heroes

Last Tuesday the President, while speaking about Hurricane Sandy, said:

This is a tough time for a lot of people, millions of folks all across the eastern seaboard, but America is tougher, and we’re tougher because we pull together, and we leave nobody behind. We make sure that we respond as a nation, and remind ourselves that whenever an American is in need, all of us stand together to make sure that we’re providing the help that’s necessary.

And on Wednesday:

We are not going to tolerate red tape. We’re not going to tolerate bureaucracy. And I’ve instituted a 15 minute rule, essentially, on my team. You return everybody’s phone called in 15 minutes, whether it’s the mayors, the governors, county officials. If they need something, we figure out a way to say yes.

We leave nobody behind. Whenever an American is in need, all of us stand together to make sure we’re providing the help that’s necessary. I’ve instituted a 15 minute rule. You return everybody’s phone call in 15 minutes. The president was speaking about a hurricane, but could just as easily have his words compared to the details of the Benghazi assault. Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods repeatedly called and called for military assistance. Hours went by with no help and eventually both were killed. We leave nobody behind. That is a military phrase with specific meaning to those of us who have served. The government of the United States abandoned the staff of its consulate in Benghazi. The only reason we lost four Americans killed in action and not as many as twenty, is because Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods, without orders to do so, took up positions and fought the attackers, knowing that the odds were against them, but believing in themselves and their country.

If these actions sound familiar it is because most of us know the story of Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart, both Delta Force Operators, who died after unhesitatingly volunteering, repeatedly, to be inserted to protect four critically wounded personnel of a downed Black Hawk helicopter during actions on 3 October, 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia. They did this despite being well aware of the literally hundreds of enemy personnel closing in on the site. Both were fatally wounded and later received the Medal of Honor for their actions and their heroism is known to us all because of Mark Bowden, the author of Black Hawk Down.

Much has changed in war fighting since 1993. Most noticeably, commanders can now watch, in real time, exactly what is happening on the ground. We have all seen the still photos of the Obama administration released after SEAL Team VI killed bin Laden. The photo of the President and his Cabinet all staring intently, with looks of concern etched into their faces, as the SEALs closed in on bin Laden’s lair was in every newspaper and on every news program for days after the daring raid. We were told repeatedly that they all stay glued to the action watching in real time as the SEALs extracted some “get back” for us all. Why then did something similar not happen in Benghazi? Why have there been no photos of the cabinet in the War Room during this emergency? I cannot, or maybe will not is a better term, believe that any American President and his administration would ignore pleas for urgent assistance and then, having given the order to stand down, which would be tantamount to ordering them to die, watch as Americans were slaughtered by attackers on the sovereign soil of our consulate.

I know many people have stated that the order to stand down can from high up in the administration. I take that with the same grain of salt that I took from those screaming that W cared not for Americans being killed on his watch. I simply don’t believe any president could be that callus or uncaring. Instead, what I believe is that the administration was too tied up in campaigning and the calls for help simply weren’t answered due to bureaucracy. Remember Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign ads when she was running for President? Remember the phone ringing in the middle of the night? Well, the phone rang and no one was there to answer it is my best guess. That is a failure of leadership. The President of the United States has the world’s best technology with him, no matter where he may be. If he didn’t know of the dire straits Americans were in, it was because no one outside the region knew in time and those that did know couldn’t respond without guidance. That failure belongs to the Secretaries of State, Defense and the President himself.

A better question though would be, why, in a world rife with Islamic terrorism, weren’t there military assets closer to Benghazi? Why wasn’t a Spooky II or Spectre gunship available? One of the SEALs apparently thought there was air support nearby, or he wouldn’t have given away his position painting the attackers with a visible laser. He must have believed support was in the air, whether it be an armed drone or some other version of American airborne death dealing. Neither Doherty nor Woods would make that kind of mistake. Not with their training and combat experience. Someone up the food chain somehow led them to believe, whether intentionally or not, that help was imminent and these brave SEALs paid with their lives for that error. I don’t pretend to have all the answers to this debacle. Hell, some of the questions are certainly eluding me, but I do know this: once the American consulate came under attack, the President, and his key Cabinet officials should have known of it within minutes, not hours.

For days the administration parroted the bovine excrement that the attack was spontaneous and caused by an internet video that defamed the Prophet Mohammad, even though that video had been available for as long as a year. That smells of cover up to me and, has been proven time and time again, the cover up is invariably worse than the crime when politics are involved. I’ve stated before that I did not vote for President Obama, but I was proud of my country when he was elected. Unlike the First Lady, it wasn’t the first time nor, the last time I have been proud of my country, but proud nonetheless I was. President Obama has been concerned about his liberal legacy, to the exclusion of all else for too long now and Benghazi just solidifies that thought to me. We can all argue whether individually, or even collectively, if we are better off than we were four years ago, but for the families of the four Americans killed because the phone went unanswered the answer can only be no. On Election Day this year, I will stand with them.