Clinton testifying re Benghazi

[flyboy56]

I've asked this question before, but never get an answer. What are the number of posts that are appropriate per day, or per week, or per month or per year?

I guess I will find out SoSad if there is a limit on this site to the number of posts that are appropriate.

[songfourone]

This is 100% political for the far right wing nuts. In 1983, suicide bombers killed 241 American servicemen in Lebanon. It was horrific, but no serious Americans "called for the heads" of President Ronald Regan or Secretary of State George P. Schultz. Different president, different standards. Caspar Weinberger "implored" President Reagan to pull the Marines out of an untenable situation. Reagan ignored Weinberger, resulting in the death of 241 Marines. No Congressional hearings followed; no Republican Senators shrilled in righteous indignation.

Hillary Clinton was so poised and articulate and gracious in the face of some Republicans. John McCain ranted about why we did not pour tons of money in to Libya to build and strengthen their fragile Democracy. He's all over the place, first he is complaining about the debt of this country and the debt ceiling but wants to send more and more on a bloated Defense fund. What about spending money to rebuild this country? This grand standing by the Neocons of the Senate and Congress is so tiresome. Why didn’t congress approve and or release the money for security in this tumultuous region? It’s all grand standing and attempts to "up 1" on the other party.

It has become very difficult for myself and most thinking American's to stomach the grande display of Republican tough guy showboating that accures each and everytime some relatively minor military or security event goes astray. Libya was unfortunate but a mere blip on the radarscreen of history not some profund earthshattering moment in time. No amount of oversight from Washington is capable of managing worldwide conflict zone events. The probabilities for things going wrong are too great for even the fastest super computer to fathom much less than a single person at the State Department. The Republicans must be trying to make America forget that Bush and Rumsfeld blew it in Iraq and Afganistan by some of the poorest military planning and thinking in American history. They wanted to go down in history as military genius or great bold and brillant leaders like Churchill or Caesar. Mistakes are always gong to be made in conflict zones and Republicans trying to apply some sort of white glove test to these regions is slowing down our responsiveness to danger and self protection. Let's get the correct plans implemented and move on. No field commander needs to be looking over his shoulder wondering what McCain or Rand would do.

Excellent post!!!

[jessup270]

Lets get real.

There are over 130 US embassies around the world.

If the Secretary of State spend 10 minutes per day reading communiques, from each embassy, it would consume 21 hours per day.

The Secretary of State must rely on staff around the world for such matters.

[RIKMAN]

It should have only been a surprise to a collection of morons. There were cables, emails and requests for more security from military attaches and the Ambassador. Other countries had recognized the deteriorating conditions and already evacuated staff from Libya. Despite all these signs, US security forces were actually lessened rather than increased.

Who gave the orders for TY Wood and Greg Dougherty to stand down? How many additional US deaths would there have been had they followed orders? Why were no US military rapid rescue teams deployed from Sicily to counter attack the terrorists and save American lives?

What was Obama, Biden and Panetta doing at their 5PM White House meeting while the attack was underway? Obama claimed on October 26 "The minute I found out what was happening . . . I gave the directive,” he said, “to make sure we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to do. I guarantee you everybody in the CIA and military knew the number-one priority was making sure our people are safe.”

So, if we take the President at his word, who did he tell, why was no action taken, and when will the parties that failed to follow orders be held accountable? There were Special Operations forces less than 2 hours away yet no reinforcements arrive during the 7 hour battle. Ty Woods had a laser rangefinder and is pinpointing enemy targets yet the only air support to arrive is an unarmed drone that allows the events to be witnessed in real time.

It is apparent that certain parties didn't want the campaign narrative of Osama is dead, GM is alive and Al Qaeda is on the run to be countered by a terrorist attack on 9-11. It is also obvious that spontaneous demonstrators do not carry RPG's.

Now this...is an excellent post.

Hillary fell on the sword for the administration but based on the facts above, it's a failure of leadership from the top down. It was buried by the administration' cohort in the media until after November.

Politics trumps both Race and Death, it appears. We still don't have any answers!

[soulflower]

Now this...is an excellent post.

Hillary fell on the sword for the administration but based on the facts above, it's a failure of leadership from the top down. It was buried by the administration' cohort in the media until after November.

Politics trumps both Race and Death, it appears. We still don't have any answers!

Terry's post is devoid of any facts...

[RIKMAN]

Terry's post is devoid of any facts...

That's your opinion for which you are entitled

[soulflower]

That's your opinion for which you are entitled

My opinion is that you guys aren't really interested in the truth...

[RIKMAN]

My opinion is that you guys aren't really interested in the truth...

My opinion is that you don't know the truth! Sadly, in this case, most folks don't!

[soulflower]

My opinion is that you don't know the truth! Sadly, in this case, most folks don't!

Most folks don't know much about what the CIA and State Department do abroad outside of what those agencies tell us...

[bmore_ken]

I just love how Hillary *****slapped Ron Pauls's idiot son. Man I love that woman

[Phineas Finn]

Now this...is an excellent post.

Hillary fell on the sword for the administration but based on the facts above, it's a failure of leadership from the top down. It was buried by the administration' cohort in the media until after November.

Politics trumps both Race and Death, it appears. We still don't have any answers!

How can a post be excellent when so little of it is true? No one was told to "stand down"; no support was two hours away -- you're taking the word of a birther nut because you want to believe that the moon is made of green cheese.

[RIKMAN]

How can a post be excellent when so little of it is true? No one was told to "stand down"; no support was two hours away -- you're taking the word of a birther nut because you want to believe that the moon is made of green cheese.

Most of what is posted here is opinion. My point throughtout is that neither you nor other posters know the truth. Support was available to be deployed and wasn't. You probably still believe it was spontaneous demonstration...please.

We certainly weren't going to get answers from Hillary five months later on her way out the door. I like her but she's not stupid!

Like I said previously, all this was grandstanding!

[bmore_ken]

Most of what is posted here is opinion. My point throughtout is that neither you nor other posters know the truth

Nor will we ever. That attack happened at a CIA site. The CIA just doesn't dish out that type of info to the public or to Congress for that matter

[RIKMAN]

Nor will we ever. That attack happened at a CIA site. The CIA just doesn't dish out that type of info to the public or to Congress for that matter

Exactly Ken- you're right!

[flyboy56]

Lets get real.

There are over 130 US embassies around the world.

If the Secretary of State spend 10 minutes per day reading communiques, from each embassy, it would consume 21 hours per day.

The Secretary of State must rely on staff around the world for such matters.

Just prioritize the embassies IAW the security level risk. Benghazi was still a war zone as stated by the new Libyan government and they had no means of securing that area. And this was known before Stevens went back to Benghazi. Clinton said in the hearing she and her staff knew Benghazi was a high security risk. The decided to move Stevens from the hotel to the diplomatic facility because they felt it was a more secure location.

[flyboy56]

Nor will we ever. That attack happened at a CIA site. The CIA just doesn't dish out that type of info to the public or to Congress for that matter

And according to Clinton Stevens was not engaged in any CIA activity of transferring weapons. This was a lie wasn't it?

[bmore_ken]

And according to Clinton Stevens was not engaged in any CIA activity of transferring weapons. This was a lie wasn't it?

Once again, there's no way for any of us to know that. CIA operations are not public knowledge. So anything Hillary or any other politician states has to be taken with a grain of salt.

[soulflower]

And according to Clinton Stevens was not engaged in any CIA activity of transferring weapons. This was a lie wasn't it?

She said she didn't know what Rand Paul was talking about when he asked her about that.

Either way, that kind of thing is likely classified and Paul had no business bringing it up during a public hearing...

[flyboy56]

We do know a scheduled meeting took place with the Turkish ambassador. Assuming the meeting was about the transfer of weapons from Syria to Turkey and Clinton was aware of this meeting which I have very little doubt she wasn't, then drone would have been used to watch the meeting take place. Which probably means the drone was there when the attack started which is why Ms. Lamb testified she and other unmentioned state department personnel were watching it on live video feed which Clinton denied saying Lamb must of have meant she was on a secure phone line in a conference with Embassy personnel while the attack was going on. No, you can't make this stuff up either.

[flyboy56]

She said she didn't know what Rand Paul was talking about when he asked her about that.

Either way, that kind of thing is likely classified and Paul had no business bringing it up during a public hearing...

Well if it never happened then it's not classified information now is it?!