In a hearing last week, Republican members of the Senate
Intelligence Committee were happy with their ability last week to
suggest that President Obama’s lack of inquiry during the Benghazi
attack last September 11 showed how removed he was from an urgent
political /military issue. While focusing pro and con on the
supposed inability of Mr. Obama to have serious concern over his
beleaguered representatives in Libya, the senators, Democrat and
Republican alike, missed completely a principal issue in the
Secretary of Defense’s testimony.
Leon Panetta had tried to explain that time and distance
precluded the possibility of doing anything to intervene militarily
to aid the Benghazi mission either at the main facility where
Ambassador Stevens and his information specialist, Sean Smith, were
or at the CIA base annex two miles away. The entire attack lasted
nearly eight hours and an unarmed surveillance drone was on-station
within 90 minutes of the initial attack. During the firefight six
officers from the Tripoli embassy flew in on a chartered civilian
plane to Benghazi’s Benina International Airport and made their way
to the compound, according to Panetta and previous briefings.
Secretary Panetta went on to say that U.S. Navy FAST teams
(Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security) were in Spain, but these were too
far away to arrive in time to assist the embattled Americans.
Panetta even mentioned that the FAST teams would have had to fly
first to Segonella, Italy, for onward flight to Benghazi. He never
explained why this route was essential. The implication was that
the distance was such that refueling or perhaps special equipment
was necessary to be procured from Segonella Naval Base. This
ignores the fact that Benina International has commercial flights
daily stopping to and from Europe — including Madrid — on the
route to East Africa. A Boeing 747 flight from the U.S. Naval Base
at Rota, Spain, would have taken only about three hours at an
average cruising speed of 570 mph.
What was never mentioned or even questioned was why the Marine
Force Recon unit supposedly stationed at Segonella was never
considered a potential relief force as it was far closer than Rota
to Benghazi. Is that Marine Force Recon unit simply a paper
designation for Pentagon budgeting for a shadow TO&E (Table of
Organization & Equipment)? In any case, FAST units (of which at
least one was at Rota) are each specifically forward-deployed guard
platoons of 115 Marines and one officer capable of immediate
operational response to any alert notice. There is no question that
in this time frame, even considering organizational delays, an
initial retrieval force could have landed at Benghazi airport well
before the actual firefight had ended. And who knew that in just
under eight hours the entire affair would be over?
There isn’t a special operations trooper who wouldn’t have gone
into Benghazi “blind” if it was necessary to rescue a contingent of
Americans. The idea that critical intelligence must be gathered,
analyzed, and evaluated before a SO force proceeds on a critical
retrieval mission may be academically correct, but not strictly
followed in real life critical combat rescue. U.S. special forces
of every kind go into harm’s way when and where they are needed
with little regard for themselves. It’s the mission that counts,
and the mission clearly was to rescue the guys in Benghazi. For
some reason this fact escaped Washington’s high military
command.
Why is it that after over eleven years of combat in Afghanistan
and Iraq that the Senate Intelligence Committee will swallow the
story that no forces were available in adequate time and distance
to relieve Benghazi? To begin with, why wasn’t some high ranking
White House or Pentagon official on the phone to commercial
airlines serving Spain to see who could aid in the mission by
redirecting existing transport so the Marine FAST team could be
wheels-up in minimal time if no military air assets were available?
The concept of chartering or even commandeering available U.S.
civilian transport has been in existence since the days of General
Washington. When faced with a military crisis, such actions have
considerable precedent.
What this all points to is that a Rota-based FAST platoon of
appropriately trained and equipped Marines could have flown to
Benghazi by any Boeing 747, and other heavier units could have
followed later. It wasn’t even tried. That DoD having real-time
notice of the attack on two official American installations could
not or would not respond in a timely manner is a disgrace that
reaches the level of dereliction of duty. Any enlisted man or
junior officer having avoided similar action would have been
brought up on charges before a court martial.
It is clear that even if the Secretary of Defense has been able
to find some political cover to avoid personal responsibility, the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Chief of Naval Operations (under
whose direction FAST units are deployed), and the head of the
Special Operations Command should receive formal reprimands at the
very least. As Leon Panetta is already leaving, perhaps they should
just all resign. The argument that they all needed White House
approval before anyone of them could have taken definitive action
just is not doctrinally or historically true. All they
could have lost would have been their jobs!
