New Obama Admin Claim: Marines Couldn't Have Stopped Consulate Assault

[RugersGR8]

If at first your Plan "A" doesn't work, then lie & lie again. Wake me up when they get to Plan "Z".



http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/21/New-Obama-Admin-Claim-Even-Marines-Couldn-t-Have-Stopped-Consulate-Assault
New Obama Admin Claim: Marines Couldn't Have Stopped Consulate Assault
by John Sexton 21 Sep 2012, 2:14 PM PDT

 

[brandt9913]

I think more and more every day how hard it must be for our Secret Service officers to be obligated to take a bullet for the current jackass in office.

 

[Caliyanks]

Hey, Mr. president. I'm an army guy, but i don't think the Marines like being told they can't get a mission done with their available resources.

 

[ruckerduck]

Waiting for the first apologist to post.

 

[SMS]

I'll be the first "apologist" to post. The O administration has screwed this thing up from the beginning and has been acting like amatuers since day one, but depending on the context of the comment, the opinion is not wrong. What does one mean by "stopped"....as in keep it from happening in the first place? Repelling it at the gate? Shutting it down after the first breach? To squirrely of a term.

A detachment of Marine Security Guards probably would not have been able to "stop" the consulate assault. Mostly since stopping an assault on the property is not their mission and they are not manned, trained, or equipped to do so.

Unless you have some experience as an MSG, or working with MSG detachments, it is easy to fall for the illusion of a bad-ass squad of Marine infantry snarling over their bayonets and machine guns at the gate...but that's not what MSGs do and that's not how our embassies and consulates are protected.

MSGs certainly could have added an element of deterence, and caused the assault to be more costly for the attackers but they likely would not have "stopped" a large, determined, coordinated, complex assault...

 

[candrpotts]

Being a former Marine, I can tell you that if those embassy guards had been cleared to fire, there would still be an American ambassador in Libya. Nothing will slow a crowd of demonstrators more than a show of motivated fierce resistance. I see no evidence of a "coordinated, complex assault". Foreign intervention yes but let the MSG do their damned job! And yes they are trained and equipped to repel moderate sized armed forces. For the most part, all the ambassador had to do was "say the word" and all hell would have been brought to bear on those walls. This was sovereign US soil under attack by unknown forces with unknown intent. Standing by and letting this happen is unconscionable.

 

[SMS]

The Benghazi attack was not a "crowd of demonstrators"...it was a pre-planned coordinated complex attack (small arms, machine guns, RPGs, and indirect fire) with a force estimated to be as many as 50 attackers (that number is certainly in question, but it was not a small force).

If you were ever a MSG, or stationed at an embassy in a less than permissive environment, you certainly know that MSGs don't man the walls. Their mission is the internal security of the property. Being such a small consulate...there would likely have been a half a dozen Marines there, at best. Yes, they at least could have provided tighter security once they retreated to the 'safe house'...but I don't think they would have beaten back a determined attack of this size.

The biggest impact a small detachment of MSGs would have had would have been in impacting the pre-planning of the attack. The enemy might have shifted to a softer target once their surveillance indicated the presence of Devil Dogs....

One thing that set the place up for failure was the physical security posture of the facility. It looks like it wasn't as well prepared as other more permanent facilities and was really nothing more than a converted residence. I'm sure a squad of Marines could have made some proper defensive preparations if the administration had heeded advance warnings and sent in reinforcements...but they didn't.

The admin screwed this up and it's almost comical watching their response every day.

It was a crowd of demonstrators!
Well it might've been some guys with guns!
We didn't get any advance warning!
Well maybe we heard something about it before it started
This was not preplanned
It might've been preplanned
...and now they throw out this red herring to try to divert the attention.

 

[HMFIC]

Idiots.

Congratulations Obama... you've just alienated around 200000 fine men and women who currently serve this country as US Marines and countless others who have in the past. Not to mention directly besmirching every MSG Marine and further endangering them and the embassy staff they are entrusted to protect by declaring to the world how incapable they are.

I wonder how many former Marines work as Secret Service Agents in the Presidential detail. Maybe Obama ought to fire them if they're so worthless.

What an absolutely stupid, careless and inflammatory thing to say...

 

[tntrex]

Yes but as you know he keeps saying it was not pre planned attack etc. So now marines can't even stop a few mad protesters is it? What a poor excuse of political cya.

 

[ruckerduck]

I see your point SMS. I wouldn't say you were apologizing as much as giving a clearer explanation.