Saturday, October 27, 2012

From Bad to Worse -- UPDATE

Instapundit » Blog Archive » IRONY, THY NAME IS PANETTA: “Defense Secretary Leon Panetta calls the criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the Libya terror attack ‘Monday morning quarterbacking,’” CBS-DC reports.
Ed Driscoll, posting that at Instapundit, notes that the Left has spent the last 12 years second guessing everything about President George W. Bush.
I would note that, during the 4 +/- years I spent stationed in the Monterey, CA, area, of which Mr. Panetta was the Congressional Representative, you could barely turn around without having some aide of his crawling up your ass investigating something-or-other.
Instapundit » Blog Archive » IT JUST GETS WORSE: AC-130U Gunship was On-Scene in Benghazi, Obama Admin Refused to Let It Fire.
I might have posted that already.  I forget. Also, Instapundit » Blog Archive » #STANDDOWN: U.S. Had Two Drones, AC-130 Gunship, and Targets Painted in #Benghazi. RELATED: “Yesterday the CIA said they didn’t say no to a rescue mission for Ambassador Stevens and other Americans under attack. Today the White House said it wasn’t Obama. But it gets worse...
Father of Slain SEAL: Who Made the Decision Not to Save My Son? | The Weekly Standard
A couple of salient points from this article:
“When [Obama] came over to our little area” at Andrew Air Force Base, says Woods, “he kind of just mumbled, you know, ‘I’m sorry.’ His face was looking at me, but his eyes were looking over my shoulder like he could not look me in the eye. And it was not a sincere, ‘I’m really sorry, you know, that your son died,’ but it was totally insincere, more of whining type, ‘I’m sorry.’”
Woods says that shaking President Obama’s hands at his son’s memorial service was “like shaking hands with a dead fish.”
So, comparisons of Bush v Obama should be trite by now, yet they remain ever green, largely due to the constant flow of egregious violations of propriety and professionalism and the public trust by the denizens of the Obama Regime, led by His Imperial Majesty Barack Hussein Obama himself.

I have no doubt whatsoever that President George W. Bush would have looked Mr. Wood sin the eye and, with a firm handshake, expressed his condolences with a promise that "We're gonna get the goat-fucking neo-barb savages that murdered your boy."

Quite possibly in so many words.

From the same article:
“Well, this is what Hillary did,” Woods continues. “She came over and, you know, did the same thing—separately came over and talked with me. I gave her a hug, shook her hand. And she did not appear to be one bit sincere—at all. And you know, she mentioned that the thing about, we’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video. That was the first time I had even heard about anything like that.”
First off:  "I gave her a hug..."?! Ewwww!

Second:  "And you know, she mentioned that the thing about, we’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video."

Think about this.  By the time this transpired, there was no question at the National Command level that the attack on the consulate in Benghazi was an organized, pre-planned attack by Al Queda,  that had nothing whatsoever to do with the puerile, amateurish "Innocence of Muslims" YouTube video, but, instead of promising to go after the goat-fucking neo-barb savages that murdered his son, the Secretary of State of the United States promised to Make Things Better by going after an American citizen for exercising his Constitutional rights. 

Everyone used to say how BJ and Hillary Clinton were the consummate politicians; she's lost it. 

Finally, this is all over the blogosphere...
Interesting Rumor Concerning General Carter Ham and Stand Down Order @ TigerDroppings.com
Now, that is a chat board for Louisiana State University alumni. So I don't know what kind of authority the original poster, or his source, speaks from.  I do note that, in the original article I started this post with, in which Leon Panetta committed irony, he also claimed that the decision to not send in troops to the rescue was made jointly by himself, General Dempsey (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), and... General Carter Ham, Commander of African Command. (AFRICOM)

OTOH, Panetta is a lifelong politician, so you know how to tell he's lying, right?

Anyway, the OP in that thread first quotes that bit of Panetta's statement, and then says
The information I heard today was that General Ham as head of Africom received the same e-mails the White House received requesting help/support as the attack was taking place. General Ham immediately had a rapid response unit ready and communicated to the Pentagon that he had a unit ready. 
General Ham then received the order to stand down. His response was to screw it, he was going to help anyhow. Within 30 seconds to a minute after making the move to respond, his second in command apprehended General Ham and told him that he was now relieved of his command. 
The story continues that now General Rodiguez would take General Ham's place as the head of Africon. {sic}
I found this story when I got home after hearing this story. 
I dunno.  The only part of that I find  truly strains my credulity is the bit about General Rodriguez "apprehending" and "relieving" GEN Ham "within 30 seconds to a minute".

OTOH: Obama to nominate Army Gen. Rodriguez to lead AFRICOM - News - Stripes

Like I said, that thing is all over the internet, but all the cites of it go back to that OP in that thread on that chat board.

Highly unusual that the replacement for a "Four Star" General would be announced with no notice of where the replaced General was moving to.  By the way.

If there is any truth to this story, then the entire chain of command* needs to be tried by Court Martial, for those elements subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Manual for Courts Martial, or impeached and sentenced accordingly for those who are not.

Back in The Old Days, they would have returned to their quarters and found a revolver and a single round of ammunition on their nightstand...

Meanwhile: Instapundit » Blog Archive » HMM: Navy replaces admiral leading Mideast strike group.
Linked to there, Ace of Spades says this is much ado about little or nothing, that it is about time for GEN Ham's replacement to be named anyway, but that GEN Ham himself has not been relieved or announced his retirement.

Odd that the White House has not responded to these rumors.

UPDATE:  A quick check of AFRICOM's website indicates that GEN Carter Ham is still in command there,  so I think it is safe to say that the "apprehended" and "relieved" portions of that story were pretty much products of someone's fevered imagination.

*And selected individuals outside the chain of command.  The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the individual service Chiefs of Staff, for example, are not actually in anyone's chain of command. Ditto the Secretary of State.  General Rodriguez should resign for his part.

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