The more we learn about the attack on our embassy at Benghazi, the more bizarre the story becomes. We now learn that the U.S. had a drone circling over the compound sending live video to the White House during the attack. Our commander-in-chief and his national-security team in Washington were listening to cell phone calls from the Americans under attack and watching real-time video from the drone circling overhead.
Bing West in the National Review Online writes that, “Our diplomats fought for seven hours without any aid from outside the country. Four Americans died while the Obama national-security team and our military passively watched and listened.” He also notes that our U.S. military base, 480 miles away in Sigonella, Sicily, had Special Operations Forces, transport aircraft and attack aircraft stationed there.
An F-18 fighter aircraft flying at Mach 1.8 could be over Benghazi in a half-hour. The fighter has night vision capability that allows it to find and attack targets at night. The fact that our commander-in-chief and his national-security team sat passively watching the attack for seven hours becomes even more bizarre when you remember that President Obama fired dozens of Cruise missiles into Libya to protect civilians during their fight with Col. Muammar Gaddafi.
The British are a little more realistic about what happened in Libya. A story in The Telegraph puts it this way “Put bluntly, the destruction of diplomatic premises resulting in the murder of an ambassador would amount to an act of war.”
So far, some 40 days have passed since the attack on the anniversary of 9-11 and even after watching the attack in real time, our administration is still arguing about who attacked us and who said what to whom and whose fault it was that we were so unprepared. So far the only thing we have learned from the President and Vice President is that it isn’t their fault.
You could call this leading from behind, but I think hiding from behind might be a more appropriate term.

Printed in the October 25, 2012 edition