Wednesday, December 09, 2015

I told you that the SPMAGTF-CR was a lie!



via Free Beacon.
Newly released emails show that a senior Defense Department official offered the State Department “forces that could move to Benghazi” immediately during the deadly 2012 attack there on the American consulate.
Jeremy Bash, the former Pentagon chief of staff, offered to provide forces at 7:19 p.m. on the evening of the attack, “only hours after they had begun,” according to Judicial Watch, which disclosed the email on Tuesday.
“We have identified the forces that could move to Benghazi. They are spinning up as we speak,” Bash wrote.
Portions of the email remain redacted by the Obama administration.
“The Obama administration redacted the details of the military forces available, oddly citing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemption that allows the withholding of ‘deliberative process’ information,” according to Judicial Watch.
The newly disclosed email contradicts testimony to Congress by Obama administration officials who cited the inability to immediately provide forces in response to the attack.
“Bash’s email seems to directly contradict testimony given by then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta before the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2013,” writes Judicial Watch.
“Defending the Obama administration’s lack of military response to the nearly six-hour-long attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Panetta claimed that ‘time, distance, the lack of an adequate warning, events that moved very quickly on the ground prevented a more immediate response,’” the group wrote in a press release.
Everyone is looking at this from the point of the Benghazi hearings.

The United States Marine Corps tribe should look at this from the point of honor, honesty, moral courage and finally the alignment/ disposition of our Fleet Marine Force.

Check this out from Marine Corps Times (Apr 2013).
“We can do this,” Commandant Gen. Jim Amos told Marine Corps Times in January, referring to the new crisis-response force. “This is what we do for a living. We would go forward into a combatant commander’s theater with this capability and give it to him, and then we would refresh the capability every six months.”
The new unit could respond to such crises as the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Gen. Carter Ham, the outgoing chief of AFRICOM, told Congress in March that threats from Islamic extremists in Africa are increasing and pose threats to American interests.
“I think we have the opportunity now to work preventative efforts in concert with African forces and with allies and friends globally to suppress the threat, to reverse the trend, which is increasingly worrisome to me,” Ham told the House Armed Services Committee. “And that does not necessitate a large commitment of U.S. forces. And I do not believe that a large commitment of U.S. forces is either necessary or appropriate under the current circumstance.”
So in essence the Pentagon lied to Congress.  Forces were being spooled up to get to Benghazi.

Even worse (but not by much...the DoD in essence participated in a coverup of omission if not fact..) is the aftermath to the USMC.  We've seen deployments explode exponentially.  The force is being worn out to fill a need that did not exist, does not make sense and only serves to give Combatant Commanders a few more play toys.

The SPMAGTF-CR is a lie!  The MEU is the basic unit of action for the USMC and SPMAGTF's should go back to being specifically tailored units to serve short duration missions.  At this moment we should have a SPMAGTF operating in Iraq based on the MV-22 to conduct TRAP missions for downed allied pilots with a Infantry Battalion as its Ground Combat Element (not a freaking company that could get chewed up).  Cover them with a couple of squadrons of Super Hornets and have them on trigger alert with a Ready Company that can deploy in minutes.

But back to the task at hand.  The SPMAGTF-CR concept should be shelved.  The USMC should purge itself of the political animals that have somehow wormed their way to the top, and a return to high standards of ethical behavior should be instituted.

The Amos legacy keeps on giving.  Its like drug resistant syphilis.  Its eating away at the moral bearings of the Marine Corps.

NOTE:  General Ham's statements on this have turned murky.  In one instance he's quoted as saying that he wanted to deploy forces and was told to stand down, in others he's said to have stated that forces couldn't get there in time.  The General Officer Corps is failing this nation so badly that it boggles the mind...even more worrisome is the fact that the vaunted, hardcore members of the Republican party that questioned Hillary on this incident are obviously participating in the cover up. 

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