Bush’s Secretary of Defense (Gates) Mocks GOP Attacks On Obama’s Handling Of Benghazi

[cal04]

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/05/12/1998811/bushs-secretary-of-defense-mocks-gop-attacks-on-obamas-handling-of-benghazi/


(snip)
“Frankly, had I been in the job at the time, I think my decisions would have been just as theirs were,” said Gates, now the chancellor of the College of William and Mary.

“We don’t have a ready force standing by in the Middle East, and so getting somebody there in a timely way would have been very difficult, if not impossible.” he explained.

Suggestions that we could have flown a fighter jet over the attackers to “scare them with the noise or something,” Gates said, ignored the “number of surface to air missiles that have disappeared from [former Libyan leader] Qaddafi’s arsenals.”

Another suggestion posed by some critics of the administration, to, as Gates said, “send some small number of special forces or other troops in without knowing what the environment is, without knowing what the threat is, without having any intelligence in terms of what is actually going on on the ground, would have been very dangerous.”

“It’s sort of a cartoonish impression of military capabilities and military forces,” he said. “The one thing that our forces are noted for is planning and preparation before we send people in harm’s way, and there just wasn’t time to do that.”

[BlueToTheBone]

1. Obviously the GOP watches too much television

I know Nikita can fly around the world and fix stuff in less than an hour, but real life takes a little more time.

[NewJeffCT]

19. Not to mention Republican hero Jack Bauer

who can torture terrorists and get them to reveal everything - just in the nick of time.

Was Bauer even mentioned by Antonin Scalia?

[Gin]

2. This is all about Hillary running.....if they can keep the story going.....it will be in ads for

the whole election cycle.....no matter how ridiculous it is......big bad scary Hillary

[Dawson Leery]

3. k/r

[freshwest]

4. The GOP chickenhawks in D.C. and Fox were smacked down hard.

"...scare them with the noise or something..."

"...a cartoonish impression of military capabilities and military forces..."

After 'Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran' flopped, and 'Bring it on,' they are still stunningly incompetent.

It's a good thing the adults are in charge now.

[leftyohiolib]

8. It's a good thing the adults are in charge now. - yea but children will be voting

[Iliyah]

5. The vicious cycles never-ending

story from the so called christians. Democratic Presidents will be targeted regardless of facts, and I definitely see a pattern here. GOP party keeping pure hatred alive is tearing down their party of no. Their numbers are dwindling but I guess they don't care. GOPers will do their best to take voting rights away, gerrymandering, redistricting et al.,

Fascism much?

[Thinkingabout]

6. Gates is so far over the heads of the GOP trying to prove absolutely nothing. We could all take

lessons from Bob Gates, intelligent, thinks before acting, knows why and why not to take actions. I am sure the GOP will declare Gates as a traitor but he is a just and great American citizen.

[pasto76]

7. careful about pinning Sec Gates as a Bushie

His appointment was decidedly NOT in line with anything else the Bush admin did militarily. Rumsfeld was a disaster of course. In regards to the wars, the were many abrupt departures from the way rummy did it. Im a big fan of his tenure as SecDef, probably because he is an actual republican and not a neocon or conservative. President Obama asked him to stay for more than 2 years for a reason.

having said all that, his comments on this are pretty damning to for the right. I was happy to see them, but not surprised.

[zipplewrath]

20. Bushie through and through

He's practically a member of the family. Of course he got that way through the father, not the dim son. He was sent in by the family to straighten out Jr's mess after Cheney and company screwed everything up so bad.

Obama kept him around to cover his right side. He was kept on to finish executing the SOFA. He did exactly that. He's talking now because the Bush family hates McCain and he's deep in all of this Bengazi crap.

[timdog44]

10. May Issa will

subpoena Gates to his silly investigation and listen to a real military man describe things military. From what I understand Issa's military was less that stellar and probably does not know what real military action involves and how it really works.

[Charlotte Little]

11. What I found most compelling...

Was Gates defending Hillary's integrity. When asked if he thought Hillary would say something she didn't believe to be true, he said no, and he meant it.

I despise Republicans, but I don't see all of them as monsters. They do have a few grown ups in their camp, but the dimwitted children have definitely overtaken the patio tables and chairs.

I just hope that in 2014, the dems get up off their lazy asses and to the polls. This country cannot afford or weather another 2010.

[Rozlee]

12. If this is an attempt to derail Hillary's chance for a presidential run in 2016

They've probably shot their wad too soon and gotten people fed up with all Benghazi, all day. They thought they had Obama with Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Rezco, palin' around with terrorists and all kinds of "smoking guns," but at the end of the day, their candidates were so weak or moonbat crazy, that people flocked to Obama. I guess it depends on what kind of candidate Republicans have for 2016. If it's a half-way sane one, Hillary could be in trouble. But, Republicans and sanity go together like matter and anti-matter, David and Goliath, Alien and Predator...

[Berlum]

13. The clucking claque of Republican chickenhawks needs to STFU

[Cha]

14. Excellent graphic to pass around.. thanks Berlum

[Berlum]

15. You are welcome

The blatant Republican lies about Benghazi need to be EXPOSED.

[Cha]

16. Yep, that's what I'm

here for.

[napkinz]

17. here are a few more ...

[Cha]

18. Thank you, napkinz! Bookmarking!

[napkinz]

21. two more ...

[Cha]

22. I've seen the second one and they're both

very Descriptive.. but, the second one is Killer! It's hard to believe mccain ever got himself into that position! lol

Thanks napkinz!