Report: No Obama Gutsy Call in Benghazi

by Ben Shapiro 

After President Obama made the right move to authorize the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden, the left went apoplectic with smugness. “Gutsy Call” trended on Twitter. The phrase became a stand-in for Obama’s disastrous foreign policy. This, the meme went, was Obama’s foreign policy – he was a guy who made “gutsy calls.”

 

Now, the truth of the matter is that every American president – without exception, including Jimmy Carter – would have made the call to get Bin Laden. But when it came to a situation requiring a true gutsy call – authorizing American military forces to enter Libya to save our ambassador in Benghazi – President Obama voted present.


According to sources on the ground in Benghazi during the terrorist attack of September 11, Americans at the CIA annex in the region requested military back-up urgently. The request was denied by US officials. The Americans then asked twice for authorization to go help the ambassador. They were denied, twice.


So finally, these heroes disobeyed orders and went to the consulate. They exchanged fire with the terrorists. And then evacuated remaining Americans at the consulate. They couldn’t find the ambassador.


A few hours later, they returned to the consulate. Again, they asked for military support. The request was denied. Again. According to Fox News:

The team was in constant radio contact with their headquarters. The team was in constant radio contact with their headquarters. In fact, at least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortars were fired at the CIA compound. The security officer had a laser on the target that was firing and repeatedly requested back-up support from a Spectre gunship, which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations forces to provide support to Special Operations teams on the ground involved in intense firefights. The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours -- enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators. 

Meanwhile, an American drone was watching the entire proceeding. And according to Charles Woods, father of killed ex-Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, “apparently the White House situation room was watching our people die in real time, as this was happening.”


No gutsy call. Four Americans dead. This is the true Obama foreign policy: when in doubt, vote present.