Politico | Wilson, calling Trump a “jerk” and a “liar,” said in an interview in
Miami Thursday that she believed the ambush that led to four deaths two
weeks ago resembled the 2012 attack on the diplomatic mission in
Benghazi, Libya, that also left four dead, including a U.S. ambassador.
The attack led to criticism of former President Barack Obama and
then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by conservatives who said the
facility was unprepared for such an incident and also took issue with
their handling of the aftermath.
“The circumstances are similar,” Wilson said. She said in Niger, the
four soldiers providing counterterrorism training “didn’t have
appropriate weapons where they were. They were told by intelligence
there was no threat. They had trucks that were not armored trucks. They
were particularly not protected. Just like in Benghazi, they were given
the impression that everything was fine.”
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, disputed the comparison.
“In Benghazi, you had U.S. fighter jets sitting in Crete that could
have been there very quickly. Here, we did not have U.S. capabilities
that we were freezing in place,” Gaetz said. “It is not like that in
Central Africa.”
In Niger, Gaetz said, U.S. special forces were trying to keep a light
footprint so as not to draw attention as they equipped and trained
local forces to combat terrorists chased out of North Africa. As a
result, he said, the soldiers were exposed because of the dangerous
nature of the mission.
“When you’ve got Americans in a zone where there’s really little
command and control, it’s a highly volatile environment,” Gaetz said.
“It is not atypical to begin these types of operations by having our
high-intensity special operators — the Green Berets, the Navy Seals, the
air commandos — and then over time increase our capabilities. In
Central Africa, it is important that we maintain low visibility in some
cases. And having a massive extraction force in the region doesn’t
always facilitate low visibility.”
Counterpunch | The ball is in the Trump court. What were those four men doing in
Niger? Is our military presence making things better or worse there? Did
US leadership make a bad decision that had unforeseen consequences? Are
they relying on secrecy to cover up an embarrassment? And the big
question: Is the United States mobilizing its military in Africa? Are we
embarking on a huge new foreign adventure? On a large, historic canvas,
one can look at the Vietnam and Iraq Wars in this light, as the growth
of imperial militarism with expanding commitments of young men and women
in uniform. Which brings us back to General Kelly’s schizophrenic press
conference: On one hand, there’s his moving call for recognizing the
sacrifice of our soldiers and their families. Then, there’s his shameful
political attack on a congresswoman who he did not realize had real
skin in the game — skin that happened to be darker than his white,
privileged Boston skin. The general wonders why the honor and glue of
America isn’t what it used to be in the glory days of World War Two,
which was a defensive war. Those “values” no longer prevail; something
else is going on. General Kelly needs to realize, when he becomes an
attack dog for someone like Donald Trump, he’s not on a foreign
battlefield — he’s in the trenches of Washington DC, which a recent
article in the conservative National Review compared to the climate in the HBO hit Game of Thrones.
Washington politics is uglier than it has been in a long time.
Secrecy, dishonesty and corruption are epidemic. As long as our military
is rooted in such amoral soil, the respect and sacredness for our
soldiers that General Kelly seeks will remain far out of reach.
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