Every American should watch ' Why Benghazi Matters ' .
This recently surfaced from Judicial Watch, Obama knew the attack would happen
10 days before.
https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-...ys-in-advance/
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Every American should watch ' Why Benghazi Matters ' .
This recently surfaced from Judicial Watch, Obama knew the attack would happen
10 days before.
https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-...ys-in-advance/
OBL was going to be an outcast one way or another. I get he was mad that we had troops in KSA but its one of those things if weren't that he'd have been kicked out over something else. OBL was on a path towards extremism and terrorism no matter what.
I agree that we should support or at least not condemn secular govt's over there as the other option is muslim brotherhood or radical types. Thats why I don't get why Syria became such an issue because if we took that govt out the people who'd have filled the power vacuum would have been much worse. Iraq and Syria both are hosts to Kurds/Christians/Shia/Sunni. MB and other extremists don't play well with 3 of 4 of those groups, and that's what happened in Egypt after the 1st Arab Spring which had to be fixed with the 2nd Arab Spring that Obama was opposed to. He also sat back and did nothing when major protests were ongoing in Iran.
As far as the Taliban I don't really understand why they became the focal point other than war hawks wanting perpetual war. They didn't attack us, and the people there have the right to choose who they want in charge. A lot of rural AFG doesn't mind having them in charge. From watching interviews with a lot of Taliban people most of their contempt for us is just our presence where we don't belong. AQ left AFG in late 2001 and they want us gone. The Taliban is highly localized. We'd be better off putting those resources into attacking AQAP and subordinate groups in Africa.
As far as Iraq Im just saying once we went in the way things were handled was very stupid. Looking back, if given the chance, we shouldn't have gone in but once we did leadership failed the boots on the ground mission. Since we did we should support the groups that can make a difference and set them up as best we can. Lots of people in N Iraq could be transported to a western country and fit right in.
The ME is extremely complex and we haven't ever really gotten the policy perspective right.
I don't have much argument with any of that. But seriously Glaspie gave Saddam some serious mixed messages. There is a vocabulary you have to use with brutal dictators and even I can see how Saddam thought he had been given the green light to fix his domestic issue with Kuwait so long as he didn't make a mess.
Bush (41) is one of the worse Presidents in recent memory, imagine if we just let arabs handle arab business and we still had a strong (well better than the one we have with Saudi) alliance with Iraq. So many things could have been so much better. Seriously screw Turkey and Saudi, if we could have staged out of Iraq for the war on terror in Afghanistan we'd have had a shitload of better options.
Of course it's also true that we'd have solved a lot of other problems by letting Russia stay in Afghanistan without undermining them but we were too eager to pay them back for Vietnam and it did lead directly to bringing down the wall and freeing most of Eastern Europe. Of course Bush (43) wasn't a lot of help when Putin contacted us to ask if Russia could assist us with anything after 9-11 and rather than get on the same page Bush instead called him out on human rights abuses in Chechnya so he could avoid criticisms of fighting a religious war with islam even though that it technically what we had actually been given on 9-11.
All in all I feel we failed all those who fought and sacrificed, I seriously hope they feel otherwise.
I was deployed on the USS Enterprise when 9/11 happened. Those who were there know the story or can look it up , we turned around off the coast of Somalia and went back to the Gulf.
I have not been to the memorials, my wife has and has some beautiful pictures. Seeing that memorial is the only reason I have for going to NYC.
Will, if you haven't seen it, watch Clear the Skies: 9/11 Air Defense . BBC documentary on how the United States Air Traffic Control System was given the order to get every single plane in US airspace and heading into our airspace air on the ground; it had never been done before. They did it in less than three hours.
They talk about the fighter pilots who were diverted from a training mission, unarmed, and given orders to try and intercept the plane believed to be headed toward the Capitol Building any way they could, including as you already mentioned, ramming an aircraft.
It's an intense, informative, emotional and impressive documentary as to the immediate response on September 11, 2001. It was a terrible day, and many terrible things have happened to our freedoms and to the United States since; but the performance that day of the passengers on Flight 93, our Air Traffic Controllers, of the immediate response to secure the President, secure Washington DC, initiate Continuity of Government, and clear the skies of all aircraft was incredible.
Here's a couple of links for you: DVD - https://www.amazon.com/Clear-Skies-1.../dp/B0009IW89Y
YouTube (in 5 parts): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpPtjGCp4Ss