Sorry, Leon, I don't buy it

I am suspending my self-imposed rule of "Saturday is politics day" for the next 8 days. Why, you ask? Because two or three of you may not have yet made up your minds and, despite my urging you to vote early, you might be looking for some opinions on who should be in the White House from 2013 to 2016. And my opinion is as good as anyone's... remembering that old joke about rectal orifices and opinions.

Leon Panetta, the Secretary of Defense, offered an explanation of why no help was sent in to defend the Consulate in Benghazi:
You don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on," Panetta said. "(We) felt we could not put forces at risk in that situation."

That struck me as odd. You see, I was in the US Navy once upon a time. Granted, it was a long time ago and strategies may have changed over the years, but at that time the attitude was still "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"

Can you imagine if the police headed for a doughnut shop rather than toward the gunshots? Or if firefighters stayed away from a fire because they didn't know what's going on? Especially when they know there are people still inside that building?

Sorry, Leon, you don't seem to understand your job. It isn't you that makes that decision, it's the CIC. You just make suggestions and recommendations and then carry out orders.

One other thing has come to bother me about this Benghazi thing. At one point, the two ex-SEALs (who worked for the CIA) from the Annex who risked their lives by allegedly disobeying orders to "stand down" to assist the Consulate personnel allegedly told their stateside handlers that they could "paint" the targets with a laser. Now, if help was two hours away at best, why would they even mention that?