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regular.joe · 01-29-2015, 08:52 AM

BigV, here goes. My $.02 based on some experience. I'm going to try to keep this brief and simple.

Back in '10 I spent time in Pakistan. I got back two days before they schwacked Bin Laden. I assure you that I had nothing to do with that, I have another job.

While I was living with 3-4 other guys in a house in a suburb of Peshawar, had we had to duke it out with the Taliban (or pick from a list of like Islamist trouble makers that all have loose affiliations with one another) from our roof top, can you guess who the cavalry would have been? That's right, we were the cavalry. We, and the men in Benghazi, volunteered, were selected and trained to do a tough job, with a VERY small footprint in a very dangerous place. We knew the odds going in if crap gets hairy, and we knew that the cavalry was us. 6 Months before I got to Pesh, two members of the CA community were killed in a suicide bombing north east of Pesh. Not many people know about this, there was no news or fanfare. We are professionals and understand the political implications, and don't expect this crap anyways. I worked on the same school that was destroyed at the bombing that killed these guys. I can't stress enough that we know the risks going in. If it were easy and low risk, shit, everyone would be doing it. It really pisses me off that the bravery of these men is being used as a spring board for political infighting. Rather than give them credit where credit is due, that they volunteered to walk into a tough, very risky place....and doing it anyways. Oh, and the Marines were doing what they are supposed to do: protect the Embassy. No Marine contingent was going to beat feet to my team house, if we were fighting it out.

The reports that DoD have submitted are true. We just don't have the kind of assets to drop a contingent of operators, or an infantry platoon (let alone the political fall out for violating sovereign states borders with more military personnel), especially in a highly fluid, dynamic, dangerous fight, too much is unknown. The right call was to sit it out rather than send in two or three choppers and get 1/2 of our "rescue" force killed on the insertion. These guys are way more valuable then to kill em off willy nilly.

The guys on the ground knew all of this going into that job. They went anyway. We should hold them up as examples of men willing to do some of the toughest, most dangerous work out there. Celebrate their bravery.

01-29-2015, 08:52 AM	#8
regular.joe Старый сержант Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: NC, dreaming of large Russian women. Posts: 1,464	BigV, here goes. My $.02 based on some experience. I'm going to try to keep this brief and simple. Back in '10 I spent time in Pakistan. I got back two days before they schwacked Bin Laden. I assure you that I had nothing to do with that, I have another job. While I was living with 3-4 other guys in a house in a suburb of Peshawar, had we had to duke it out with the Taliban (or pick from a list of like Islamist trouble makers that all have loose affiliations with one another) from our roof top, can you guess who the cavalry would have been? That's right, we were the cavalry. We, and the men in Benghazi, volunteered, were selected and trained to do a tough job, with a VERY small footprint in a very dangerous place. We knew the odds going in if crap gets hairy, and we knew that the cavalry was us. 6 Months before I got to Pesh, two members of the CA community were killed in a suicide bombing north east of Pesh. Not many people know about this, there was no news or fanfare. We are professionals and understand the political implications, and don't expect this crap anyways. I worked on the same school that was destroyed at the bombing that killed these guys. I can't stress enough that we know the risks going in. If it were easy and low risk, shit, everyone would be doing it. It really pisses me off that the bravery of these men is being used as a spring board for political infighting. Rather than give them credit where credit is due, that they volunteered to walk into a tough, very risky place....and doing it anyways. Oh, and the Marines were doing what they are supposed to do: protect the Embassy. No Marine contingent was going to beat feet to my team house, if we were fighting it out. The reports that DoD have submitted are true. We just don't have the kind of assets to drop a contingent of operators, or an infantry platoon (let alone the political fall out for violating sovereign states borders with more military personnel), especially in a highly fluid, dynamic, dangerous fight, too much is unknown. The right call was to sit it out rather than send in two or three choppers and get 1/2 of our "rescue" force killed on the insertion. These guys are way more valuable then to kill em off willy nilly. The guys on the ground knew all of this going into that job. They went anyway. We should hold them up as examples of men willing to do some of the toughest, most dangerous work out there. Celebrate their bravery. __________________ Birth, wealth, and position are valueless during wartime. Man is only judged by his character --Soldier's Testament. Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature. - Marcus Aurelius.