[June 29, 2016] The U.S. Congressional Committee on Benghazi released its report yesterday and it contains detailed information about what happened and what didn’t happen that should have. I finished reading the report’s main body and continue to work thorough the annexes (report’s link here). I do, however, have a good idea of the Benghazi Report main points. My opinion … the actions by those responsible in the U.S. government failed to act on their primary duties as elected and appointed officials.
It is the primary responsibility of senior leaders to make every effort to protect the lives of those to which they are charged. As senior government leaders they are given both the resources and authority to do so. Whether military, elected politician, or diplomat, those to whom we are responsible deserve that all feasible decisions are made by the best leaders; especially in difficult times. However, from the report we can clearly see that nonfeasance was the result.
“We expect our government to make every effort to save the lives of Americans who serve in harm’s way. That did not happen in Benghazi. Politics were put ahead of the lives of Americans, and while the administration had made excuses and blamed the challenges posed by time and distance, the truth is that they did not try.” – U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas
When leadership breaks down, and it did so here, someone should step in to intervene. Unfortunately those who did act were low-level operators and did so without support from the U.S. government. It is acknowledged, that there will be times when support is not immediately forthcoming for a variety of reasons; the lack of intelligence being a major factor. However, in this case not only did no help come about immediately, it never came at all. It appears that those responsible were frozen to inaction or simply refused to act.
I’ve seen leaders not take action when required and it’s not a good sign that they can be relied upon when the going gets tough. Weak leaders can do well when an organization is not in crisis or there are no difficult decisions to be made. Senior leadership is so important that only the best leaders need apply. While there is a history of weak leaders in senior positions, the results can be devastating. U.S. President Jimmy Carter illustrates this point for us (see link here).
The most damning of the conclusions reached in the Benghazi Report is that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed in her duties. She failed to take action to increase security well before the Benghazi attack, failed to ask for military assistance during the attack, and after the attack she mislead the American people about what happened and stonewalled the committee. Her nonfeasance, her failure to do her duty, is a dangerous trait in any senior leader.
She was not the only government official who failed to act. Department of Defense officials and those in the White House also did not act to assist. Hillary Clinton needs to be looked at closely because she is running for president of the United States. The cascade of those responsible to act is staggering and shows that the low-level operators who did act were the heroes of this tragic event.
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