The Obama Military Purge, Benghazi and History

There is little need to prove that President Obama is incompetent to provide leadership for items on his own political agenda - Obamacare, the US economy, alternative wind and solar energy, corn-based fuels, the Middle East. And we are becoming increasingly aware that Obama is incompetent to manage matters that requires presidential leadership - Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, North Korea. In fact, it is now evident that Barack Obama cannot even manage a White House cover-up - Fast and Furious, NSA, IRS, Benghazi. We have learned this week that there is a secret diplomatic cable sent two weeks before the September 11, 2012, murder of US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other American diplomats. The cable warned that the Benghazi consular compound could not withstand a “coordinated attack.” It is just more evidence underscoring the Obama administration’s inability to respond to intelligence. The White House knew the situation in Benghaz was dangerously unstable. Earlier in 2012, a series of attacks had taken place against western interests, including the American consulate itself. Repeated requests were made for increased security and were denied on the basis that the threat wasn’t sufficient to justify it. The new cable reveals there were “approximately ten Islamist militias and al-Qaida training camps inside the city of Benghazi.” If this newly revealed cable wasn't sufficient proof that increased security was needed, especially around the September 11, 2001, anniversary of 9/11, what would Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have found sufficient for taking Benghazi security more seriously. Once the crisis broke, the administration simply set out - almost certainly under Obama's orders - to cover up their failure. ~~~~~ BUT, cover-ups require control of those who were involved. AND Obama could not control at least one major element - the senior United States military officers who were trying to protect those trapped in the Benghazi consulate. Perhaps never before in American history has a President created a second scandal to cover the first one. The second scandal concerning Benghazi was to fire a number of US military general officers to hide Obama’s dereliction of duty in refusing heightened security to the Benghazi consulate and then refusing to try to save the Americans trapped by the ensuing predictable terrorist attack. The Benghazi-related firings were : (1). US Army General Carter Ham who led the US African Command when the consulate was attacked. General Ham was highly critical of State Department refusal to send in reinforcements. Obama has insisted there were no reinforcements available that night. But Ham contends timely reinforcements could have been sent and he said he never was given a stand-down order, while others say he was given the order but refused it. He was later relieved of his command and retired. But, new information in the Washington Times reveals there were Delta Force personnel in Tripoli at the time of the attack and two members volunteered to be dispatched to Benghazi to assist in protecting the Benghazi compound contrary to stand-down orders from the State Department. (2). Another flag officer involved in the Benghazi matter, which is still under congressional investigation – was Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette, commander of the Carrier Strike Group. He contends aircraft could have been sent to Libya in time to help the Americans under fire. He later was removed from his post for alleged profanity and making “racially insensitive comments.” (3). Army Major General Ralph Baker was the commander of the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, Africa. Baker contended that attack helicopters could have reached the consulate in time on the night of the attack. ~~~~~ The general officers fired because they disagreed with the Obama-Clinton decision to abandon American diplomats in Benghazi under al-Qaida attack are just the tip of the iceberg in what is becoming known as "The Obama Military Purge." More than 197 general and senior officer level military have been fired under Obama - one every 8.8 days - unheard of until now in American history. Military purges are not unknown historically. Stalin systematically imprisoned and/or executed thousands of his own military officers in the 1930s. The majority of these executions and imprisonments were the result of Stalin’s discomfort with the growing modernization and strength of the Red Army. Stalin saw Army leaders as potential political threats. The loss of nearly the entire command structure of the Red Army had great negative effects on the ability of the Soviet Union to win a war, first with the Russo-Finnish war in 1939 and then during the first month of Russian involvement in World War II. Tiberius' political inability, poor judgment and jealousy led Rome into a dark age of political purges, murder and terror when Tiberius, who had waited a long time to be emperor and only became heir after the death of his two sons, realizing he was not the preferred successor, nevertheless with Augustus' death in 14 AD, claimed power and then purged the military to prevent its alliance with the Roman Senate to overthrow him. Most military purges have been political in nature - to protect a weak or unpopular leader. Unfortunately, bloodless purges can end up being bloody at one point or another. Worse, once one side or the other becomes dominant, the purge is extended from the national to the local, and from there, down to every day citizens. Thus purges throughout history have often led to shifts in power to an actual or de facto authoritarian dictatorship. The classic example would be found in the  Russian Communist Revolution, which actually evolved as successive political leaders reshaped ‘the revolution’ to suit their own needs. But you find the same things generally true in the French Revolution and in Mao’s Red China. ~~~~~ Dear readers, here is a Barack Obama quote from early in his first term : "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." It would not take great imagination to see a darker goal to the Obama Military Purge.