In response to harsh criticism that it failed to act during the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, the Pentagon conceded Tuesday that the U.S. military reaction could have been faster, but that nothing it could have done would have saved the lives of the four Americans killed at the U.S. consulate that day.
“Even though, as the select committee’s chairman has previously acknowledged, it was impossible for the U.S. military to have changed the outcome at Benghazi under the circumstances, the department has made substantial changes to improve our responsiveness based on lessons learned from this incident,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Gordon Trowbridge wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner.
The Pentagon says that since the attack, it has increased cooperation with the State Department to better coordinate both the security of American diplomats and citizens abroad.
“The U.S. military posture has been adjusted to increase Marine Security Guards at a number of sites, to better align the Marine security mission for protection of diplomatic facilities and personnel and to add a Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force to regional response forces, among other capabilities,” Trowbridge said.
But House Benghazi Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said it’s not clear that U.S. military forces could not have arrived in time, because he says they were never sent.
“What is missing in that analysis, but is pretty simple and straightforward to those of us who have been investigating it for the last two years, is nothing could have reached Benghazi because nothing was ever headed to Benghazi,” he said.
Gowdy says two of the Americans killed in the attack, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, were able to get to Benghazi from Tripoli, and fight their way to the diplomatic compound.
“There were only three assets that ever made it to Benghazi: two unarmed drones and the team from Tripoli who deployed themselves. They weren’t ordered to go, they deployed themselves,” Gowdy said.
The Pentagon insists the U.S. military did everything possible and “responded heroically” and under difficult circumstances.
“The military was instrumental in the evacuation of all Americans who were attacked in Benghazi, including stabilizing the wounded in Tripoli before providing onward movement to Germany. Further, uniformed personnel were pivotal in the safe evacuation of the embassy in Tripoli at dawn on September 12th, as well as augmenting security in Tripoli and elsewhere in the region immediately following the attack,” Trowbridge said.
The Republican committee members found the Pentagon’s arguments unpersuasive.
Committee member Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., called the Obama administration’s response “feckless,” and said it “failed miserably” to protect American citizens serving in dangerous overseas assignments.
“They know that there is an inherent risk, but the understanding is that their nation will move heaven and earth to save them. And that didn’t happen and four people were murdered. That’s the scandal of Benghazi,” Roskam said.
