Congress, why aren’t you scheduling 15 hearings/briefings on the report? Especially since you challenged almost ever military report during the Obama Presidency as being “political?
4
“It did not recommend specific corrective action to avoid the confusion and lax oversight that contributed to the deaths.”
Really? Nothing to learn from this botched operation that cost four lives? Nothing?
No disciplinary action? No change in procedures? No improved training?
Then why bother investigating at all.
4
This is what happens in the military command when the Commander in Chief refuses to take responsibility for any of his mis-steps.
1
I was appalled and disgusted at the sterile briefing of the Niger Incident by Pentagon officials on Thursdsy.
These high ranking military officers’ attitudes toward the four deceased Special Ops soldiers were as one listening to a used car salesman state facts on a used car. No emotion. No empathy for the families. No regret at lives lost, and more importantly, no blame on those who led these men to their deaths.
Who are these military people trying to protect? Are they civilian bureaucrats assigned to the Pentagon who are the ones that start our wars and who really boss around our generals ?
Whomever the culprits are that planned this massacre should know that they have betrayed the trust of all our fighting men and women in the military. No one was punished for our massive betrayal in Vietnam. In Niger four honorable men died because someone made a decision; and, on Vietnam, over 58,000 honorable soldiers died because of lies.
As in the Niger Incident, and in VietNam, neither the Pentagon nor the U.S.Government has ever admitted any wrongdoing.
2
Nice white wash. Actually, who cares? We insist on sending our boys over to these obscure places to get killed.
Once again the Democratic "leadership" remains silent.
So the military investigates itself after a fatal series of errors and finds no fault with itself. Why am I not surprised.
Those of us who served know very well that those responsible for these deaths will never be held accountable.
As usual, it was the fault of those that died.
And doesn't this sound so similar to the "findings" of domestic police department investigations, after someone has been fatally shot? Again, no surprise.
Outside investigators are required. That's obvious.
3
What? Trey Gowdy too busy preparing his next investigation into Benghazi to bother with the deaths of these poor blokes?????
8
The only way to account for unprepared troops facing deadly force is to find a failure of leadership. The Army has to wear this loss and if they are reluctant to assign responsibility, I suggest they examine the Navy's housecleaning following recent multiple warship collisions involving the 7th Fleet. The lost soldiers and their families deserve more than this sidestep.
3
"The summary also did not acknowledge that Maj. Gen. Roger L. Cloutier Jr., the Army officer who oversaw the inquiry, is a senior official in the very command he was investigating."
Having Maj. Gen. Cloutier Jr. involved with oversight is like having Trump be the head of a team reviewing Russian collusion.
Not surprisingly, the findings are met with dissension in the military, skepticism among parents and concerned citizens.
"Personnel turnover"
"Confusion"
"Lax oversight"
"Poorly equipped"
"We have beefed up a lot of things. We are now far more prudent in our missions."
One day we will find out the real story about what happened to these brave soldiers in Western Niger. But, today isn't that day.
5
Soldiers have leaders...and those leaders failed in providing many metrics to this tragedy.
Of the many incidents resulting in deaths of our Soldiers, to include Wanat, Kamdesh, the death of Pat Tillman and many others is more than disconcerting. Someone needs to be held accountable...
4
Wow. What a surprise. The leaders of the Donald Trump-led military aren’t held accountable for their own gross negligence. There was clear malfeasance in this case and yet . . . Benghazi . . . Hillary. Our current leadership in DC makes me physically ill with disgust.
13
If this is explained away as “fog of war,” which is what it looks like, then the Benghazi Incident is virtually the same thing. I could mention the Republicans’ defunding of embassy security however.
5
We need to start extensive Senate investigations, constantly spew lies, allegations and mistruths on social media and TV and blame the Secretary of State for gross negligence even though it is not the secretary's job. We need to do this for years and years, coming to no conclusion and wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.
4
The conclusion that there is no blame attached to these facts as found by an investigation is indefensible. Let’s see—the plane was overloaded and the ground crew forgot to put gas in it and to seal the doors...but no one’s to blame because they were all new and no one had taught them how to do their jobs, because the supervisors were all new too, etc. Horrendous incompetence is blameworthy. It is not evil, but it is at best negligent. In the non-military world, liability in tort would follow. Just because these military officers cannot be sued under the legal doctrines that immunize them doesn’t mean that they are not to blame.
4
At ground level, this is just more evidence that our military , although huge and expensive, is significantly overrated by the press, public and our so-called leaders. From a viewpoint 0f 10,000 feet, however, the real fault lies with the political and moral failures of our leaders and of ourselves.
4
Hey Trey Gowdy, hey Fox News: What about Niger? What about NIger?
I don't mean to politicize tragic deaths but the hypocrisy is maddening.
10
And we are going to invade Iran?
2
It’s too bad that in the interest of accountability, blame and public flogging that a woman wasn’t involved in this disaster because you know then that something would have happened besides an 8 page report and no accountability. Just ask Hillary.
8
Trey Gowdy,
When will you convene a House Committee to look into the deaths of four American soldiers who were inadequately prepared for patrol in Niger?
My guess? Never.
9
"The investigation, released Thursday, found that the 11-member team had not undergone crucial training as a unit before it deployed to Niger because of “personnel turnover” and had not rehearsed its mission before leaving its base..." wait a minute (!) no matter the "turnover," experience informs, that absent certification of readiness, a unit is, or should be, considered to be on training status and not eligible for mission assignment.
the problem here seems to be with structure in the charge of senior command, not green lieutenants.
2
No blame? So sending ill prepared soldiers out on a mission...there being abysmal oversight...doesnt point directly at their senior officers?
If there was a whiff of a soldier, lower ranking officer making a mistake, theyd be all about blaming that soldier.
Internal Investigations...spells cover up.
5
If the Secretary of State is considered by many to be responsible for the four deaths in Benghazi why is the Secretary of Defense or at least the head of the Army not responsible for these deaths? Should we have a Congressional hearing and go to the top? Or like Abu Ghraib, when Republicans are in control is it always underlings that are responsible?
12
There is no just reason for the US to have troops in Niger or most other countries. Not just Trump, but every President and Administration since "Saint Reagan" has furthered the slow fiscal and moral destruction of our country by empire building and mindless deference to the military/intelligence complex and corporations that benefit from an ever expanding military/intelligence complex and empire. These deaths - a drop in the bucket for the people caught in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Palestine etc. - are not ultimately the fault of some tactical or operational or training failure so much as they are the fault of the political and moral failures of the American people and their leaders.
6
"The summary also did not acknowledge that Maj. Gen. Roger L. Cloutier Jr., the Army officer who oversaw the inquiry, is a senior official in the very command he was investigating. General Cloutier was promoted last month to lead all Army forces in Africa."
Draw your own conclusions.
7
I remember a time when a commander was ultimately responsible for what happened under his or her command. Sadly, that time seems to have passed. The new practice is for those in charge to throw their subordinates under the bus, because avoiding responsibility is the path to advancement. "Gee, I had no clue about what was going on beneath me during my watch" now absolves the power structure of any blame or consequences.
We have forgotten the wisdom of Harry Truman and "The Buck Stops Here."
9
Where is the GOP outrage? Troy Goudy and Darrell Isaa the Bengazi Brothers have nothing to say? Fox News and Talk Radio? Four Soldiers are dead and Trump says nothing.
19
Agreed!
Four soldiers dead and Trump threw a Twitter Tantrum with the widow of the soldier who just happened to be black. Coincidence? Not even a little bit.
Instead of outrage from those you cited, crickets!
4
“without this thing blowing up into a firestorm,” and he suggested that senior officials were trying to protect their reputations.
Duh. Cuz military. Why I never joined- you end up dead cuz some ignorant fool got stripes & stars.
3
Four in Benghazi, four in Niger. Guess the GOP’s outrage is seasonal when it comes to accountability, blame & spectacle. Condolences to the family of these patriots and shame on the politicians ignoring these lives and exploiting others. How can there be no accountability?
68
Remember Congress turned down a request for more more money for security before Benghazi.
If there is a problem, always look to Congress first
There a lot of good, dry conpetent in government, sometimes put down as bureaucrats, trying to make things
Work.
2
So a military commission proclaims that the military is not responsible for the murder of four US soldiers .A military dictatorship would probably reach the same conclusion. Please young people,stay away from the military.It's deadly and your life shouldn't be lost to defend another juicy Halliburton contract.
12
No big surprise?
Just broad failures, time to move on.
What hypocrites the republicans are.
And I used to be one.
Benghazi? Let's grill HRC for no reason.
What a bunch swamp creatures we have now.
I knew this would be the outcome the minute it came to an inquiry.
It's the republican mafia.
Kiss the ring
8
Fascinating NYT reconstruction story link embedded! One wonders how the heck that helmet camera footage made its way to a Mauritanian news agency... The historical background, however, has some inaccuracies and gross omissions.
To summarize: The unraveling in northern Mali began with an old recurring ethnic rebellion, unrelated to Islamists. This was complicated and intensified by the return of mercenaries (who had been working for Kadafi until his ouster- that’s a hell of a story in itself) of the rebel ethnic group, Touareg (like the VW SUV), along with sophisticated weapons from Libya.
The Malian coup led by the American trained officer happened in early 2012, not in 2013 as the article suggests. Also, the “Islamist insurgents swept through the Malian desert” after the coup, not before, and that also took place in 2012, not 2013. The Mailian coup was largely a result of the popular dissatisfaction with the corruption at the top ranks of the military and the lack of effective response against the rebellion. Then most developed nations pulled their aid from Mali because the coup leaders weren’t democratically elected. This was the power vacuum that set the stage for the Islamic insurgents to sweep through in 2012, only to be ultimately repelled by the French in early 2013.
While many readers may not care, as some of the northernmost Peace Corps volunteers in Mali at the time, my wife and I lived through this prior to State Dept evacuating the country of Peace Corps.
4
You may be correct that the report makes no finding of fault, but I just heard General Waldhauser throw Johnson, Black, Wright and La David Johnson under a bus.
"Our (people) in Africa are doing an extraordinary job", he said, not like that loser patrol of rogue idiots (My words, you can call up the tape on NPR).
Somehow they found blame enough to spread around to people who can't defend themselves.
6
Oogada,
I agree. I watched the press conference and it was clear these four men are taking the fall for their commanders.
I wonder how many hearings Benhgazi Gowdy will convene to get to the bottom of what really happened. My guess.
Zero. Zippo. Nil. Nada. Zilch.
4
Let’s see:General Mike Flynn lies about his association/connection to the Russsians/ no court martial for sssociating with the enemy.
General Petraeus gives highly classified troop movement material to his girl friend-oops! Got caught, but no court martial.
Four American Special Forces soldiers are slaughtered in Niger because some upchain military planner decided to make a wholly uninformed decision to put these soldiers in a death trap: that person is alive, but he or she is responsible for four dead soldiers.
Who does this idiot person know that shields them from causing he death of these soldiers. Hey, this is just like Vietnam: civilian or highly placed military planners get to play games with our solders’ lives and they will do this because no one is responsible/ the planners are just doing their job, no mAttet if that decision results in troops needlessy dying.
Who made the decision not to assess blame or place blame? The real decision was made to just forget that this incident really did happen , but let one not get to close to the real truth of a mistake that cost the lives of four soldiers . No court martial , but one can surly count on a larger broom to sweep more incidents under the carpet as more soldiers are laid into the earth!
7
Hold on there! Rachael Madow, right after this tragedy occurred, reported that Rex Tillerson, former CEO of Exxon and former Sec of State, was furious that Chad won a very large verdict against Exxon. Why was that important? Well, in a state of pique, Rex demanded that Chad supply the State Dept with new blank passports. Chad didn't have any. They had old unissued ones and sent them to our State Dept. Not good enough for Rex and he entered Chad, one of the few friends we have in Central Africa, onto the no-visa list. Chad's citizens could no longer get visas to visit the U S. So why is that important? Chad, insulted, stopped something it was doing to the benefit of the US...it stopped providing security to our military in Niger. For some time Chad had done that and the people of the US didn't know that we had a military presence in Niger. Nobody got killed so long as Chad provided cover. The four soldiers were killed, absent Chad's security, within a few days. What happened to that story? Silence! Was it wrong or just buried? And whatever happened to the reporting that Rex sub-contracted security of our embassy in Moscow to a Russian company. Doesn't anyone at State remember why we totally destroyed the previous embassy building because there were more detection devices than could be counted? And didn't Rex receive the highest award that Russia could grant a civilian? Draining the swamp? Drain the ocean that is drowning our nation. paul spletzer
7
Trump had said that he was giving the military less restrictions and the ability to carry out operations without all of the burdensome oversight that was required under Obama. They thought less restrictions and planning/having to get permission from higher ups would help them achieve their goals in less time.
But all I've seen is more civilian casualties, and our military being put in more dangerous situations. From ships colliding, soldiers being unprepared and ambushed, to deaths that could have been avoided – maybe they should go back to the way things were managed before Trump, especially since we have Bolton in office and are likely to be in a war with Iran within a year. Our soldiers deserve better!
8
JEEEZ! Where are the numerous Congressional Investigations and calls for resignations and people to be locked up? Their live were not as important as Benghazi? How many investigations were called on Hillary for Libya? What did they find? And here in an obvious failure from the president (the buck stops here) on down we hear not a peep from Congress regarding the loss of American lives!
42
With all due respect to the Defense Department, there actually was a single failure that led to the deaths of four Americans: the secret and unauthorized deployment of American combat troops to Niger.
Although President Trump personally doesn't trouble himself with trivialities like legal authority, his administration has invoked the authorization of military force that Congress adopted after 9/11. But that authorization applied to "nations, organizations, or persons [that] planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons."
Nobody in Niger had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks, and therefore deployment of our troops to fight in Niger was illegal, a violation of the constitutional provision vesting Congress, not the President, with the power to declare war. And unlike President Obama's military deployment to Libya in 2011, for example, there is no United Nations resolution authorizing American military action in Niger.
When the ambush of our troops became public, news reports indicated that members of Congress were "stunned" to learn that we had troops in Niger. Secretly waging war not only evades the constitutional provisions regarding declaration of war, but evades legislative oversight of troop deployments and military operations.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
13
How about the 17 sailors who were killed in collisions during Donny Do-right's wrong-way maneuvers to scare Kim Jong-un with his big, bad navy?
What round of investigations are those in?
16
" 2 junior officers"--always blame the underlings the typical military way. Read "The Outpost" by Jake Tapper or go back to Somalia where the General knew he did not and was not going to have heavy armor but sent the troops in anyway and made Les Aspin the fall guy.
5
Pass the buck, protect the guilty and forget about the innocent, the military has done that and the republicans will agree.
I am sure the next step is for the republicans in congress to open the case and blame it on Obama and Hillary.
The first casualty of war is the truth.
14
There were no answers to why were these few military persons out in the deserts of Africa without much-if any-support? The Army report is nothing but a whitewash of an Army Command which has nebulous connections.
Since no persons were actually blamed for this so called misadventure, it leaves us to think the whole Army command structure was at fault and should be blamed. The army must come clean now with all of their "black operations" so the American public knows what is happening with their military relatives and knows what ill-informed and misplaced military operations are taking place.
The whole question of what are American military personnel doing in Africa should come before a congressional committee if not before the entire congress. American public has the right to know and should be able to hear it from their legislative members in Washington.
6
So now months and months of Benghazi-style hearings? Right?
12
Shouldn’t Flaw #1 be “There is no Constitutional authority for the US to be conducting covert military operations in Niger.”?
9
This is obscene. Once again incompetent higher ups are responsible for the deaths of four great men. This happens over and over again. Someone must be held responsible.
6
If you want lasting influence in Africa, you have to do what the Chinese do, build railroads, dams, factories, roads, teach people how to work and provide for themselves. The US approach is always the same, lazy and loud, sending tons of money that ultimately goes into the pockets of a few, and sending working class US men in fancy uniforms to fight people how have lived there for centuries.
7
This is an example of why our ideas/ beliefs are so conflicted with each other’s. No one accepts responsibility for actions taken any longer. It’s always ‘the protocol or process’.… no conscience or humanity considered.
5
Something about the fog of battle comes to mind...
Oh good. Now that this is behind them they can open another investigation on Benghazi.
22
It was all Hillary Clinton's fault.
7
Riight - the State Department bears NO responsibility for the safety of embassy staff.
That used to fall to the Secret Service, now, since the <spit> “Homeland Security Act, it’s a Pentagon responsibility.
Nevertheless, Ms. Clinton spent the whole firefight and its aftermath un the WH Situation Room, doing anything she could (effectively nothing - with no power in such a situation) mainly concerned for her people
If I ‘ve missed an attempt at sarcasm here, go read the 300 page act, cobbled together and passed without committee hearings or amendments out of irrational FEAR, and associated laws regarding security and securing US embassies and consulates. You will find the Secretary of State is 100% uninvolved, out of the loop, and Clinton went above and beyond her duties.
Remember what Donald Trump wrote - lying, repeated lying, big lying is part of “the art of the deal” - and a bunch of fools in tiny states given 2 extra electoral votes each beat out a majority of 3 million voters to select this lying, cheating swine who sold his soul to the Russians, rather than be questioned by Anerican bankers, and commits sin after sin, as described by his surviving “base” lies without shame . And they don’t even believe it true, because phony Russian gossips on Facebook said so.
4
dont ever be responsible for an organization with a difficult mission and lots of moving parts. Because if auditors or the IG ever comes in and rips your efforts apart they will find a list of errors that will sink you.
I made maybe 60 missions in VN just like this mission. None were perfect. There are always mistakes . Always.
And the suits after the shooting and the operators during the shooting are always going to see things differently.
There is only one kind of mission like these small team combat missions in the article ----dangerous ones.
There are only two types of missions like these in the article----those that go well and are lucky and those that don't go well and are unlucky.
Stay lucky guys
S/F
4
Doesn't it strike anyone as impractical that US Africa Command is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany? I realize modern day communications just might be a factor, but, give me a break. Just how many layers of command would have to be gone thru to get a change of mission approved? As noted in other comments, there must be a lot "cover your backside" thru out the 6,000 page report. That in itself--6,000 pages, screams protecting careers up the ladder. So many questions, so few real answers. For example--why no reaction force available from the same installation from which the original patrol left? Also, why have unarmored SUV's for use in going out into potentially hostile territory? The Army just hasn't learned much after all these years. At least the MP unit to which I was assigned in Vietnam could jerry rig armor plating on its jeeps and was assigned V-100 Armored Cars for road patrolling.
3
Here's how blame works in the military, on those rare occasions when blame is assigned:
1) If the president and a general/admiral are involved in a mistake, the GENERAL/ADMIRAL is to blame.
2) If a general and a lower-ranking officer are involved in a mistake, the LOWER-RANKING OFFICER is to blame.
3) If an officer and a soldier/sailor/airman are involved in a mistake, the LATTER is to blame.
4) If any soldier of any rank and a civilian military employee are involved in a mistake, the CIVILIAN is to blame.
5) And if any American, military or civilian, and any foreigner are involved in a mistake, the FOREIGNER is to blame.
Happily, however, the U.S. military almost NEVER take ANY responsibilities for its mistakes...kind of like the Roman Catholic Church and its many pedophiles priests. So it is seldom necessary to punish anyone.
But the CIA is much worse. Since no one overseas the CIA, the CIA officers can commit any crime...and no one in the U.S. government will ever learn the crime every happened.
8
The most important question: Why, EXACTLY, were they there ??? What was the grand plan, the purpose, the Mission ??? Why were they not provided with adequate support ??? What intelligence was provided, if any ??? Who actually gave the " GO " order ??? The Families deserve real answers. Those responsible for this avoidable disaster deserve punishment. With extreme prejudice. NOW.
9
Phyliss from Wichita, I just live down the street, where a young man lost his life from an over-eager wichita police officer that was cleared of charges. Yes,"....Families deserve real answers. Those responsible for this avoidable disaster deserve punishment. With extreme prejudice. NOW." But we will never get none. Case closed.
2
Maybe we should spend 4 years with 8 congressional investigation committees to get to the bottom of this failure like the Republicans did with Benghazi.
22
Well, where are all the critics of the Benghazi deaths?
Are they weighing in on this fiasco?
21
Government screw ups are always cloaked in language that hides the truth and creates phony heroes.
3
Congress spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars investigating Benghazi. Surely Niger warrants the same scrutiny. Will Congress set up a special committee to investigate these four deaths? Will Congress cross examine Defense Secretary Mattis over this?
18
Why is Trump not culpable in this? Does he know where Niger is on the map and does he know why the US military is there? The buck stops with the POTUS on this & this is Trump's to own! (If only he has the guts!)
8
When has the military ever found "blame" in this modern age?????
4
Where is representative Trey Bengazi during all this? Shouldn't rep. Bengazi be all over this with a congressional investigation or two, or three? Four Americans died overseas and Mr. Inquisitive does not seem interested in getting to the "Truth"!
15
If Hillary Clinton had been Secretary of State when this happened, you KNOW they would have hauled her before that kangaroo court and grilled her some more. The Republican Russian operatives in Congress make me sick. Their hypocrisy is a blight on us all.
8
They were in harms way- they fought and died bravely. They chose this life- they chose this profession. This is just an ugly result of the American Industrial Military Complex- Keep churning bodies and machines into the live war theater. The U.S. is involved [or indirectly involved] in over 12 military engagements worldwide. The public only knows about Iraq, Syria, Yemen and now Niger.
I speculate the remainder of the black operation "hot spots" are: Mali, Chad, Sudan, Congo, Philippines, Ukraine, Indonesia, Myanmar.
Aaron: you forgot to add south bronx and San francisco to the hot spots.
Tired of winning yet?
Where is the outrage in Congress?
8
So, where are Trey Gowdy and the rest of the Benghazi Republican caucus? Where are the cries of outrage, the calls for hearings, the calls for impeachment? Oh, I forgot, Republicans in Congress are only interested is attacking Democrats, not in actually providing oversight of the of the Executive Branch.
10
Sounds a lot worse than Benghazi doesn't it?
11
Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi ...... how about it Congressman Gowdy? Time for Trump's staff to get grilled? Good for the goose and all of that.
9
I understand the reason for Special Forces advisors to be in Niger but have absolutely no understanding as to why Sgt. Johnson, a vehicle mechanic, is on combat patrol with an “A” team. SF training includes weeks of evaluations followed by anywhere from 14 to 18 months minimum in formal SF school training to prepare a Green Beret for combat. How did turning a wrench in the desert prepare Sgt. Johnson for such a mission? Who the heck in the chain of command thought this was a good idea?
Has almost two decades of worldwide combat led to a U.S. military simply sending the unqualified to their death in the name of democracy?
3
So the O-3 Company Grade Officer (Captain) is named and blamed. But the Lieutenant Colonel who changed the mission is not. The O-3 did not decide all by his lonesome to execute a capture/kill. Or stay out another night with no resources. No crew served weapons, No Quick Reaction Force. No medevac plan. Unreliable communications. And the Major General does a whitewash and is rewarded with a command. The US Army enforces zero defects for enlisted and Company Grade Officers. And promotes the sorry decision-makers. What a sad commentary. Put letters in the files of the LTC and MG. Force their retirements. Sgt Wright's father is justifiably angry. So am I. Never mind Congressional Investigations. The Army has Article 32 and UCMJ. But it is whitewashed. The Captain will be out of the Army and the brass... mess up move up.
10
"Stuff" always flows downhill, most especially in any bureaucracy and any military is like a bureaucracy on steroids.
1
Why don’t we blame Trump? Isn’t he the Commander in Chief? Just b/c he doesn’t act presidential doesn’t mean he’s devoid of responsibility here. Certainly Trump would have found a way to blame Obama/Hillary for this kind of debacle, just look at Benghazi.
6
It's clearly Hillary's fault. Or Obama's. Or possibly Mueller's. Bring on the alternate facts.
6
This hardly surprise me. Over fifty years ago my hospital in Viet-Nam, where I served as a physician, received the remains of two platoons. They had been on an ill-conceived and unreoirted mission and had walked into a massive ambush.
As the mission had not been reported, no caualty estimate had been made and no blood had been ordere in-country to cover estimated losses. As the casualties came in I tried to call Saigon where the central blood bank was located, only to find that hospitals did not have priority in interarea calss. When I finally made contact there was, ofcourse, no blood available. Finally, donations on the spot covered the requirements. Of course that blood could not undergo testing for disease.
(To venture into another area, the problem of treating those who create there own problems. That
same night, a civilian engineer working for a contractor to the government developed a bleeding ulcer. He was there voluntarily, making umpteen time what the GIs were making and exposed to no more dangers than I except for his known intake of alcohol. I decided that blood ran short, he was at the end of the line. Fortunately, it didn't come to that, This is not a new problem. George Bernard Shaw wrote a play on the subject.)
To return to the original topic. People were not sent back to the States for fouling up once. So the Army, in its' wisdom had field grad officers manning telephones.
2
It sounds that the officers who decided to after Chessadou knew that they needed to move quickly. Accurately stating the change in mission, however, would probably have required too much time to assemble the necessary backup and thereby vitiate the mission. And so they tried to do their duty by evading the backup requirements.
I hope the Army looked at whether operational shortcuts like this "mischaracterization of mission" were common in small training missions. Were the operational rules written as if typically extensive USG asset structures were readily available? Did lower level officers often have to make immediate, seat-of-the-pants judgments to fit these manuals into local circumstances?
Other commentators have noted the politics of the Benghazi incident. More relevant, I think is both Benghazi and this Niger incident were examples in which our huge military asset structure could not help our people in a small outpost.
Our military has got to figure this out better.
In the meantime, the NYT should not publish only the captain's name. I'd wager that others are at least as culpable.
4
“No Direct Blame”; this conclusion represents no respect for these fallen soldiers and a cover up of the truth. Everyone involved should be held accountable for the death of these fine men. They gave their lives for their country and this is how their country repay them with "...no direct blame". If you are angry about a football player taking a knee because it disrespects the flag and our soldiers, then this should infuriate you.
6
Once again Military Leadership will not be held accountable!
Like Bank, Financial, and Corp CEOs in this country are not held accountable for their decisions.
Republicans only reaction is to smother the events with patriotic blather and pour more money into Military Industrial Complex. Where does the money go? Again, the Republicans will not require a full audit of the Military Industrial Complex spending.
Trey Gowdy hypocrisy and ethical dupicity of the Republican Congress in general. Shame
8
My take: Colonialist soldiers of the militarized pax Americana were resisted by local African enemies of US extraterritoriality. Our military base there will only exacerbate the willingness of locals to cause more "blameless" deaths in our foreign legion game.
DaveD: well said.
I teach. I tell my students that the US has military forces (call them advisors, it does not matter) fighting in over 5 nations. They cannot name more than one of the countries, and even that's a tentative guess. This country has been at war for over 17 years straight. Young people, high school seniors, know nothing about why or where we are killing and being killed. That's the larger travesty, and there seems to be no end to the expansion of military engagement across the world in sight.
59
Jimmy: I agree with you. The solution is simple bring back the draft. If your young students knew that they would be inducted into the armed forces to kill or be killed they might be more involved to change the USA's policy of killing many people by drones and aircraft and as in recent case by a gun fight . This is not a recent occasion. Let us STOP. Now.
7
When Bush started the Iraq war he told the citizenry not to worry, just go shopping. That's what they did.
1
SO every military mishap, great or small was endlessly blamed on Carter, Clinton, and Obama, but this is all just fine. Fine. No blame at the top. Sad.
8
we are complicit in this (and all the other places we are fighting) for not demanding a) a rationale for all these secret ops b) not paying a war tax c) blindly 'supporting our troops' when they are put in harms way d) not demanding accountability and RESULTS-Afghanistan is closing in on two decades and the military still says 'we're getting close to the end'. They are the Cleveland Browns with camo and guns and huge budget.
4
This mission in Mali/Niger was/is underresourced and underreported/unreported on. The reporting that has emanated from that vast region make it sound like the Wild West, with our troops left to improvise, adapt and overcome. Until late last year virtually no one in the US - even supposedly informed members of government - had any clue where Mali or Niger (not Nigeria) were. News pieces framing this as a blame-the-troops issue are wide of the mark. The only blame to be cast, if any, would be at a policy making level far above that of local or even regional commanders. Blaming the troops here is akin to blaming the victim.
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The "Military" generally only acknowledges victories; the "Public" seeks accountability, individual or shared. Classified geopolitical margins exonerate all players. This is not a partisan debate (Trump, Hilary, etc.), it is about the lives of soldiers, young men who put their lives on the line and how our military protects them as best as possible, not as worst as possible. It is shameful that four American and who knows how many Nigerian soldiers lost their lives, for what--failure to plan, failure to execute, communication and equipment snafus, lack of focus? Thank god we have allies like the French and a handful of others.
Why am I, a taxpayer and citizen, having my tax dollars paying the Military to be there in the first place. I don't want my tax to enable the deaths of precious soldiers killed for imperialism that has nothing to do with our being defended.
7
Seventeen years of expanding theaters of war - no victory, no commonly held definition of victory, but enornmous amounts of profiteering. Gone are the commanders raised on a George Marshal ethos of no involvement in politics and a contempt for those who traded on their military career (and their men's lives) for personal enrichment and the lobbying two step.
When you enter service you believe the narrative of brotherhood and that the chain of command is a two way committment. Brotherhood up the chain turns into the ties of omerta and those reaping promotions cast designated fall guys/gals asisde with impressive alacrity.
Bring back the draft so the costs of endless war reverb in Kalorama, Caimbridge, Manhattan anf the tony suburbs around the country. Never will happen.
5
In the time I served way back in the early 70's to the 90s I found the military never admits fault no matter how egregious until somebody spills the beans. Above and beyond the deaths of our soldiers the real story is what in the name of heaven are we doing in Niger? We now fight wars of choice decided upon by a small cabal of executive branch warrior while Congress, with the likes of Tom Cotton, sits back and smiles because he enjoys war and doesn't have to go on record to vote for war. This nonsense will stop if we had a draft, but until then we are no longer in control of the war machine.
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If this Niger tragedy or Trump's "authorized at dinner" tragedy in Yemen had happened under the watch of a Dem president the hearings would be a years' long campaign of vote getting conspiracy theories, smearing, and slandering with little or no worry as to "truth". If the Dems were to do this, especially now, it would become a trump/republican campaign slogan: Dems hate and are undermining our brave men and women; they're using the deaths of these American heroes to get votes....and voters would believe republicans. And that's the real tragedy that is destroying America.
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How typical of our military. Appoint someone with as much to lose as anyone to investigate this clown show, then he determines that mistakes were made but no-one is to blame. How is that even possible? Amazed they didn't decide it was a lack of funding that lead to these deaths and blame the taxpayers.
Now it's hard to determine just what our troops and sailors are doing anywhere anymore. Why are we in these places putting our troops at risk with no congressional oversight or approval? Where else are they we don't know about?
The idea of our military being one of the best organizations in the world lead by a neutral, objective, professional officer corps is questionable at best given events of the last few years. Seems that more and more of the generals and admirals are looking to cash in on their next step into private business than fulfill the requirements of their current positions.
How many more enlisted men and women will die before their leaders are held accountable to the American public?
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No general officer in the military has been held accountable for a disaster since WW ll.
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And darn few then. I don’t believe any General was held accountable for the Slapton Sands fiasco a few weeks before D-Day when hundreds of GI’s were killed. Almost as many as on Omaha Beach on first day.
By even the most liberal assessment of this terrible incident, it looks, feels and smells like a cover up by the higher ups, military command as well as politicians. This mission was clearly badly planned, resourced with those in charge changing the scope and aim of the mission ad-hoc, without too much consideration of the actual capabilities of the personnel deployed in the field of action.
Being on the ground and facing the odds these men faced is very different than some command office miles away. Computer screens and simulations are vastly different than facing a real, flesh and blood enemy in live action. Even when properly planned and manned, any mission can face serious challenges and unforeseen consequences. The fact that it appears that this particular mission was not rehearsed and adequately prepared and changed its goal without a proper assessment, speaks to the tragic outcome.
Now those in charge of fouling up this mission are trying to save their hides and careers, by releasing this vague report which offers no insight or tries to assign any responsibility or blame. All parties involved hide behind a veil of secrecy and the old and tired refrain of "national security". This episode also underscores what happens when soldiers lives are put at risk and expended on a nebulous, interminable war with no clear end in sight. All under the auspices of a commander in chief whose bone spurs exempted him from putting his own life on the line or serving his country.
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The narrative keeps shifting. The political need to look good even when you are intolerably bad drives this tragic story. It seems that the chaos and confusion that characterizes our White House reaches down --tainting all level of leadership. Our commander -in- chief will never blame himself for anything that goes wrong--albeit it is he who selects the generals and their assistants--and broadly speaking should be cognizant of the directives and limits that guide the soldiers. He believes that spending more and more billions is all you need to make our army the best; no, it requires an awareness of serving and caring for the lowest soldier, who we put in harm's way.
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The navy still hasn't accepted blame for the Fat Leonard Scandal or the Navy cruiser vs commercial ship collisions with fatalities. I'm not surprised there were "failures, but no blame, here." The military who cover up are in cahoots with the military industrial complex.
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There have been so many versions of what happened, you might be surprised that I believe none of these version.
This is covering your backside taken to piece of performance art......DON'T BELEIVE IT
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The military, like police forces across the country, investigates itself, finds little fault beyond ground-level inadequacy, and pastes a "Secret" label on the investigative files (NATIONAL SECURITY!).
We may not learn, in another recent example, the scope of the corruption in the 7th Fleet, but have no reasonable explanation of why that investigation's insights remain secret.
Our military rankers seem uniformly mediocre. When they are placed in a position where they are visible, as Gen. Kelly is, for example, they reveal incoherence, narrowness of interest, and a willingness to lie.
No quick solutions exist, but putting an end to the volunteer armed forces and reinstating the draft would help. Draftees talk back, and, as we saw in Vietnam, they get hostile when it seems they're being sacrificed for some sleazy general or president's benefit.
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The American people would have to be drunk to agree on reinstating the draft. I would fight this with every fiber of my being. The casualties of Vietnam were tremendous. People are just now dying of weird cancers from all the chemicals they were exposed to. No one should be forced into being a soldier, especially for our capitalistic, power-hungry, hypocritical government. They will be used, abused amd forgotten. There are too many young, peace-loving people I care about.
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Now, let Trey Gowdy, McCarthy and others of their ilk descend on this little 'project' and find out waht really happened, and who was really responsible, the way they did on Benghazi! Put the head of DOD under oath and work him over with questions, the way they worked over Hillary Clinton.
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“to ensure this type of incident does not happen again.”
When has that ever worked? It's warfare.
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Where is the Benghazi style investigation by Congress? Four dead at the hands of terrorists in Africa as a result of a bungled mission. That sounds familiar. What changed? What could it be?
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What were these soldiers doing in Niger in the first place?? In what way is Niger any threat to the United States??
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Republicans in Congress wasted millions on Benghazi but don't seem to care about these lives at all. Where are the hearings and outrage from Congress?
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I have a sneaking suspicion that when the final truth is laid bare, we will discover that this was Trump's attempt at a 'Bin Laden raid' moment. He hates Obama, it makes perfect sense he would want to show he could make that call too, and I am struggling to understand why this team got sent rather than a new one except for the part where a new mission doesn't look as 'bold'...
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Cover-up!?
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If Hillary was president, there would have been an uproar and investigations by this Congress.
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Can’t the blame Hilary?
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So if the mission was changed in the field, I fail to see how the filing of an innaccurate initial mission description by the Jr officer could have actually had any impact on the outcome. I'm smelling a scapegoat.
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I'm waiting for an answer to the most important question. Just how can this be blamed on Obama and Clinton ????? I loathe ALL of the GOP with the fire of a thousand suns. But that's just ME.
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me too, Phyllis..
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No, it’s not just you. You have lots of company!
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#Metoo! You're not alone. But at least you live in a state where MAYBE you can do something about it. I'm in a solidly blue state, so my representatives already vote as I want them to.
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Our soldiers and their families deserve better...a full accounting. It's incredulous that the same person sending them on this mission, obviously poorly planned, ended up investigated it. And I still don't know why we are in Niger.
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The bigger question is why the United States military is even there.
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There are never clear answers given ,taken or specific people blamed whenever it comes to the Military or Private Industry...I guess issues of culpability and/or blame in the Military or Industry are Complex and thus why it's called the Military Industrial Complex.
Despite the fact that for both sectors /areas, it should not be complicated at all to find out what wrongs are comitted and who commits them or is too blame for things going wrong.
But when these institutions and Areas control the purse, have the power , wield the influence and set the agenda that is then followed by most others, they become beyond reproach, infallible and unwilling as well as unable to improve, change or do better than what they do, how they do, especially when there is no incentive, punishment or liability to do so.
And things can only get worse under such a regime that operates in isolation from change or reproach with its power or influence ensuring that can only be the outcome every time...worse.
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The Times has at last recognized the kidnapping of American Jeffery Woodke, but fails to report on the FBI hostage rescue team, as other publications have. Some months from now more details from the classified report may emerge. Paris Match reported last year that the militant group claiming affiliation with ISIS is actually a criminal gang using technical pickups and motorcycles to smuggle across the Sahara drugs, refugees who become slaves, and guns, and operates a protection racket for villages and herders in opposition to corrupt government and Niger military. They reported that Mr Woodke's kidnapping was done with connivance of a Niamey high official involved in a drug deal gone bad. The US does not and should not pay ransom but should rescue Americans or punish kidnappers. Special Forces speak local languages--do the FBI hostage team?
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They "gave their last full measure of devotion to our country and died with honor while actively engaging the enemy,” Spare me, as a former officer in the United States Marine Corps [Vietnam 1968 - 1969] I am all too familiar with such tripe. There is a lot I could say about the "8 Page" Executive Summary but I, not to mention all Americans, would have a lot more to say about the "6000" pages that remain classified. Over the past 50 years we have experienced far too many times where our young people have given their lives in support of ill conceived foreign policy. Niger is simply but another example.
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Thank you for posting. I have deep respect for military veterans, although I am not one myself.
The mournful truth is that soldiers' lives are sometimes thrown away for "ill-conceived" reasons. And sometimes for no reason at all.
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@thenewyorktimes Have you interviewed the family members? I would like to know what they think as I'm sure they are much more aligned with what happened.
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The U.S. Military 2018 - the Navy can't navigate unless in the open ocean - the Air Force aircraft isn't safe to fly - the Army's elite Green Berets don't have intelligence back up. Make America great again??? The military has just been added to the long list of what is not great, what is not even acceptable - education and health is also unacceptable. Where does one start to unravel this mess??? Certainly not with the one who coined the phrase..."Make America Great Again"....unless one believes in miracles. I don't. believe in miracles.
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You are 100% correct and the extra billions and billion DJT gave to the Pentagon won't save it either.
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Liars.
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Perhaps Trey Gowdy should launch an investigation.
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He's retiring and would not have time to actually call any hearings and it would be difficult to make the hearings about Hillary or even about Tillerson.
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When it comes to the safety of our military, the buck stops at the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Shameful!!
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I shocked.
Clearly this is Hillary Clinton's fault!
No blame.
How predictable.
Generals NEVER take any real responsibility.
Petraeus certainly didn't take any real pain for his crimes.
And McMaster, Kelly and Mattis all work for Russia.
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speaking as a democrat, this illogical screed is why democrats will lose
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It's amazing, under Republican leadership we haven't had a dozen highly public, redundant Congressional investigations costing millions of dollars and taking up monumental amounts of time. I guess they only do that when it's a Democratic administration.
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Too bad American piloted Warthog's weren't around to provide close air support. With the relationship between the US and Europe tanking, the US might have to provide more funding for overseas operations, rather than relying on former allies.
2
They are trying to do things on the cheap. That was part of the problem with Benghazi, outsourcing protection to the lowest bidder.
I'm furious that our military men and women, real human beings btw, are used as cannon fodder, often for the capitalistic interests of the 1%.
8
This is really absurd! Translation: A bunch of our troops got killed doing something ill-advised, but we don't want to inconvenience the officers who were responsible for this fiasco because. . .officers have one others backs.
11
I wish this tragic example of life in combat had never happened.
I'm grateful that, from what I have read here, it seems that there really was no kind of racial bias involved I understand, though, that others with interpret this summary differently.
1
Has their been any clear statement as to why we are in this country? A statement of mission?
Who authorized these soldiers to be there?
7
AFRICOM (Africa Command) has been in existence since '06. There are many & various natural & local resources of "vital importance" to our country's interests....read, there's major sources of oil & other resources that the Chinese & others have been going after for many years, so we're competing with them, often because of the "vital interests" of US based global economic interests.
4
A 3-letter word. Oil.
1
Lucky for you, tiredofpc, you won't have to worry about global economic interests much longer.
We won't have any once our august President is done alienating everybody on the planet, demeaning, discounting, threatening them into abondoning us for greener, more civil, more reliable customers and suppliers.
Same for the military; we're so superior we can afford to ignore treaties, threaten withdrawal, and march off to even bigger ill-advised operations, this time without allies or backup.
Four soldiers? pfft! With our economy in Republican hands people will be begging to be let in, and the Army will be there to scoop them up.
"No direct blame assigned." It never is, unless a very junior officer or an enlisted man can be plausibly put forward as a fall guy or gal. The Navy will terminate the career of a captain who gets his ship wrecked or damaged, but that's as far as it goes. The Army and Marine brass are very protective of anyone above the rank of major or lieutenant colonel. You just don't see full colonels or generals get blamed for any operational failure that occurs. It's always fog or war or the fault of someone well down in the ranks.
6
“Broad failures?” Maybe, but assigning blame to everyone involved is a classic case of denial.
Who was in charge? It was the Commander-in-Chief. We saw how he valued the lives of American fighters, didn’t we? He completely botched the name of LaDavid Johnson because he couldn’t be bothered with a new widow’s shock, loss and grief to have it right.
Gen. John Kelly, the commander-in-chief’s Chief of Staff, then abased himself for all time by calling the widow’s Congresswoman (Fredericka Wilson) a liar—this after all the facts demonstrated that she did not badger the federal government for funds for a new building.
Had the general a genuine regard for the lives of fighting men and women he would have lectured his boss on the propriety of having the backs of fighters—Green Berets in this case—when they’re on dangerous missions. One would have imagined that, with Donald Trump’s bloated Pentagon budget, the Army would have had all the resources it needed to complete its work in Niger. And few Americans know why we’re there, anyway.
Blame the military industrial complex’s hierarchy if you will. Harry S. Truman’s nostrum is as true today as it was when he first said, “the buck stops here.”
We all know what “buck” is important to the commander-in-Chief. It’s not red, white and blue. It’s green. And Gen. Kelly, with his dishonorable behavior in this matter, is as deeply complicit in this tragedy as his boss.
Americans fighting for the flag doubtless ask, “isn’t America great?”
12
"Although bad weather prevented the [planned] assault force from flying in, the lieutenant colonel ordered Team 3212 “to execute the mission,” according to the executive summary of the investigation. The colonel was within his authority to do so, the summary said, and he regularly updated his own commanders as the mission progressed.
----------------------------------------------------
The Lt. Col. was calling the play. He was the senior officer responsible. The military investigation will need to address the commanders involved and clearly state if any were at fault. The closest fact that suggests fault is the communications between the Captain in the field who filed a mission plan and the Lt. Col. who took command and ordered the Green Berets' to change mission when they were not equipped or possibly well trained to undertake the revised mission.
I recall that HRC was blamed for a terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, 9-11-2012, that killed US Ambasador Chris Stevens and Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith. I doubt if the Republican members of Congress and the senate will be looking for a scapegoat among the GOP's military-political leadership: The President was too busy sending very important information out on Twitter during the 'Deadly Niger Ambush' episode.
6
Lots of people at fault. Nobody held accountable. 4 dead.
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My apologies. There were 9 dead, not all noted in the headline. The 4 noted were US Military the other brave victims were from Niger.
3
If nobody is held accountable this scenario will repeat itself! To rectify it they have to put it (responsibility) on someone's lap.
2
Oh, but according to the Rules of Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi(TM), all blame goes to Trump. What's sauce for the goose...
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Casualties cannot be avoided in military action. It is unrealistic to expect otherwise. What can be done is intense evaluation after actions, and improvements based on those findings. That's what the DoD seems to be doing here. As to blame and punishment, this is a military matter. But I am sure that the officers who made significant mistakes are planning their transition to civilian life, because they know their military careers are over.
More interesting for me is comparing the silence from Trey Goudy and other Republicans about these 4 dead Americans with their long, costly, and unproductive campaign about the 4 dead in Benghazi. So much for patriotism and supporting our troops.
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"Unproductive"?
Au contraire! The politicizing of Benghazi brought Hillary from being recognized as a highly-approved SoS to being demonized as the worst SoS in the history of Secretaries and/or States.
It was worth every penny to the GOP.
5
How much money is spent on the military, but they can't encrypt camera footage so it can't be used by the enemy? It's not that difficult.
26
Broad Failures! But no direct blame???? Start from the top down with everyone in command who had a part in this mission. Who specifically ordered the mission, knowing that they weren't properly trained? Who was responsible for any recon that made this mission not a high risk? Things only get changed when individuals are held accountable for their actions or lack thereof.
149
Blames starts at the E-6 level.....and goes downard only.
12
"sorry but it is classified".....that's what they seem to be saying
8
Gosh, this is just like the Wells Fargo scandal, or that time when Bush the younger and the Republicans brought the world to its economic knees by refusing common sense regulation or to insist executives behave themselves.
This is where America has come: courts, agencies, investigators that don't even bother to hide their key operational philosophy "Never, ever threaten, indict, pursue personally a fellow member of the elite. No matter the crime, no matter the evidence, the goal is to find a dark corner where "somebody did something wrong, we are making every effort to assure this will never happen again...our wonderful soldiers" counts as a response.
We're in that twilight fog just before the fall when those responsible claim endlessly that their willingness to take responsibility is reason enough for them to earn more than economics, logic, politics or decency allow. And where the same people are never held responsible for anything.
Four men are dead here, for no reason. 29 miners are dead in Kentucky, for no reason. Millions of our children are desperate and starving, for no reason. Our banking system, our courts, our politics stink of corruption and outright theft, for no reason.
This is not a nation of laws. This the Three Stooges go to Washington.
Our military is despicable and untrustworthy. Our banks are perversely incentivized crooks and opportunists. Our stock market is a black hole of unpatriotic no care at all for the people or the country.
88
Preach!
5
You are so right.
And I'm afraid it goes much, much deeper than that. I walk to work in the morning and how many cars run red lights or run stop signs - no one cares plus thee are no police This may seem very small but it is very telling about what is happening in America today.
9
It sounds like our soldiers and the Nigerian soldiers did their best.
Why, exactly, are we there? Can this country really be expected to fight all the "bad guys" all of the world?
31
The bad guys are the ones who travel thousands of miles from their homes to impose their values on others. Why are we there??
9
Michael,
I agree with you on both counts. The US hasn't had a cohesive foreign policy in the last few decades, including various Presidents and parties. We seem to use a "whack-a-mole" approach.
4
I'm sure the Gowdy and Nunes crowd will move heaven and earth to take full political advantage of the deaths of these brave warriors. I mean, there's got to be a way to blame this on Hillary, right?.
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When were the brave US soldiers authorized to be deployed in Niger and which president authorized that deployment and for what purpose?
18
Obama and for fighting ISIS inspired factions. Also to help build a drone base.
1
Is no one -- in any official report or news story -- going to mention the word Uranium.
20
Of course republicans will concur. Meanwhile they investigated inconsistencies with Benghazi for 7 years. These families deserve answers and transparency just as they insisted the other families did. Thus far the outspoken republicans have been silent.
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This is the answer, this is the report.
Because Republicans in Congress and in the media are hypocrites.
30
We are living in an era of Presidential/Congressional blamelessness. The history books will say, ‘everything was great!’
No Blame...really. I'm sure the Trump admin. will find a way to blame Sec. Clinton.
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Even though it happened while Trump was the commander in chief of the US.
12
Now Congress, not DoD, must take a long, hard look at why the US has forces and advisors in that area of the Sahel. What is the strategic purpose? This is classic example of Pentagon mission creep. Give the US military a small job, and pretty soon it becomes a career builder for Generals. Throw around the word ‘ISIS’ as a justification for action, carefully hidden from the public and journalists by security classification. ISIS is not a strategic threat to the USA. But it might be for corrupt African states. Their problem, not ours.
33
I am so sorry for the loss of lives, and my heart goes out to the families and friends.
I also can't help but wonder who Trump would blame (loudly) if he were not the POTUS when this happened.
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Anyone else convenient, as he usually does.
6