A member of the security team who fought ferociously and valiantly during the battle in Benghazi, Mark ‘Oz’ Geist, is claiming in a new op-ed that his team would have been saved had President Trump been in charge.
According to Fox News:
The Obama administration’s mishandling of this attack — which resulted in the first murder of a U.S. ambassador in the line of duty since the 1970s — was a far cry from the Trump administration’s decisive response to threats against our embassy in Iraq.
The basic facts should be enough to dismiss any serious comparison. My team and I were told to “stand down” no fewer than three times in the face of what the media later called “protesters” — even as Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, were being killed and maimed by the terrorists. No U.S. military reaction force was sent, despite our numerous requests for help. Only by our own tenacity and courage were more than 30 Americans able to escape with our lives.
He then compared the response to the US Embassy attack in Baghdad:
President Trump reacted forcefully. In roughly the same amount of time it took to the Obama administration to get an unarmed American drone over our heads as we fought for our lives in Benghazi, more than 100 U.S. Marines were on the scene to defend the Baghdad embassy and two Apache helicopter gunships were in the air asserting American sovereignty.
President Trump’s leadership needed no such weaseling and excuse-making. After making sure the military was fully prepared to protect our embassy and our interests, President Trump was forthright and open with the American people. He didn’t try to hide who was attacking us — Iran-backed Shiite militias — nor why they were doing so: anger at American airstrikes on militants.
Geist goes on to explain that strong American leadership is never mistaken for weakness by our enemies and leadership like Trump’s will continue to keep Americans safe.
Geist also mentions that he experienced the opposite of Trump’s leadership with much different results.
