Leon Panetta: Shame! Shame! Shame!

  Heard on the news a couple of hours ago was Leon Panetta explaining casually that, really, nothing could be done for the 4 Americans who were tortured and slaughtered in Benghazi.
  We know repeated and early requests for increased security were ignored and denied for the consulate in Libya.
  We know that the security personnel who were ordered out of the country have agonized over not being there to defend the men who were slaughtered.
  We know the uprising was not over a YouTube video, but rather a planned attack for which al Qaeda immediately took credit on Facebook.
  We know a drone two drones were overhead [and ten cameras filming in the compound] and the White House and Department of Defense were watching the firefight in real time.
  We know forces were within about 60-90 minutes of reaching the consulate and the annex which was the CIA campus.
  We know the firefight lasted seven long hours, not a "few hours."
  Yet Leon Panetta has now issued a statement regarding the complete and utter neglect to defend these embattled Americans representing the United States:

The U.S. military did not quickly intervene during the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya last month because military leaders did not have adequate intelligence information and felt they should not put American forces at risk, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday. 

In his most extensive comments to date on the unfolding controversy surrounding the attack in Benghazi, Panetta said U.S. forces were on heightened alert because of the anniversary of 9/11 and prepared to respond. But, he said, the attack happened over a few hours and was over before the U.S. had the chance to know what was really happening. 

“(The) basic principle is that you don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on; without having some real-time information about what’s taking place,” Panetta told Pentagon reporters. “And as a result of not having that kind of information, the commander who was on the ground in that area,- Gen. Ham, Gen. Dempsey and I felt very strongly that we could not put forces at risk in that situation.”

  Calling criticism of the way the situation was handled "Monday morning quarterbacking," Panetta complained that there's no way the military could have known how the attack would end and thus they sent no troops to leave no man behind. 
  In fact, Fox reports that Obama, who later went to sleep not knowing the outcome of the attack and traveled to Las Vegas within 24 hours for a fundraiser, met with security officials within an hour of the onslaught of the attack.

An unarmed U.S. Predator drone already was performing surveillance missions over Libya when the attack on the consulate in Benghazi began at 9:40 p.m. local time. Shortly after the attack, the drone moved into position over the compound. 

A quick reaction force from the CIA annex a mile away was sent to help the ambassador and others at the consulate. It eventually returned to the annex with all of the survivors and Sean Smith, a State Department official who had been killed, but not with Ambassador Stevens. 

President Obama met with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Vice President Biden in the Oval Office at 5 p.m. ET, a little more than an hour after the onset of the attack. The Pentagon began moving military assets: 

-- Eight from Special Operations were sent from Tripoli. 

-- A "FAST team" (Fleet Anti-terrorism Security team) of Marines from Rota, Spain, were sent to guard the Embassy in Tripoli. 

-- A Special Operations force was moved from central Europe to Sigonella Air Base in southern Italy, just 480 miles from Benghazi. 

-- F-16s and Apache helicopters remained parked and unused at Aviano Air Base in northern Italy. 

-- Two Navy destroyers already in the Mediterranean Sea were moved off the coast of Libya on the day of the attack but were never used. 

  So the forces were there but went unused.
  One has to wonder if, unbound by politics, Panetta would have sent relief for the attack. 
  Sever the politics from this situation, and things would surely have been different.
  But perhaps it is as John Bolton says.
  According to the world view of this administration, there is no more terrorism. al Qaeda has been defeated. There is no more war. 
  And that means, I presume, that the 4 murdered men are still alive.
  Right?