Why the United States did not send military support when American service personnel were under attack in 2012 at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is one of the primary questions Rep. Adam Kinzinger said he wants answered from the House select committee's investigation into the incident.
When officials did not know how long the attack would last, Kinzinger told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" on Monday, he wondered "why the military was not sent, when there was this seven-hour span between the first and second attack."
It was one thing, Kinzinger said, if the administration "tried to put assets in place and just couldn't get there in time." As a military pilot himself with the Air National Guard, he said he found it "especially offensive" that forces were not sent.
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"The fact that it didn't even appear there was a response shows either a level of incompetence, or something that we need to get to the bottom of," the Illinois Republican said.
The president of the United States was supposed to "send everything" he could and "move heaven and earth to get on scene" to help soldiers in danger, Kinzinger said. But it appeared the administration of President Barack Obama "moved neither heaven nor earth to get there."
Kinzinger said, from his own military training, soldiers are taught, "If you ever go down behind enemy lines, your country will never leave you behind."
"I can just imagine those men that were in the middle of this firefight waiting for that F-16, or that AC-130, or those guys to come down and save them. And it never came," he said.
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