13 Hours, but will people care?

I went to see 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi on opening weekend. Doing what I do for a living, I knew the story. Or, at least, I thought I knew. The media reports have not come close to capturing the true story and that’s the biggest revelation from this movie. Normally, I let politics roll off my back, but I left this movie literally shaking mad.

This is the true story of what happened on September 11, 2012 as told by the guys who were there. The movie never mentions Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. It doesn’t have to. These people were abandoned by their own country and it’s crystal clear who abandoned them.

What’s even more infuriating is Obama and Clinton were sitting in their cushy chairs watching the whole thing unfold via a drone circling overhead. Despite seeing everything they were seeing, no one lifted a finger to help them.

Why?

That becomes the central question in the viewer’s mind of 13 Hours. Why were jets not scrambled? Why were assault teams not sent in? Why? We’re left to fill in the blanks because this administration has never been forthcoming as to why.

One can only imagine that it was close to the president’s re-election bid and a full-scale, planned out attack on an American installation would mean failure on so many levels. Ambassador Chris Stevens knew there were threats and had asked for additional security from Hillary Clinton. She didn’t send it. When the attack began, the CIA annex was in contact with Stevens and an aid. They were hold up in a safe room but the attackers were closing in. They pleaded for help, but the CIA station chief refused to get involved.

Enter Tyrone Woods and his CIA contractors. They stood by until they could take it no longer, and set out the mile across Benghazi to the consulate to rescue the Ambassador and others trapped inside. The hesitation from the CIA chief, on orders ostensibly from Washington, meant the rescue was too late. Stevens and information management officer Sean Smith were already dead.

The team returned to the CIA annex where their compound came under at least two heavy attacks. During the night Tyrone Woods and another CIA contractor, Glen Doherty, were killed. This despite repeated pleas to Washington from CIA personnel for help. Again, as those back in Washington watched it all unfold in real time.

There was a cover-up for sure, but it was so much worse than that. Americans could have been saved and they were literally left to die by the Obama administration. There were so many resources that could’ve been sent to their aid. U.S. Special Ops soldiers were not allowed to come to the rescue. Even a flyover by F-16s to at least scare the attackers was nixed. Gen. Martin Dempsey later said it would take F-16s in Italy 20 hours to reach Benghazi, yet they were less than an hour’s flight away.

It was 13 hours of brutal attacks, of undying bravery, of unspeakable betrayal. To add insult to injury, Hillary and Obama conspired to spread a lie that the attack was a spontaneous escalation of a protest over an anti-Muslim video that sparked protests in Cairo. We now know that to be a complete fabrication, one that was repeated by administration officials for weeks although they knew from the beginning it was never true.

One overriding question gnawed at me as I left that theater. How on earth are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton not in jail?

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.