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Moral courage

I just ran across the following fascinating juxtaposition of statements on The Weekly Standard website:

From Transcript of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta comments before Congress about the Benghazi attack,  Oct. 25, 2012 [LINK]

"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, 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."

 

Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1: Warfighting  - the following passage appears on pages 86 and 87 [LINK] 

"We must have the moral courage to make tough decisions in the face of uncertainty--and to accept full responsibility for those decisions--when the natural inclination would be to postpone the decision pending more complete information.  To delay action in an emergency because of incomplete information shows a lack of moral courage.  We do not want to make rash decisions, but we must not squander opportunities while trying to gain more information.  Finally, since all decisions must be made in the face of uncertainty and since every situation is unique, there is no perfect solution to any battlefield problem.  Therefore, we should not agonize over one."

That just about sums up the Obama administration.