‘Inexcusable!’ Leon Panetta Says USS Abraham Lincoln Problems Show U.S. ‘Lack of Readiness’

Allegedly deplorable conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln are “inexcusable,” according to former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta — who contends the situation could indicate a “lack of readiness” by the United States.

Panetta, who served under then-President Barack Obama and also worked as head of the Central Intelligence Agency, said its clear the reported problems on the ship show someone failed to properly plan.

Appearing Friday on MS NOW’s The Moment with Katy Tur, Panetta told anchor Katy Tur the Lincoln should not have been deployed for more than eight months and counting:

LEON PANETTA: Well, it shouldn’t happen. Look, we deploy our men and women in uniform into harm’s way, and they’re putting their lives on the line for our country.

It is inexcusable not to do the proper planning that has to be done in order to make sure that their deployment is not overextended, that they’re getting the supplies they need, that they’re getting the support they need.

Because if you’re, if you’re impacting on the morale of our fighting men and women, you’re impacting on our readiness.

And that’s what concerns me is whether or not the failure to really keep up with the level of deployments that were, that were done here, has contributed to our lack of readiness.

KATY TUR: What do you think of the defense secretary’s response to reporters questions? We just played it a moment ago.

PANETTA: You know, I, I think he’s trying to obviously indicate that the facts were wrong here. They were misrepresented that he is trying to provide the support.

But the facts speak for themselves. The facts speak for themselves.

Every week when I was secretary, I sat down with the chairman of the joint chiefs to go after every deployment to make sure that those deployments were limited and that we were aware of how long those deployments were.

And that’s particularly true for our ships. You’re talking about these carriers. They’re big ships, 5000 people.

They go across the globe.

But at the same time, you’ve got to make sure that that those deployments are not overextended. The deployment of the Abraham Lincoln is almost eight months or more. That’s too long. And it should have been brought back sooner.

Something, somebody, somewhere failed to do the proper planning for what had to take place in order to properly support our men and women in uniform.

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier deployed from its home base of San Diego on Nov. 21, and has had its tour extended at least once.

Families recently sounded the alarm, claiming desperate sailors have jumped overboard, reported a lack of hygiene products and fresh food and at times, being served rotten meat.

While reports indicated the government was sending relief to the Lincoln, President Donald Trump bizarrely said Friday the ship’s record-setting deployment was “not long enough.”

Watch above via MS NOW.

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