Earlier this week I read an account
of the killing of Bin Laden by the commander of the SEAL Team 6. The main
reason why the commander released his own account was because he felt that the
description of the event as released to the public by politicians was very
different from how it actually occurred. SEAL Team 6 felt that the politicians had
portrayed them as a kill squad, and as one of the SEALs stated, “I’ve been a Seal for 30 years and I never heard the
words ‘kill mission’,” he said. “It’s a Beltway [Washington insider’s] fantasy
word. If it was a kill mission you don’t need SEAL Team 6; you need a box
of hand grenades.”
In addition to being angry that they had been labeled as a kill team, SEAL
Team 6 was also upset that all of the intelligence they had gathered at the Bin
Laden compound was rendered irrelevant when President Obama went on national TV
to declare his death. All other high-officials of the al-Qaeda network would
have immediately left their hiding places for new ones. Any potential leads
that the team had acquired at the compound to capture these criminals
immediately became useless as a result of the President’s public announcement.
The Team felt that the public announcement should have been held off for a
couple of days for other branches of the military to attempt to pursue those
lead developed at the compound. Unfortunately, instead it became a political
game of who could claim credit for the kill first.
The SEAL account
raises the question, why did the politicians on Capitol Hill do what they did
in releasing the information prematurely if they knew it wasn’t in the best
interest of the country? Why would they label the team as killers, when in fact
the only people to die were the ones who pointed guns at the SEALs? The truth
is that all of the politicians on Capitol Hill are solely looking out for their
own political careers. They don’t care about who gets hit in the crossfire so
long as they come out looking like victors. Their primary concern is their own
reputation and electability. The only reason that President Obama went on the
air was to be glorified as the President that killed Obama. He didn’t want
anyone else to deliver the news, even if there was a possibility to completely
unhinge the al-Qaeda network. Although this posturing is a shame, it should
only be expected as business as usual in Washington.
This is really interesting dude. I thank you for sharing it. Maybe I'm a little biased, or just more well educated on the issue than some, but I never really saw until now how much the public perceived them as a "kill squad." I certainly understand where the commander is coming from and that that would be very upsetting. In the several months after it was released that SEAL Team 6 did the job, some networks (like History and Discovery Channel) did some specials on them which, while obviously not 100% accurate, were at least successful in shedding some light. Also, as a side note, I think it's interesting that they used actual SEALs in the new movie Act of Valor.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting. The war in Iraq has become a game to see who can come out as the victor in capitol hill not in the actually war. The fact that Obama ruined the chance of capturing more of the terrorist cell is inexcusable. He is the commander-in-chief and should have handled the situation as such. I think its really great that the SEAL's team issued their own statement.
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