Their Lives, Their Fortunes and Their Sacred Honor: Spec Ops Warriors Stand Tall
In yet another instance of what is becoming a steady series of incredibly stupid misfires, the clueless Obama campaign has decided to adopt the tactics of that memorably successful Kerry campaign in dealing with criticism from the nation’s military. Rather than man-up and admit that he perhaps went a bit overboard in taking credit for the Osama raid, and that it’s entirely possible his White House has leaked critical intelligence, Obama is taking the same tack as the thoroughly torpedoed Kerry: attack his military critics by calling them dishonorable liars.
It didn’t work for Kerry and it’s not going to work for the campaign of a man who, unlike the turn-coat Kerry, has absolutely no military credentials to link him to veterans, even that minority that leans left. It most assuredly is not going to work with that much larger group of veterans who tend to vote conservative but will vote for those candidates, regardless of party, who are supportive of the military.
But no, the Axelrod/Plouffe bubble factory, correctly believing that a large part of their Democrat Party is inherently anti-military, has chosen the hang-tough Kerry Gambit, deny, discredit and dishonor. For those of you unfamiliar with what I’m referring to, the White House handling of the mission to capture or kill Osama bin Laden back in 2011 has created a huge amount of displeasure and dissent within the multi-service special operations community as well as the overall military and veterans’ communities. The President’s quick rush to grab the glory with his I,I,I, me, me, me speech, left a lot of active and former members of the military stone, frosty cold. As any general or admiral could tell you, top commanders, especially commanders-in-chief, do not rush to claim the glory. All credit goes to the warriors who carried out the missions, not the politicians and staff wienies involved in the upper-level planning.
Such a rush to snatch credit from the jaws of victory is unseemly and undignified to those who serve to protect this nation, especially so when the unseemly, undignified grabber-of-glory happens to be the commander of all our military forces, a position which demands dignity, gravitas and a true understanding of the Warrior Code. Bush, a fighter pilot, had it; Clinton, a draft-dodger did not; the guy there now and his Chicago advisors don’t have the slightest clue.
But worse, in the eyes of those frontline and behind-the-lines warriors who have now posted their displeasure, is the total disregard by this White House for operational security. The unseemly haste with which the Obama spin machine jumped in to blare to the world that Osama had been killed was a grievous intelligence error. In their eagerness to seize credit, the politicians in the White House deprived our nation and our forces of the intelligence that would normally flow from the capture of a terrorist headquarters: all the information contained there about our enemy’s forces, their structure, their distribution/locations, their communications networks and their finances. With one simple White House press release, all that hard-fought-for intelligence was lost. Forever. In claiming the glory, Obama insured that all that intel was end-of-story.
Subsequent leaks that raise the concerns of our military community are those that have exposed the Pakistani doctor who enabled our finding of Osama; intel regarding undercover operatives within Al Qaeda in Yemen; the revelation that our C-in-C maintains an enemies list from which he magisterially fingers those to be killed. Then we have the leak, exposed in a positive manner at the New York Times that suggests White House cooperation, that it was the United States and Israel that attacked the Iranian nuclear program with the Stuxnet virus. Absolutely everything listed in this paragraph was leaked to bolster the image of Barack Obama as a strong and decisive military leader. Everything in this paragraph also constituted incredibly stupid breaches of operational security that while glorifying Obama and supposedly enhancing his re-electability, endangered our country, the citizens of Israel, and all the military forces of the world engaged in the battle against militant Islamism.
So now that the military community has responded to the outrage of the commander-in-chief being the single largest security threat to military operations with a video which is a must watch, the Obama Administration, which seems hell-bent on following the Kerry trajectory has singled out the special operations community for an honor that up to now has only been bestowed upon the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. As of today, according to Breitbart, the special operators behind that video and all who support them have been placed on the White House Enemies List. I can’t begin to express how that leaves me, and I’m betting millions of military and veteran voters, feeling: honored, energized, empowered? Yeah, all those and more, the most important of which is a determination to throw this worst commander-in-chief ever out on his incompetent butt.
I salute the Special Operations Community for having the courage to once again be that tip of the spear they famously pride themselves on being. I also salute them for their achieving the special honor of having become designated as an enemy of the White House and the extant Democrat Party. There should be a service ribbon for that accomplishment. May I suggest a scalloped gold frame surrounding a red, white and blue background with a small gold jump boot, signifying each award for the bravery and honor of those who are willing to risk their lives their fortunes and their sacred honor to put a steel-toed jump boot up the soulless butts of those political snakes in Washington who would corrupt our military operations for nothing but political gain?
As an honorary member of the Swift Boat Veterans and I would hope the special operations community, I have only this to say:
Barack Obama, you totally bogus, phony commander-in-chief, consider this, then bring it on.
Category: 2012 election, Barack Obama/Joe Biden
We’re all going to die anyway. Might as well go in a blaze of glory, your dead enemies piled in front of you.
Be prepared, watch your six, and do not go quietly into that dark night.
Of course, the WH will try to tell us that the enemies list is all metaphorical, but I wouldn’t believe them if they told me the sun rose in the east.
As an intelligence professional myself, I can assure you that if I had been responsible for any of those leaks; not only would I have lost my clearance but I would be sitting in a federal penitentiary on charges of treason.
Well said. As a 2X military father I agree 110%.
By some convoluted method of complete lack of critical thinking, the leftists evidently believe that we who joined the military (except those among them who righteously joined as plants for their cause) have no Constitutional rights either while serving or during the remainder of our lives following military service. It comes as a great shock to them that it is not only they but we who possess the Constitutional rights we served to protect.
If you don’t believe it, just listen to them. They are saying that retired and otherwise seperated warriors are not entitled to express their opinions.
What loons.
All I can say is “Wow”…great job. I’m sure more of the folks currently wearing the uniform would like to say much of the same but can’t until they are out. Until then, I will ask that you continue to speak these words for them.
S/F
Taco
@5, Those of us still in can voice our opinions. We just can’t do it in uniform, or in a Military capacity, or claim to be representing the Military, or as in the case of the Marine that recently got the boot say that we are going to disobey orders.
Nice rant
The POTUS may not have a SOF team, but he has a pair of Flag Officers to tell the Veterans to shut up: http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2012/08/jcs-dempsey-to-troopsveterans-be-non-partisan-unlike-me.html
Aboard a Military Aircraft, General Dempsey conducted an interview in which he chastised Veterans for speaking out about the elections. Previously, Admiral McRaven, used his position to defend the current politician in his bid for re-election.
WOTN: yeah, I’m wondering when the 4-star exemption to the Hatch Act and/or DoD Directive 1344.10 became effective too. I don’t remember hearing about either.
There is no small irony in all this, as both John Kerry and Diane Feinstein commented that these leaks had to be coming from the White House (whether Obama or a subordinate they did not speculate) when news of these various leaks had occurred. Kerry and Feinstein are not know for their strong conservative or Republican sponsored talking points.
Now veterans voicing the same concerns are being told they are disrespectful and unpatriotic and should shut the h3ll up. Once again proving that pesky free speech amendment is annoying when it’s speech you hate.
If Eric Holder had any sense of ethical responsibility he would appoint a special prosecutor or ask Congress to appoint one for him. But instead he will keep his head low and follow instead of lead.
This tactic is more of the same from this administration, all problems are the fault of Bush or the military/wall street. All successes (OBL’s death, healthcare???) are the direct result of the genius that is the President. Doubters are demonized and sycophants glorified as experts. Nothing new in any of these tactics. Most Americans will vote to correct this situation in the fall, and we can try a new administration on for size. Hopefully Mitt will prove more interesting as President than he does as a candidate.
Excellent rant! I hope this is spreading like wildfire in the military community.
As for General Demsey and Admiral McRaven, they have earned my contempt because they, more than anyone in the Obama administration, should know better.
This is one of the many reasons I believe the Commander in Chief should have a military background. Maybe all candidates should at least go through basic training just to get a taste of what duty, honor, integrity, service, and country mean.
At what point is Dear Reader going to wake up and realize that there are several groups you don’t piss off lest you find yourselfvin the midst of a much larger backlash?
If you clicked the link to the “enemies list” article in the New York Times and read the entire thing, you’ll find at the end this sentence:
“With China and Russia watching, the United States has set an international precedent for sending drones over borders to kill enemies.”
During the raid on bin Laden’s compound, one of the stealth helicopters crashed. The local Pakistani government grabbed it and it has since been sold to the Chinese. Ditto the drone that crashed in Iran a few weeks later. All these things were leaked to the press by the White House and were on the evening news, when none of it should have ever been discussed in a public forum like the media.
You guys ought to know by now that Dempsey and McRaven are DC ticket-punchers waiting for a chance to retire with a fat pension, and nothing else. Of course they’re toeing the WH’s line. Why do you think Petraeus isn’t there any more? Or Bill Daley? Why do you think he bolted back to Chicago? It wasn’t just because his sister-in-law was gravely ill and didn’t have much time left.
I was appalled at the comparison (NYT article) to the body counts of the Viet Nam era. This administration becomes more and more revolting as time goes by. They have no honor and they never will.
Durn! Punched ‘submit’ too soon.
White House Enemies List? What is this? The Nixon presidency? Does anyone besides me remember that 85-year-old grandmother who was included on Nixon’s enemies list because she had sent $1.00 to the DNC?
Oh, God, PLEASE PUT ME ON THAT LIST!!!!
@13 That has been bothering me long before I read it in that link.
That we make it public is a huge error in judgment, and indeed we have no reason to b1tch if a drone strike happens in the states.
For me the scenario is far more likely with a hobby built drone, for very small money you and I can create a drone capable of lifting a payload that will kill someone and fly to target using your I-Pad or cell phone controls. The circuitry for this has become so inexpensive and compact that right now hobbyists are purchasing close to a 1000 of these a month according to a recent article in Wired magazine. They are fun to fly, and with the right chips auto-pilot and orbit a GPS waypoint or waypoints with zero input from the operator needed, lightweight cameras allow a real-time video feed and you can draw your own conclusions from there.
John and Yoko were on that list too, songs and ideas being extremely scary to the administration. Not unlike contrary ideas today frightening the administration, I thought Obama was more Carter like, and it turns out he’s like Tricky Dick…
Nixon and J Edgar were quite a team…the FBI under J Edgar was indeed a tool of the existing power structure, one could argue almost to the point of the state police structure of our communist enemies at the time.
@VOV — yeah, the local news was showing drones like those you mention on the news last week. Remote pilot, TV camera on board. What’s next, peeking into my bathroom window while I’m in the shower? These people are so GROSS!!!
The FAA allows a 400 foot height currently for the bigger versions, but if someone wants to break the law and use these for illegal purposes the height requirement can be easily violated allowing you to put this device a thousand or more feet in the air. If you are using a programmed waypoint system to do this the remote pilot component is not even necessary, you can have the device orbit a waypoint and do whatever you want at that waypoint, film or something more nefarious.
Peeping tom use is still illegal but I suspect Paparazzi will be using these devices certainly in the near future to be total 4ssholes.
There is no honor among thieves and murderers, is there?
That’s a rhetorical question.
A book about the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad is coming out in September.
Here’s a link to Amazon’s info:
http://www.amazon.com/No-Easy-Day-Firsthand-ebook/dp/B008MG1E4A
Author is Mark Owen, pen name for the navy SEAL who wrote it. The Pentagon is complaining that he did not vet it through them.
So it’s okay for a self-important blowhard to leak classified information about classified operations to the press, but the guy who was there can’t say a word.
Am I getting this right? Just trying to understand.
It’s a pity the WH can’t see which finger I’m holding up.
Would someone tell me at what rank our flag become politcos and forget oaths ? Holder is not going to bite the hand that is protecting him from “fast n furious” .
Ex-PH2: personnel who routinely work with classified information are now required to sign a specific form, the SF 312, “Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement”. Among other things, that agreement assigns rights to “all royalties, remunerations, and emoluments that have resulted, will result or may result from any disclosure, publication, or revelation of classified information not consistent with the terms of this Agreement” to the US Government. It also requires any person having current or previous access to classified information who are “uncertain about the classification status of information” to “confirm from an authorized official that the information is unclassified” before disclosing it. The agreement applies “during the time (they are) granted access to classified information, and at all times thereafter.”
Special operations personnel executing sensitive missions would have routine access to classified information, and would doubtless have executed such an agreement. And I don’t think review by a former special operations lawyer (as has been claimed for the book) would technically constitute the necessary confirmation by “an authorized official” of the unclassified status of material in such a work.
In practice, the general way of ensuring compliance by those contemplating writing a book or articles about service in sensitive jobs is to submit manuscripts to the appropriate agency for classification review prior to publication. Those who don’t do so run the risk of (1) prosecution if they inadvertently screw up and divulge something classified, and (2) also run the risk of losing all revenue gained by such publication.
Since the 1980s this topic has received substantial additional emphasis within agencies dealing with highly classified information. That’s thought by many to be due to the legal wrangling surrounding the publication of James Bamford’s The Puzzle Palace.
I believe that the personnel are doing this on purpose. If they are called out, they will point their finger at you know who, thus high-lighting the double standard.
Hondo, I know about nondisclosure. I handled classified stuff in 1968. A lot of people did back then. We all had the sense to keep our mouths shut. I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement when I was hired in 1991 to work on nothing more interesting than accounting for a firm that handled intellectual proprety for its clients. I completely understand the need to be discreet at all times. However, as we are all aware, the leaks about the classified operations leading to and including the raid on bin Laden’s compound, and leaks about the loss of classified technology to a foreign government (China, Iran) were on the daily news for some time. It shocked the living daylights out of me when they were discussed on the evening and morning news, and for several days following. I knew it was just plain wrong. Why didn’t the leaker know that? The comparison is the Rosenbergs stealing and selling classified information about the US’s nuclear program to the Soviets. Would it have been okay to talk about the program the way you would sports scores? No. We only knew about the Blackbird spy planes when they were declassified 10 years after that program started. So my question remains: why is it OK for the White House to leak this info, which is now old news, but not okay for the guys who were there to follow-up with their side of it? Since when is it okay to allow the Discover channel/- corporation to put together an entire program about the SEALs and that raid, but not okay for the men who put their lives on the line to have their say? Since when is it okay? It isn’t. The White House and the Pentagon cannot have their cake and eat it, too. Not in this case, or anything else. Whoever dropped the first shoe is the responsible party for creating this mess, and you and I both know it. I find unconscionable and hypocritical any and all objections to the OPSEC video and trying to muzzle publication of this book, which… Read more »
Two different issues, Ex-PH2.
No, it’s not OK for the White House staff and/or Pentagon officials to leak classified info – they’re bound by the same laws/rules as everyone else. However, that obvious wrongdoing doesn’t absolve “Owen” (since identified, if Fox News is correct) of potential culpability regarding his upcoming book. By not going through the normal prepublication clearance process, he’s gambling all proceeds from his book – as well as potentially playing “bet yer freedom” that he’s correctly figured out what is and what is not classified regarding his SEAL career. For his sake, I hope he was correct in his assessment.
Hondo, I agree with all that you said.
However, I think the mea culpa belongs first and foremost to the White House.
They started the ball rolling. And until they — and you know who I mean by ‘they’ — admit to their own wrongdoing in this matter, and the person/people directly responsible for those leaks is/are prosecuted for it, just as anyone else would be for doing the same thing, I cannot and will not accept this double standard by this administration.