Navy Seals On Bin Laden Raid: “It Really Didn’t Matter Who Was President”
President Obama decided that he wouldn’t release pictures of Osama bin Laden’s corpse because that would be too much like “spiking the football.” But now, as we enter election season, President Obama has decided to spike the football after all. Last night we got a two-hour special on NBC from the White House situation room about the raid, and the Obama campaign has released a campaign video questioning whether or not Mitt Romney would have ordered the raid (an ad even Arianna Huffington is calling “despicable”).
So how do the Seals feel about this politicization of their raid? They’re not happy about it:
Serving and former US Navy SEALs have slammed President Barack Obama for taking the credit for killing Osama bin Laden and accused him of using Special Forces operators as ‘ammunition’ for his re-election campaign.
The SEALs spoke out to MailOnline after the Obama campaign released an ad entitled ‘One Chance’.
In it President Bill Clinton is featured saying that Mr Obama took ‘the harder and the more honourable path’ in ordering that bin Laden be killed. The words ‘Which path would Mitt Romney have taken?’ are then displayed.
A serving SEAL Team member said: ‘Obama wasn’t in the field, at risk, carrying a gun. As president, at every turn he should be thanking the guys who put their lives on the line to do this. He does so in his official speeches because he speechwriters are smart.
‘But the more he tries to take the credit for it, the more the ground operators are saying, “Come on, man!” It really didn’t matter who was president. At the end of the day, they were going to go.’
Chris Kyle, a former SEAL sniper with 160 confirmed and another 95 unconfirmed kills to his credit, said: ‘The operation itself was great and the nation felt immense pride. It was great that we did it.
‘But bin Laden was just a figurehead. The war on terror continues. Taking him out didn’t really change anything as far as the war on terror is concerned and using it as a political attack is a cheap shot.
‘In years to come there is going to be information that will come out that Obama was not the man who made the call. He can say he did and the people who really know what happened are inside the Pentagon, are in the military and the military isn’t allowed to speak out against the commander- in-chief so his secret is safe.’
A little humility from the President might go a long way.
Tags: Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden
