The first military operation approved by Donald Trump was described by the New York Times as "risky from the start and costly in the end.” Especially costly for the Navy Seal, the 8-year-old girl and an unknown number of other children:
The death of Chief Petty Officer William Owens came after a chain of mishaps and misjudgments that plunged the elite commandos into a ferocious 50-minute firefight that also left three others wounded and a $75 million aircraft deliberately destroyed. There are allegations — which the Pentagon acknowledged on Wednesday night are most likely correct — that the mission also killed several civilians, including some children. The dead include, by the account of Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Qaeda leader who was killed in a targeted drone strike in 2011.
We also know Donald Trump didn't even bother watching the raid in the Situation Room.
The Pentagon released a video to show the raid was partially successful in collecting intelligence, but even that move was bumbled. From Buzzfeed:
The US military on Friday took down the link to a video that it said it secured from a raid in Yemen last week just hours after posting it, having realized that far from showing off the intelligence gained from the raid, the videos were a decade old.
The video, titled “Courses for Destroying The Cross,” was first released in 2007 and had been online for years, as it turns out. In the less than two-minute long clip, which was widely circulated after it was pushed out on Friday morning, there are several cuts showing a man in a white robe and black mask explaining how to make chemicals.
It was hailed as being a key piece of intelligence from the raid:
Just one hour earlier, US Central Command, which is responsible for military operations in the Middle East, put out a statement heralding the released video, as being among the materials gathered from the raid.
“The videos are one example of the volumes of sensitive al-Qa’eda terror-planning information recovered during the operation,” said Col. John J. Thomas, US Central Command spokesman, said in that statement. “What was captured from the site has already afforded insights into al-Qa’eda leadership, AQAP methods of exporting terror, and how they communicate.”
If you are having flashbacks to the inept years of Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush, you are not alone.