August 22, 2012
- They were the Republicans' best chance at swift-boating President Obama, but they're unraveling at the seams. The four-month assault by former Navy SEALs and Special Forces operatives against President Obama's handling of the Osama bin Laden raid had the potential to discredit the president's signature foreign policy achievement, but the veterans' partisan excesses and absurd public remarks are turning them into a laughingstock within the special forces community.
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The fall from grace began with Larry Bailey, a retired 27-year veteran of the Navy SEALs who founded the anti-Obama political group Special Operations Speaks. Bailey's military career placed him in a unique position to attack the president, but it didn't take him very long to get off message, as Foreign Policy's Josh Rogin found out. "I have to admit that I'm a Birther," Bailey told Rogin. "If there were a jury of 12 good men and women and the evidence were placed before them, there would be absolutely no question Barack Obama was not born where he said he was and is not who he says he is." In the interview, he also said Obama was a socialist who was raised by communists, which caught the attention of Obama campaign official Ben LaBolt who gleefully distributed the article to Washington reporters.
Then came former Navy SEAL Ben Smith, a spokesman for the OPSEC Education Fund, which has taken out ads and a 22-minute film to attack the president. Smith rather likes posting remarks on his Facebook page calling the president inflammatory nicknames like "Heir Communist-in-Chief Hussein Mao-bama." But it gets worse: read more>>>
Navy SEAL to release book on bin Laden raid
A book company said Wednesday that it will release on September 11 a firsthand account of the raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Christine Ball, director of marketing and publicity for Dutton, a subsidiary of Penguin Group USA, said the book was written by a Navy SEAL under a pen name.
The book is entitled "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden." read abit more>>>
Dempsey: Political Activity Erodes Public Trust in Military
ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT, Aug. 22, 2012 – Using the uniform for partisan politics erodes the trust the American people have in their military, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said today.
During a discussion with reporters aboard a C-17 returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff addressed a question about a group of Navy SEALs who have put together a political action committee.
Dempsey has been outspoken that service members have truly earned their right to vote, and that all Americans are entitled to private and personal opinions.
But, the chairman said, he and his fellow members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are the stewards of the profession of arms, and must ensure service members don’t cross an important line. read more>>>
Thanks to a few comments in front page diaries yesterday we get a cut with McRaven.
and with Jon Soltz of Votevets and one of the Swifties II members.
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If ya don't know me: USN All Shore '67-'71 GMG3 Vietnam In Country '70-'71, re: purple heart bandages photo above with never an apology. Years as a Veterans Advocate and Activist, as the Country Ignores and Refuses to Sacrifice, especially the past decade plus, Politically a lifelong actual Independent, there no longer is a republican political party, there are Democrats, Independents real ones and many third party political affiliations!
UpDate
SEALs’ good name hijacked for political hackwork
August 23, 2012 - Our fellow Americans at Fox News and at conservative political blogs around the country continue to be enthralled by a political group that calls itself OPSEC — short for operational security — and that is fronted by ex-Navy SEALs, among others.
OPSEC’s main message is two-fold: President Obama has taken much too much political credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden, and has endangered troops and intelligence-gathering by talking too freely about how it was done. In expressing those concerns, the group claims to be absolutely nonpartisan.
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But you are wrong, Mr. Smith. That is precisely what you have become — a rather dull-edged political weapon, and no more than that — and you have done so by your own choice. read more>>>
Now normally I should end the update with the above, but before you visit to read the rest, take a guess at what picture he's got between this second to last:
One more thing: In my mind, any conversation about politicians shamelessly trying to horn in and take credit for military success should begin and end with one fellow in particular. You probably recognize him:
And the last sentence:
As MC Hammer used to sing, “Can’t touch this.”
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