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.Funny, I haven't heard any commentary from the media on the fact it took Obama 18 hours to make the decision to go after bin Laden once he was told they knew where he was and had a plan to get him. Personally, I think Obama was hoping that something would tip bin Laden off before the SEALs could get to him so he could claim credit for the effort without actually having to kill the guy. He probably wasn't disappointed when bin Laden was taken, knowing he could use it during this year's election, but at the same time I don't think he would have been terribly upset had bin Laden escaped.
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.
Besides the ad, the White House is marking the first anniversary of the SEAL Team Six raid that killed bin Laden inside his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan with a series of briefings and an NBC interview in the Situation Room designed to highlight the ‘gutsy call’ made by the President.
Mr Obama used a news conference today to trumpet his personal role and imply that his Republican opponent Mr Romney, who in 2008 expressed reservations about the wisdom of sending troops into Pakistan, would have let bin Laden live.
‘I said that I'd go after bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him, and I did,’ Mr Obama said. ‘If there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they'd do something else, then I'd go ahead and let them explain it.’
Ryan Zinke, a former Commander in the US Navy who spent 23 years as a SEAL and led a SEAL Team 6 assault unit, said: ‘The decision was a no brainer. I applaud him for making it but I would not overly pat myself on the back for making the right call.
‘I think every president would have done the same. He is justified in saying it was his decision but the preparation, the sacrifice - it was a broader team effort.’
Mr Zinke, who is now a Republican state senator in Montana, added that MR Obama was exploiting bin Laden’s death for his re-election bid. ‘The President and his administration are positioning him as a war president using the SEALs as ammunition. It was predictable.’
Obama has shown an amazing talent to overplay his hand. It's obviously the Chicago upbringing coming out that attacks relentlessly, even when he doesn't need to. Nobody was unwilling to give him credit for finally making the decision to take bin Laden, but to put out an ad suggesting that Romney wouldn't have made the same call is simply reprehensible... and totally in character.
And I should note that this story of the disgruntled SEALs came not from an American media source, but from the UK Daily Mail. Imagine that.
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The "war president," huh? Too bad the only people Obama is truly at war with are American.
He strikes a pose as a "war president", so we can call him a poseur.
The last thing a soldier wants on his mind is that his job is to make some politician back in Washington look good.
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