SEAL Snipers

The Glorious History Of Obama As Told By Obama (Who Killed Osama!) is taking fire from those who think it was more of a team effort.

Even Jimmy Carter could have managed this anniversary better. In fact, Mr. Peanut managed the first anniversary of the Iranian hostage debacle by getting himself voted out of office, which was a wonderful observance.

Comments

[Clarice]

Let's hope that sets a precedent.

[Eric in Boise]

Many here are already familiar with this , but it seems pertinent:

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

[Gus]

The CLOWN IN CHIEF is RE-BECLOWING himself.
Petty little loser Barry Obama.

[centralcal]

I am thrilled that I will still be at work and far away from a TV when The Wonce makes his speech.

[matt]

what bothered me was that what Panetta recorded was a "Memo for the Record" with no legal status and this was released as a foundational document.

That Panetta then documented that "The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President", meaning that if things went wrong the president could avoid bearing responsibility is directly at odds with "the buck stops here".

The president is selectively releasing documents and defining the narrative to further his political agenda.No wonder there is blowback from the military.

[Melinda Romanoff]

matt-

I wouldn't be surprised if the ink was still wet on some of their more "historical" documents.

[Porchlight]

This is such a mistake by his campaign. People already thought the ball-spiking in the immediate aftermath was too much.

As Taranto points out, even McCain is now criticizing him in The Hill:

Last week, McCain issues [sic] a statement denouncing an Obama campaign commercial heralding Bin Laden's death as "the height of hypocrisy" and accused the president of "a shameless end-zone dance to help himself get reelected."

Taranto: "Which leads us to ponder an interesting counterfactual: What if McCain had campaigned against Obama in 2008?"

Good question.

[Melinda Romanoff]

I see the hamster wheel still spins.

[henry]

Mel, see any NJ plates in your travels up north?

Back on topic, if the Once's end zone taunting isn't bad enough, going to Afghanistan to sell out the troops is unbelievable.

[Gus]

henry, Obama can't help himself. He is REALLY this petty. He see's himself as if he's in a funhouse mirror.

[Jane]

Henry,

I was talking to a woman last night who actually has a life and doesn't eat and breathe politics. (Her husband was Scott Brown's commanding officer in the Guard.) At any rate she was swooning over Walker and said she had sent him money. I was thrilled to see that kind of interest.

[matt]

I the interest of helping the president define his campaign, LUN

Forward!

[Extraneus]

It's a shame that this end-zone dance is being taken away from Obama in such a cruel fashion. Surely this was going to be a big part of his reelection pitch.

[Melinda Romanoff]

No, henry, there were some slim pickings in plate choice by the ferry dock.

But, as I told a relative in Florida, there was a about 1,500 tons of Cobia in the water there. "What a waste of good seafood!" was the return comment, just before the groan.

[Danube of Thought]

I wish I could be more certain that this shameless and unwarranted boasting will hurt him.

[Jim Eagle]

Just got an email from the Walker campaign and there is quite a bit of out-of-state money flowing in. Nothing wrong with that but you need to fight fire with fire. Even saw someone from my city here in FL gave $1K.

[bunkerbuster]

Mission Accomplished.
suck on it, wingnuts! lol

[Sara]

Sorry JiB. :)

[Danube of Thought]

"If he just managed to get the nomination of a party, big deal."

If you knew any SEALs you'd see it differently. But you don't.

[bunkerbuster]

Obama beat the Bush Republicans once and he'll beat them again if Romney can't find enough differences between his party and the one that started two disastrous wars and tanked the economy...

[henry]

The Dems can't raise much cash locally, they depend on national union money and imported foot soldiers to get the vote out. 5 weeks to go until the recall.

[Melinda Romanoff]

I did see one bumper sticker of note, on that drive.

"How do you beat 14 runners? With 1 Walker."

[Chubby]

((What if McCain had campaigned against Obama in 2008?"))

rush played some bites today of Romney apparently following the McCain campaign style of not being too hard on Obama, prefacing and concluding his rebuke of the Obama OBL ad with glowing words about him. I wish he wouldn't do that, Obama has enough people advertising for him, his enemies need not. If R. thinks that being a nice guy toward Obama is going to raise the timbre of the campaign, and soften Obama's attacks on him, he couldn't be more wrong. Lefties kick a man when he is down; they not only had to defeat Bush, they had to humiliate him at the Inauguration.

[Gus]

The Obama drubbing is going to be delcious.

And it's going to happen.

I'm sure that ButtBuster will be helping to put out the ghetto fires in Chicago, LA, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, Houston, Milwaukee, etc etc etc.
Libs care deeply.

[Extraneus]

.

[Extraneus]

.

[Gus]

Isn't it hilarious that OPIE von WAR HERO look so very much like the half-black/half-white BARNEY FIFE.

I'm not kidding.

NIP IT, NIP IT IN THE BUD ANJ.

[Extraneus]

.

[Extraneus]

The should have photoshopped Obama's head on this one.

[GMax]

52% 47% for the third day in a row at RAS in the disapproval rating. The endzone dance seems to be yet another Acme cigar blowing up in his face. How is he going to win with these kind of numbers and nothing to campaign on? LOL

[Extraneus]

.

[pagar]

"to sell out the troops is unbelievable."

I don't think these leftists care who or where they sell out any body.

"Defection Denied
Vice President’s office behind turning away of senior Chinese defector from consulate in China"

"During Xi’s visit, he and Biden met with Jeffrey Katzenberg—the head of DreamWorks Animation and multi-million dollar donor to President Obama’s Super PAC—to negotiate a business deal. DreamWorks is now under investigation by the SEC for possibly bribing Chinese officials during that deal’s negotiations."

Seems like turning a valuable defector back to the Chinese would be a bribe by it's self.

[sailor]

I am, personally, repulsed by O's going to Afghanistan and delivering a speech. It is so blatant--posturing and egotistic!

[Extraneus]

.

[GMax]

Oh Bubu this is Zero's second most loyal demographic. Whoops! Here:

The latest survey of Jewish Americans, conducted March 14-27 by a firm called Knowledge Networks for the American Jewish Committee, shows Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney by a 61%-28% margin. That’s significantly behind Obama’s 78%-21% margin over John McCain among Jewish voters in the 2008 exit poll. …

Obama gets 72% of the votes of those most concerned with the health care issue, according to the current AJC survey, and 62% among those most concerned about the economy. But Romney leads Obama among those Jews whose major concern was national security issues (44%-42%) and U.S.-Israel relations (44%-42%). Clearly Obama is losing some Jewish voters on foreign policy issues.

[GMax]

Wait until you see the Catholic numbers bubu? Did you think OWS is going to vote en mass?

[narciso]

Was he going senile, that he was forgetting about taquiya;

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/05/bin-laden-worried-that-human-lawn-mower.html

[Jane]

Love it Matt!

[Jim Eagle]

GZ should just declare himself a muslim.

[Extraneus]

That's a good question, narciso. This Wiki entry says taqiyya is mainly a Shia thing.

Taqiyya (alternate spellings taqiya, taqiyah, tuqyah), meaning religious dissimulation,[1] is a practice emphasized in Shi'a Islam whereby adherents may conceal their religion when they are under threat, persecution, or compulsion.[2] This means a legal dispensation whereby a believing individual can deny his faith or commit otherwise illegal or blasphemous acts while they are under those risks.[3]

Taqiyya was developed to protect Shi'ites who were usually in minority and under pressure. In the Shi'a view, taqiyya is lawful in situations where there is overwhelming danger of loss of life or property and where no danger to religion would occur thereby.[1]

The majority Sunni Muslims rarely found it necessary to hide their beliefs. However, there are examples of practicing Taqiyya among Sunnis where it was necessary.[4] In the Sunni view, denying your faith under duress is "only at most permitted and not under all circumstances obligatory".[5]

[MarkO]

Imagine if President Nixon had decided to base his 1972 re-election campaign on the boast that he landed on the moon. His predecessors tried and failed for eight years. It wasn't an easy decision--what if something went wrong? But that's why you hire a president, to make those gutsy calls. Which path would George McGovern have taken?

That's analogous to President Obama's effort to campaign on the killing of Osama bin Laden. His absurd braggadocio is turning one of the few successes to occur under his leadership into a political liability.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304050304577378170718556112.html?mod=wsj_share_tweet

[Jim Eagle]

Ex,

When I lived in Kuwait there were a lot of Shia from Iran, Iraq and Indonesia. The practice of taqiyya was necessary if they valued their lives in public.

[hit and run]

"Barack Obama. There's only three things he mentions in a sentence -- a noun a verb and 'I killed bin Laden.'"
--stuff Joe Biden (almost) said

[narciso]

Yes, I remember when said that about Guiliani,
what a maroon,

[Dave (in MA)]

POCKistaahn TOLLYbaahn

[Danube of Thought]

Anonymous Naval Officer discourses on the pre-op "risk" memo (via unsolicited e-mail):

So additional risks have to be run by The President, really? What about the winds on the landing zone, does he make that call? Or if it's raining, does that require more gutsiness? It shouldn't. That is what the operational commander does, assess risks. If you have ever been in a military command and control situation, you can smell the weaseling all over this. If it all works out and OBL gets scarfed up, or as was the case shot in the eye, Barry gets the credit. But that little line about "additional risks are to be brought back to the President" is a world class bit of ass-covering. The second you greenlight an op like this, additional risks begin popping up and there is no way to successfully do the mission if every change requires another poll and another gutsy call. As Murphy's First Law of Combat states "No plan survives first contact". McRaven was teed up to be the scapegoat and you can probably imagine the press conference if the worst had happened.

[Danube of Thought]

"...started two disastrous wars..."

Of course, at the time Obama took office Afghanistan was the "good" war. So who made it a disaster?

[narciso]

Is this too hard a take on Rice;

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304050304577375851104232184.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_Opinion

[MarkO]

I hope the truth comes out about this. I feel certain that the "Insider" narrative is the likely way it played out. Remember, Obama had to consider and reconsider. I think he was pushed into it. In the picture from the Situation Room, he is small, shrunken and uninvolved.

I'm thinking of a word to describe him that reduces him to one, small anatomical part.

[Dave (in MA)]

He can't even stay consistent with the NPR-style pronunciations.

[Jane]

JIB,

Is there anyplace in this world you have not lived. You constantly amaze me.

[Jim Eagle]

narciso,

Totally agree with Bret. Condi is a "nice person" but was in ineffective NSec Adviser (her gig was the Soviets not assymetrical warfare practiced by a branch of religious fanaticism). And being a Shultz (my ex-boss by disclosure) acolyte made her too acceptable within State. They knew they could ride that horse. I like her, admire her and wish her the best in keeping acadamia at Stanford a little less red.

[NK]

Fly to Afghan-- sign deal with Kleptocrat; announce "National day of Prayer" for military and 'religious freedom' (while he orders catholic hospitals to dispense abortion pills and force them to cover rubbers over their religious objections); do end zone dance on OBL watery grave. Hmmm? The guy is really mental.... clinically nutz.

[MarkO]

"He can't even stay consistent with the NPR-style pronunciations." He's just not that smart.

[NK]

JiB- couldn't agree more-- Condi is a beautiful and brilliant academic. She's where she should be.

[OldTimer]

Reading Narciso's 7:38 leads me to believe Condi would be a better 'fit' in the Obama administration. She may even have voted for him! Crikey...what an awful analytical distillation of her administrative and political skills.

[Abadman not Abadan]

"I'm thinking of a word to describe him that reduces him to one, small anatomical part."

Appendix in chief ?

[Jim Eagle]

Jane,

Spent 4 years active in the USAF, plus 10 years reserve. While on reserve I worked 35 years for an international engineering and construction company. I only spent 10 of those years in the USA. Indonesia, Argentina, Iceland, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, New Zealand, the UK (where my projects were in every damn country between London and New Delhi) and Ireland. It gets in your blood. That is why I am so glad to be back home since 2003 and loving every minute.

You do not know how much we are different and our love of freedom is so contagious until you live outside the walls of liberty we have here.

[centralcal]

I just love Iowahawk's sense of humor:

David Burge ‏ @iowahawkblog
I hope the president wears the heavy duty fringed epaulets tonight. Don't want him to get hurt knighting himself.

[narciso]

Foggy Bottom does have a way of mucking things up, remember she was a Scowcroft protege, before anything else, she had
a marked disdain for the Gitmo arrangement, and she did push for more action on the 'nation building front'

[Danube of Thought]

Raz:

[Danube of Thought]

Tryin' again.

Raz:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 43% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for the Republican in their district’s congressional race if the election were held today, while 40% would choose the Democrat instead.

[rse]

I agree with above narciso. She's a fine, knowledgable person who seems to give terrible advice on important things.

DOT-how on earth can this trip help military morale? Bad ROEs. Killing of a Green Beret last week is treated as Afghans have some resentments. And he says he will use them for his own ends. Whatever it takes.

Mr Forward. As long as his neck or wallet are not at risk.

[rse]

jib-Ever have any dealings with Mott McDonald out of UK?

Will tell you why in a minute.

[narciso]

Some one asked General Lansdale, about some of
his less memorable staff choices, L Fletcher
Prouty, and Daniel Ellsberg, I'm reminded of that with this;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynt_Leverett

[Jim Eagle]

When I was in Argentina, I met Bil Butterworth, known about the lterary world as W. B. Griffin. He told me at an embassy 4th of July party to never tell the bulls in the embassy anything that could either jeopordize your contacts, your contracts or your life:) When you read his books you'll see he is a man of his word.

[Jim Eagle]

rse,

Why would you bring that bunch of turds up for a sniff?

[narciso]

Cool, JiB, I've been a fan of his Honor Series, and my philly cop friend, tipped me
to the cop one, which was based on real events/

[Jim Eagle]

narciso,

His son is writing most of his books now. But Bill has a "ranchero" in Argentina, is well known in the social circles of BA, has more CIA contacts than Panetta had while he was there.

He is the guy who told me to give up Cuban's and go with DR cigars. Which I did immediately:)

[pagar]

Narciso, If you haven't read his military series books, you have missed some great continuing stories, IMO.

[matt]

Blue on blue violence is one of the great worries in Afghanistan and is another of those wonderful asymmetrical tactics loved by the Taliban.

I had a very strange Facebook chat with an Afghan friend who lives in Kabul yesterday. I blogged it.

What he said was that

a - the Afghan people have had enough of Karzai, who they see as a Pakistani Army stooge.

b- The ISI are waging their own war through the Haqqanis.

c- he thinks Karzai's time is very limited.

A lot of Afghans are done with outside interference from the Ummah just as the Taliban are at war with the infidel.Thing is that it is a war of proxies except in case of our own tightly bound ISAF is the only thing keeping civil war at bay.

I think that as we draw down you will see the warlords pop back up again. It may end up with a de facto Pashtunistan and a separate Afghanistan. The only sure thing is that a lot more blood will be spilled.

[narciso]

I've read some of his Spec Forces series, before coming up to the WW 2 era Honor series,

[OldTimer]

Obama Flies to Bagram Air Base to Give War Speech – US Soldiers Not Invited

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/05/obama-gives-speech-from-bagram-soldiers-not-allowed-in/

Our troops were probably quite satisfied not to be asked to disarm again.

[narciso]

'The Strongest Tribe,' as Bing West dubbed it,
Karzai as a Pakistani Army puppet, meaning Kayani, I didn't consider that angle,

[Danube of Thought]

Raz Likely Voters party ID: R 35.1%; D 33.1%; Ind. 31.8%.

Keep those numbers in mind when you see the R/D/I splits on various polling samples.

[bunkerbuster]

Gawd it's funny to watch wingnuts demand credit for military fetishism. You'd think it should be obvious that the GOP strategy for 2012 should be to change the subject away from bin Laden and on to the economy, but no, not the wingnuts. They have no clue how stupid they make Republicans look with this stuff, nor how helpful they are to Obama's campaign…

[Danube of Thought]

"You'd think it should be obvious that the GOP strategy for 2012 should be..."

Six months to go, moron. Wake me after Labor Day.

(What is an Identity Teenager's idea of "military fetishism?")

[Danube of Thought]

I yearn to see Hamid Karzai's head on a pike. Anybody's pike will do.

[Rob Crawford]

Buub, what do you think you're accomplishing? Do you really think you're somehow exposing us to "facts" we wouldn't hear otherwise? That you're "busting our intellectual bunkers"?

All you're doing is exposing your own parochialism and bigotry.

[Sue]

I detest this president. A first for me. I voted for Carter but by the time he was voted out, which I helped do, I was ready to see him go. But I didn't detest him. At the time. Clinton disgusted me, but I didn't detest him. I detest Obama. I turn the channel to avoid even hearing him speak. Did I mention I detest him? ::shudder::

[Danube of Thought]

The Good War: "Although President Obama has only served 39 months in office, 69 percent of the U.S. military fatalities in the more then 10-year-old war in Afghanistan have occurred on his watch."

Is he too much of a military fetishist, or not enough of one? Either way, he's played a hell of a lot of golf while very good men are dying.

[Rob Crawford]

Anyone else see that servicemen aren't invited to Obama's Victory Lap?

Huh.

[Strawman Cometh]

POCKistaahn TOLLYbaahn

Always brings to mind that other red minstrel "Tolly me bahnahnas"

[Sue]

bunker,

Do you not understand that if Obama had given a speech like Bush did, we would have nothing to say? We all know Obama gave the order. We aren't stupid. But if he had praised the SEAL team and said thank you on behalf of a grateful nation, Obama would have reaped all of the benefits and this would be a positive for him, even for "wingnuts"? Of course you don't understand that. You are as misguided as your leader is.

[Danube of Thought]

"Anyone else see that servicemen aren't invited to Obama's Victory Lap?"

Believe me: those guys loved George Bush, and still do. They are coolly polite to this fraud.

[matt]

Karzai was the best of a bad lot and reflects the batshit crazy and corrupt society that Af/Pak is.

Bin Laden needed killing. Enough said. I'm guessing the Pope would have blessed that one. What was outrageous was Obama's minions claiming Romney would not have done the same.

Obama standing in front of those MRAP's in a largely empty hangar pretty well summarizes the President and his military policy. Those things are probably the most wasteful military vehicles ever built. The scene was vaguely reminiscent of the Vogons in Hitchhiker's Guide.

Endlessly bureaucratic, incompetent,ugly, like giant slugs in suits. Maybe the President can read us some of his poetry.

[Jane]

"You do not know how much we are different and our love of freedom is so contagious until you live outside the walls of liberty we have here."

So what place came in second?

[pagar]

Why would he invite servicemen? They don't vote -- or at least their military ballots don't get counted time and time again.

We can send a man to the moon, but we can't get military ballots to the proper place to be counted -- election after election after_______________________

71% of Military Ballots not counted in the 2010 election.

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/318841.php

[narciso]

So the Occupoopers turned out to be a big bag of hot air.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/05/bill-ayers-terrorist-wife-attend-may-day-festivities-mayhem-in-chicago/

[Dave (in MA)]

Anyone else see that servicemen aren't invited to Obama's Victory Lap?

Huh.

[narciso]

Could it have worked if Massoud, had not been assasinated before 9/11.

[narciso]

I don'r if Jacobsen was going for a 'Wayne's World' riff here.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/05/breaking-from-bagram-we-still-are-not-worthy/

[narciso]

They really have been trying that 'more selective audience strategy;

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/05/01/CNN-Tanks-Ten-Year-Low

[narciso]

So the Occupoopers, Brandon Baxter in Cleveland are following their Continental counterparts and are going into direct action,

[Donald]

Shultz? As in George Shultz!?

If so wow. I met him briefly on my ship in 1983.

What a nice guy.

Did he really have that tattoo?

If not the same guy, then I digress.

[Chubby]

((,,,you can probably imagine the press conference if the worst had happened...))

Obama would have shouldered the blame, right? Of course ..... NOT. It was McRaven's fault. It was McRaven's fault. It was McRaven's fault. Pass the bill, Pass the Bill, Pass the bill. Pass the buck, Pass the buck, Pass the buck.

[Chubby]

((Gawd it's funny to watch wingnuts demand credit for military fetishism. ))

you mean your fellow left wingnuts, right?

[Frau Alptraum]

" And we must redouble our efforts to build a nation worthy of their sacrifice."
>>>>Right now it sucks big time. I need another term to totally transform this crappy country of negative rights.

" A united America of grit and resilience, where sunlight glistens off soaring new towers in downtown Manhattan, and we build our future as one people, as one nation."
>>>>The new Obama Towers will house my libraries and the nation, Soros willing, will be the crown of the United Socialist Societies.

[Jim Ryan]

Here's that Romney quote, 2007. Video at the link:

It’s wrong for a person running for president of the United States to get on TV and say we’re going to go into your country unilaterally. Of course America always maintains our option to do whatever we think is in the best interest of America. But we don’t go out and say “ladies and gentleman of Germany, if ever there was a problem in your country [and] we didn’t think you were doing the right thing, we reserve the right to come in and get them out”. We don’t say those things, we keep our options quiet.

Romney says something smart and on the mark extemporanously. Obama lies stupidly using a teleprompter.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Frau-

A wee bit of a problem. It's THE Freedom Tower.

No esses.