This order demonstrates that Obama insisted on being in command. He wanted to know all the risks of the mission and to be informed immediately if those risks had changed or if new risks had surfaced. If he wanted to pass the blame he would have given the order and then walked away.
The killing of bin Laden was a risky move by the president but paid off big time. Republican bitching that "Obama didn't kill anyone, SEALS did" shows how petty they are and how partisan they can be when acknowledging anything the President has accomplished
The Commander in Chief always has the initiative to take charge. The president knew of the risks. But he needed an out if the mission failed. Essentially, what that letter says is if unforeseen circumstances happen so as to jeopardize the mission the president can claim that the intelligence community failed to do their due diligence, and therefore, the President is blameless because he didn't get the whole picture. Trust me, the only brave decision made that night came from those who risked losing their jobs and/or lives. Obama was certainly going to keep his.
Not being informed of the risks would have been an out. Being informed step by step of what was happening means he knew and approved of it. Win or lose, Obama was calling the shots
Trust me, the only brave decision made that night came from those who risked losing their jobs and/or lives. Obama was certainly going to keep his
You actually believe that?
Obama made an incredibly brave political decision that night. Mens lives depended on it and any failure would have been hung on Obama just like it was hung on Carter. Obama made the decision with the most risk that night. He could have just bombed the compound and be done.
Sending in SEALS was incredibly risky and almost failed. The first helicopter crashed but was expertly landed on the wall. It could have just as easily flipped over and killed all the men inside. If that had happened there is a good chance the mission would have been aborted with Obama taking the blame for the botched mission.
An incredibly brave
political decision??? Wow! He could have been embarrassed? The SEALs could have been dead, but obama is the hero?
Very true...and the blame for sending them into harms way would have rested with Obama
One of the burdens of leadership
Ahhhh, the burdens of leadership.
Indeed, and when they get killed you simply run out to the airport against their families wished so you can get a photo op in front of some dead Navy Seals. When asked why he did it they simply pointed to the photo and said "We didn't show the caskets, we only showed the President saluting. Ahhh the burdens of leadership. There's nothing like a president rushing out to get a photo op with dead SEALs against the wishes of their loved ones. Then you write standardized form letters (The white house calls them "personal letters") to their parents. Classy
Confirmed Obama Sent Form Letters to Families of Fallen SEALs 8230 Update Bush Comforted Troops The Gateway Pundit
Obama Shamefully Uses Navy SEAL Deaths for Photo Op Capitol Commentary
Obama s Shameful Photo-Op
Leadership: Disrespecting grieving families, the president sneaks a photographer into the ceremony honoring the SEALs who died in Afghanistan. The presidential scrapbook and campaign are more important.
We thought perhaps the White House had received a sufficient dose of condemnation as well as some sensitivity training over a planned Sony film hyping President Obama's "gutsy call" regarding the successful Navy SEAL mission that killed Osama bin Laden. The film was to be released three weeks before the 2012 vote. We were wrong.
When 30 U.S. Special Operations forces, including Navy SEALs from SEAL Team 6, the unit that got the world's most-wanted man, were subsequently shot down in a helicopter, the nation mourned its heroes. The White House, it seems, loaded its cameras.
Nineteen of the families asked for no media coverage of the ceremony at Dover, Del. When President George W. Bush was in office, the anti-war media clamored for photos of flag-draped coffins. The Pentagon honored their request for privacy and said any public depiction of the scene would violate the wishes of the families.
So why and how did a photo of President Obama, in silhouette no less, saluting the return of the remains of these brave men find its way to the White House website as its "Photo of the Day"? Did they not get the memo? For what purpose was the photo taken?
If for historical purposes and posterity, we might understand. This photo by a White House photographer was immediately and widely distributed. The Pentagon said it had no knowledge the picture and others had been taken and noted that it hadn't rejected media requests to take pictures of officials at the ceremony as long as they depicted no caskets.
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Obamateurism of the Day Hot Air
Most of the officials who attended the ceremony, including the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, routinely travel with photographers, but they honored the wishes of the families and left their photo people behind… with one notable exception.
Guess who. …
None other than our humble President, Barack Obama, had a lovely photograph of himself raising a salute in silhouette. The White House distributed the photo among the media, and posted it on the official White House web site as Photo of the Day. The Associated Press made a point of not running it, because they said they won’t publish government images of events the media has been denied access to.
