Toby Harnden ? SEALs slam Obama for using them as ?ammunition? in bid to take credit for bin Laden killing during election campaign
Navy SEALs blasted Barack Obama for taking credit for the killing of Osama Bin Ladent. One SEAL went as far as to say Obama did not even make the call.
?In years to come there is going to be information that will come out that Obama was not the man who made the call. ?
This was devastating. Leave it to the British press to get to the facts of the matter.
The Daily Mail reported:
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.
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?
?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.?
?A serving SEAL Team member said: ?Obama wasn?t in the field, at risk, carrying a gun. As president, at every turn he should be thanking the guys who put their lives on the line to do this. He does so in his official speeches because he speechwriters are smart.
?But the more he tries to take the credit for it, the more the ground operators are saying, ?Come on, man!? It really didn?t matter who was president. At the end of the day, they were going to go.?
Chris Kyle, a former SEAL sniper with 160 confirmed and another 95 unconfirmed kills to his credit, said: ?The operation itself was great and the nation felt immense pride. It was great that we did it.
?But bin Laden was just a figurehead. The war on terror continues. Taking him out didn?t really change anything as far as the war on terror is concerned and using it as a political attack is a cheap shot.
?In years to come there is going to be information that will come out that Obama was not the man who made the call. He can say he did and the people who really know what happened are inside the Pentagon, are in the military and the military isn?t allowed to speak out against the commander- in-chief so his secret is safe.?
