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-Election 2012

Champ attacks US Navy SEALS

2012-08-18

On Thursday morning, campaign officials waged a full court press against the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, a group of former U.S. Special Forces and intelligence officials accusing President B.O. of leaking vital national security secrets and taking too much credit for the killing of the late Osama bin Laden
... who doesn't live anywhere anymore...
When the group launched its anti-Obama media campaign Wednesday, consisting of TV ads and a 22-minute film, it wasn't clear if Obama officials would avoid a potentially messy confrontation or refute the military veterans publicly. But now the campaign has made clear it views the attacks in the same light as the 2004 John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, the Senate's current foreign policy expert, filling the vacated wingtips of Joe Biden...
"Swift Boat" attack ads, which, however misleading, were painfully effective.
And, of course, they weren't misleading...
"The Republicans are resorting to 'Swift Boat' tactics because when it comes to foreign policy and national security, Willard Mitt Romney
...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the presumptive Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field. On the plus side, he isn't President B.O...
has offered nothing but reckless rhetoric," Obama campaign front man Ben LaBolt told Rooters' Mark Hosenball

...whose report may have been hacked. It's so hard to tell sometimes...

last night. Taking a direct shot at the leaders of OPSEC, an Obama campaign official lambasted the group's accusations about national security leaks this morning.

"No one in this group is in a position to speak with any authority on these issues and on what impact these leaks might have," said the official, speaking on background, "and it's clear they've resorted to making things up for purely political reasons."
Which is why he's speaking on background and won't release his name...

Posted by:Besoeker

#24 USN retd
Although born and bred a grunt, the Sullivans act pulled me back from my choice of duty stations, SEA19770, and I was S1 of an ADA-Nike Hercgroup-- until I got out. You ever try to have a conversation with a bunch of engineers?
Hell, my xo thought
Medal For Horatius--available on line--was straight.
But we defended the Detroit-Cleveland Air Defense Zone until the Sovs got tired.

Posted by: HAVAVE 2012-08-18 23:43

#23 Proc, they did that with us in SERE school back in the day: catch and eat small game.

Posted by: OldSpook 2012-08-18 23:30

#22 RA, I agree that riding a P3 hanging on 2 motors chasing a sub isn't as thrilling as offing bad guys, but anybody that uses "I'm a SEAL" to pick up chicks is lower than a Democrat, and I wouldn't call that ink; I was referring to actual pressers and the like.
(for the record, my ASW time was fixing Sikorsky stuff in a per diem free zone)

Posted by: USN, ret. 2012-08-18 21:51

#21 Have the real military leaders we have left come up with a plan yet to kill the stupid people who give phucking useless orders to troops and phuckedup rules of engagement yet?

Posted by: Unearong Angomosh4693 2012-08-18 18:15

#20 Somehow Caterpillar Eater just doesn't have the same joie de vivre.

Posted by: SteveS 2012-08-18 18:06

#19 That's good, too, Jan. I,m glad you thought of it. :-)

Procopius2K and PBMcL, thank you for explaining snake eaters.. I believe OldSpook once wrote similarly about why it's critical to cook caterpillars to well done when eating in the field.

Posted by: trailing wife 2012-08-18 16:02

#18 TW here is the link from Rantburg's post yesterday

http://rantburg.com/poparticle.php?D=08/16/2012&SO=&HC=6&ID=350316

Posted by: Jan 2012-08-18 15:13

#17 USN. Ret. The snake eaters get lots of popular, hero-worship ink. That's what I was talking about. It's why fat old guys in bars try to pick up chicks by telling them they're ex Navy SEALs instead of, say, ex Mech Infantry. There's something to be said for fighting off lethal boredom in an Orion shadowing Sov boomers for twenty years. Making stuff not happen is laudable, too, but gets no ink.
That said, Obama with his tin-eared, lefty, deliberate ignorance of things military, including minor issues like honor and brotherhood, thinks he's only arguing with some prima donna wannabe politicians.
All of us, from the WW II generation currently fading in nursing homes, to guys on active duty now, have had or contemplated having to do something which, if it had been blown would either not have happened or been a catastrophe.
CSM Eric Haney talks of two ops to get guys out of Laos, both blown. He didn't specify who likely did it. Nobody likes that shit. And you don't have to be in Devgru to be annoyed.

Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2012-08-18 14:21

#16 As of last night the video had over a million hits; as of just now it's 1.47 million. Instapundit linked to it last night. If someone would be kind enough to post the YouTube link in this thread, I would be grateful.

Posted by: trailing wife 2012-08-18 13:47

#15 Barack is REALLY messin up. Not that these guys would do anything illegal, but even from a political perspective, he is messing with people who are committed to a mission success rate of at least 100%.

Posted by: Dopey Thinetch6071 2012-08-18 13:15

#14 I can't see where this makes a bit of sense, except maybe under a "hit back twice as hard" strategy. It will appeal to BHO's left wing base who hate the military, but they are already in the tank. For everyone else, it is unattractive and rather petty, besides.

Posted by: SteveS 2012-08-18 12:02

#13 Snake eaters? Why are they called that?

Used to have mandatory survival training which included live hands on instruction in the morning or early afternoon on killing various animals [usually chicken and rabbits and sometimes a snake], then skinning, prepping and then that evening, when we had our turn at 'Field Butchery 101', eating them. The instruction usually was done by a Ranger or other 'Special Ops' type who would also include the display of biting the head off a snake rather than chopping it off. Thus the tag 'snake eater'.

Later that evening when we were killing our 'meals', the real entertainment would begin as those who failed to pay attention to the earlier instructions found 'interesting' way to off the creatures.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2012-08-18 11:23

#12 Snake eaters? Why are they called that?

I'll defer to the experts on the exact origin of the name, TW, but as a Ranger friend of mine likes to say, "you should be able to eat anything that can't eat you, and some things that can."

Posted by: PBMcL 2012-08-18 11:00

#11 Considering that this administration seems heavily driven by focus groups and opinion surveys (e.g., Champ's campaign slogan "Forward" tested better than "Backward" or "Sideways" by a margin of 6%), you have to assume that Champ's advisers were having some kind of Ryan-induced mental breakdown when they recommended an attack on the OPSEC group. Every opinion poll since 1776 (like this ) has shown the US military to be the most-respected institution in in the country, and every little boy in the country plays "Navy SEAL" when his liberal parents aren't looking. So Champ is tugging on Superman's cape to begin with. And this particular attack -- "America's heroes vote Republican!"-- just has to have been suggested by Karl Rove.

And it's all Champ's fault for putting himself on that helicopter to Abbottabad.

Posted by: Matt 2012-08-18 10:51

#10 Snake eaters? Why are they called that?

Posted by: trailing wife 2012-08-18 10:45

#9 The rest of the military might feel the snake eaters get more ink than they deserve, even when it's not opsec dangerous. But everbody respects what they do.

Respectfully disagree, RA. When I was ACDU the SPECOPS guys got hardly any press, and that is the way they wanted it. Hard to work in the shadows when all the lights are turned your way. We had SEALs as part of our outfits and they were so low-key that until there was a full dress inspection, you most likely didn't even know they won the Trident.
And then President Big Ears tries to claim all the glory....

Posted by: USN, ret. 2012-08-18 10:24

#8 Classic Obama.

Just keep him off script and off teleprompter and he will dig his own grave with his hate and leftist radicalism.

Posted by: DarthVader 2012-08-18 10:11

#7 The rest of the military might feel the snake eaters get more ink than they deserve, even when it's not opsec dangerous. But everbody respects what they do.
These clowns are dissing all current and former service members.
It's a lame attempt to distract from such unforgivable crimes as outing the Pak doctor.
Won't work.

Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2012-08-18 09:58

#6 the Obama campaign isnt hesitating to take down a group of former SEALs whove criticized the presidents national security decisions.

Obama, you are going to end up a bigger loser than you are now going after the special ops community.

It's not about his national security decisions (although some of these decisions suck), it is about Obama and his administration not being able to shut their collective pie holes in an attempt to take credit for something they did not do--to aggrandize themselves at the expense of spec ops security and methods. It is about a lack of humility by Obama and his minions--it is about puffing up and inflating the Narcissistic-in-Chief.

Posted by: JohnQC 2012-08-18 09:41

#5 "There are a lot of gutsy, successful American warriors who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didnt -- look, if youve been a successful special operator, you didnt get there on your own. You didnt get there on your own. Im always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so skilled and athletic. There are a lot of fit, brave people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking SEALS out there.

"If you were gutsy and tough, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great gym teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American military system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in choppers and Zodiac boats. If youve got a hit on some big time terrorist -- you didnt do that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didnt get invented on its own. DARPA research created the Internet so that all the SpeOps could do G2 off the Internet.

"The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting radical Islamists, we dont do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own SEAL team. That would be a hard way to organize fighting terrorists.

"So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. Thats how we funded the G.I. Bill. Thats how we created the middle class. Thats how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. Thats how we invented the Internet. That'w how we killed Osama Bid Laden. Thats how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and thats the reason Im running for President -- because I still believe I killed Osama not those SEALS. Their not on their own, were all in this together."

Posted by: Bari Shabbaz 2012-08-18 09:26

#4 We must speak out newc, we are called to do so. And ..."At thy call we shall not falter".

Posted by: Besoeker 2012-08-18 03:05

#3 Of what use to say anything anymore?

Posted by: newc 2012-08-18 02:34

#2 Attacking veterans has always been unseemly, the work of cowards and lesser men.

Posted by: Besoeker 2012-08-18 02:07

#1 after all, "Navy SEALs don't have guts to admit they're running a GOP, anti-Obama campaign"

Yeah right, Navy SEALS are gutless wonders, unf***ingbelievable.

Hopefully they will stop any future leaks from occurring.

Posted by: Jan 2012-08-18 00:36

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