Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Was The SEAL's Chinook Torpedoed By The Chattering Class?

Editorial
Investor's Business Daily
August 8, 2011

War On Terror: The deaths of more than 20 Navy SEALs from the unit that took out Osama bin Laden may be linked to a loose-lipped vice president and a presidential action figure.

The last scene of the 1954 Korean War film "The Bridges at Toko-Ri," based on the James Michener novel, shows a carrier commander watching planes take off for another mission and asking, "Where do we get such men?"

The same may be asked of the members of Navy SEAL (sea, air, land) Team 6 who died when the helicopter they were riding was hit by a Taliban-launched rocket-propelled grenade in the Tangi Valley of Wardak province just west of Kabul, Afghanistan.

That they were the best of the best is an understatement. To be a Navy SEAL, you had to be even better than that. President Kennedy formally created the SEALs as an elite force composed of America's best capable of combat operations in any theater or environment. They've performed bravely and admirably, although it is fitting we may never know of their greatest successes.

To be a politician takes more chutzpah than courage. The chattering class, as the mainstream media are called, pondered how the SEALs' killing of bin Laden last spring might affect President Obama's re-election chances in 2012. So did administration officials, as the leaks and chest-thumping began immediately. After all, it happened on Obama's watch, we were told.

No comments:

Post a Comment