After reading Lee's recommended diary, Swiftboating Obama (for real), I decided to watch the 20+ minute video from OPSEC titled, Dishonorable Disclosure. By the end, I came to a few conclusions:
1. There are a bunch of retired officers that have hurt feelings. My actual first impression? They're acting like a bunch of babies. Yes, I know that we don't call Navy Seals nor CIA operatives babies but when I watched Ben Smith at about 7 minutes in, I knew we were dealing with a temper tantrum. These guys are pissed and the only way they know to fix things are to throw a hissy fit.
2. These guys are intelligent. They know how to walk a fine line so that they are unlikely to be accused of conduct unbecoming an officer. Yes, even retired officers have to follow a few rules including:
Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
http://www.au.af.mil/...
3. By wrapping this entire package in the glory of service and the fear of reprisal from our enemies, they are feeding the hounds. Tea Party folk eat this stuff up. Unfortunately, some undecided voters might as well.
What's interesting is that President Obama can chose to tackle this on two fronts. First, he and his campaign can see this as the political attack that it is, despite repeated assertions from OPSEC that it isn't. According to OPSEC's homepage, they are a political committee, despite a report in a national newspaper that they are a social welfare group.
Pay special notice to the screen shot:
Screenshot of OPSEC Mission Statement taken 8/16/2012
This organization is formed to specifically target the current administration. Period. Of course, the gramatically incorrect sentence makes us wonder what in the hell they might actually be up to (bolding mine):
Second, given the practice of public disclosure of classified or sensitive information pertaining to military or intelligence practices and methods by this administration.
The Obama administration can tackle the members of OPSEC as well. I am unsure of the rules and regs governing retired CIA, but I know that telling the President of the United States to "Shut the Fuck Up" is contemptuous speech and bleeping a word on video does nothing to hide Bill Cowan's contempt for the current Commander-in-Chief. The video ends with those very words coming from this man's mouth. As a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the USMC he knows better. In fact, contempt bleeds from the very screen as several former active duty officers smear the current administration while wrapping themselves in the flag and in their own service to our country.
Furthermore, the website itself offers even more ammunition for the Administration. OPSEC accuses the President of outright lying. And then, after questioning the President's decision making, claim that his hands were tied when it came down to actually going after Bin Laden:
The decision to execute the raid on the compound in Pakistan was unavoidable, and neither bold or courageous. In fact, there was no practical way out. The political cost of failure was far less than the cost not trying in the face of evidence of Bin Laden's presence. To be confronted with the information that there was between a 45% and 60% chance OBL was in the compound and to have not executed the operation to kill OBL, who was responsible for the deaths of approximately 3,000 American citizens in New York City alone and untold others on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, would have ultimately been discovered, and would have resulted in Obama's removal from office by either electoral defeat or impeachment and removal.
They are making this a damned if he did/damned if he didn't scenario. They are so caught up in their own hype, that they make accusations that just don't hold water. Supposedly, when President Obama made the announcement about Bin Laden's death, he wasn't speaking to citizens, he was speaking to voters. I mean, seriously? A President speaking from the podium of the White House is always speaking to at least some voters but the reality is that the White House is where the President speaks to the People of the United States.
This is the kind of crap that makes me angry with our partisan military folks. I understand anger at a President. My own issues with President Bush awakened my own political soul. But when our military folks can't see the difference between political grandstanding (President Bush in pilot garb announcing Mission Accomplished from the deck of the USS Lincoln) and an announcement to the American people from a podium at the White House, then we're in a shit load of trouble.
To make it worse, these men think they know better than the current Commander-in-Chief. They like to think that we may have been able to get rid of Al Qaeda once and for all if only President Obama had held that announcement by a week, maybe by a few days. They can question the decision making all they like, but without the same information that the President himself had, their second guessing is reminiscent of teenagers questioning the decisions of their parents. Children don't always understand why we make the decisions we do.
The accusations that President Obama made the announcement about Bin Laden's death were politically motivated are clearly that - accusations. They offer no proof. As military officers, OPSEC could do much better.
As a military wife, I am shaking my head in disgust. As a registered Independent voter, they make me question the Republican mindset all the more. I have never been more certain that now is the time for more military family members of all political persuasions to speak up and say that crap like this is part of why we hate elections. This video does nothing to further the honor of military service. In fact, I think it has done exactly the opposite.