You know how those patriots bought-and-paid-for hacks want us to get rid of the traitor-in-chief for revealing operational secrets of special forces ops?
A detailed first-person account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, written under a pseudonym by a Navy Seal who participated in the mission and was present at bin Laden’s death, will be published next month, according to two publishing executives familiar with the deal.
Bonus ooops:
According to a description of the book, provided by a publishing executive, the author gives a “blow-by blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen’s life straight through to the radio call confirming bin Laden’s death, is an essential piece of modern history.”…
The author also recalls his childhood in Alaska, his grueling preparation to become a Seal and other previously unreported Seal missions.
I’ve given up seeking a sane GOP. I’d settle for one that took its meds regularly.
Image: Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Paumgartner as St. Eustace, c. 1503.
Mwangangi
They have too many reasons to continue to be non-compliant with their med regimen. So they won’t comply anytime soon.
The Moar You Know
Well, you see, the book was written by a white guy, so that’s OK.
When a black Democratic president takes credit for the results of an action he personally ordered, that’s not OK.
We clear?
EconWatcher
By the way, I noticed that Andrew Sullivan has been moved from the “blogs we monitor and mock as needed” to the approved blogroll list.
On balance, I think this is appropriate, because he has certainly atoned for the particular sin that put him in the penalty box: his initial, starry eyed, and entirely uninformed enthusiasm for the Ryan Budget. His commentary on the Ryan Budget and Romney’s fiscal dodges have been exemplary since then.
But unless I missed it, Sullivan’s status was changed quietly and in the dead of night, and must be pointed out, because of all the fun and mayhem that will likely ensue….
Punchy
Holy shit….websites (and soon to be the MSM) is going there. Yikes.
I’m sure this will be blamed on Obama.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
I like how St. Eustace’s flag shows Christ literally sprouting from the head of the Horned God.
(Jaegermeister’s logo has the same motif).
marianne19
If you’re updating the blogroll, Pandagon is now at Raw Story.
joes527
@Punchy: Who you dated in college: Relevant.
Your tax return from the last 5 years: Irrelevant.
What you’ve done in your career: Irrelevant.
The policies that you have put forward: Irrelevant.
The lack of detail in the policies that you have put forward: Irrelevant.
Our politics suck.
The Moar You Know
@Punchy: Well, looks like it’s time for me to fire up the old troll accounts and post that little tidbit of info over at Stormfront and Chimpout. Gonna be like tossing a crowbar into a woodchipper – stand the fuck back.
You done made my day, Punchy.
red dog
The ex-seal who wrote this account must be a staunch GOPer. Why can he not be jailed like the guy who supplied Wikileaks with it’s stuff?
Culture of Truth
Speaking of that, the link to G. Sargent didn’t work for me yesterday.
wenchacha
Sure, they dated. But did they ever have sex?
Origuy
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God: According to legend, Eustace was hunting when he saw the image of Christ between the antlers of a stag. Jäger is German for hunter; Eustace is the patron saint of hunters.
Wikipedia sez: The term Jägermeister was introduced in Germany in 1934 in the new Reichsjagdgesetz (Imperial Hunting Laws). The term was applied to senior foresters and gamekeepers in the German civil service, while the topmost gamekeeper was Reichsjägermeister Hermann Göring. Thus, when the liquor was introduced in 1935, the name was already familiar to Germans and was occasionally called “Göring-Schnapps”.
schrodinger's cat
@EconWatcher: I guess he deserves the promotion after his epic take down of his Oxford Buddy, LLian Ferguson.
BTW why isn’t OTB on the list of the blogs we mock?
Felinious Wench
@joes527:
This is definitely a “take the high ground” moment for us. Who Paul Ryan dated in college is irrelevant, unless it was Ayn Rand.
But oh, the conservative race frothers will be in a twist. And the others will try to spin it as “See? We’re not racists!”
Looking forward to another circular firing squad in the Republican party. It’s refreshing it’s not us.
? Martin
GOP response: If Obama really was a patriot, he’d have that SEAL and the book editors and execs tried for treason and executed before the book could be published.
srv
I like how Obummer was supposed to keep this all sekrit, like that blown up stealth helicopter would not be noticed by anyone and the Pakistani government would give it all a pass.
Omnes Omnibus
@red dog: My guess is that he went through channels and got approval for this. Manning simply reased classified info.
Dennis SGMM
@Punchy:
I’m guessing that she dumped him. That would explain a lot.
mechwarrior online
Them being hypocrites doesn’t mean their charges don’t hold water. That entire fiasco is one of the foremost reasons I’m not voting in the presidential election.
Violet
Since the author is going to be hidden from view, anyone want to bet how long it takes before the wingnuts write off the whole story as one big lie by the Obama administration as an attempt to cover up his supposed failures?
Older_Wiser
OK, then. Written under a pseudonym and this guy was raised in AK? Released right before the election? Does anyone think there could possibly be a kind of swift-boating by this “Seal”? Why should anyone believe anything said by someone who is probably doing something illegal that would get him kicked out of the service and who hides his identity?
Why should we fall for anything written by an anonymous person?
I smell a rat.
Roger Moore
Wow, Dürer is fantastic. A great painter and a really fantastic woodblock artist.
Catsy
@mechwarrior online: Dry snark, trolling, or just a moron with fucked-up priorities? I can’t tell.
Dennis SGMM
@mechwarrior online:
Possibly, but when them changes them’s tone about the release of information based strictly on who’s delivering it then anything them says is of dubious veracity.
The Moar You Know
@Omnes Omnibus: The author had to, the publishing house would have had to as well, and several agencies – both military and intelligence, and probably the White House – would have had to sign off on the final print proof.
@red dog: It’s the difference between getting a permit to remodel your house, doing it to code, and having a building inspector sign off on it all, versus burning down your house and taking the insurance money to build one you like better.
Felanius Kootea
Well there are some ex-SEALS who don’t agree with the swiftboating attempt.
mechwarrior online
@Dennis SGMM:
Look military officers, especially ones in elite units, might as well be the RNC and Tea Party for all that matters. They are rock ribbed Republicans to the core. Having worked in the Navy with brass and alongside officers in that sort of work it’s just the dice. Clinton was bashed and savaged all day every day. Bush getting elected was emancipation from the liberal scum, who frankly aren’t American and fuck them the rules don’t apply.
I get that it’s horrible and nakedly partisan, but that doesn’t remove the fact that mentioning some units is not done, for all involved. That it was done was tasteless, cravenly, and just wrong. And honestly, fuck Obama for doing that and he shouldn’t be CIC anymore.
You can admit that the military brass is in the tank of the Republicans and also admit mentioning SOF units and missions is a fucking huge no no.
Everybody looks goofy in this, and Obama is one of the major ones. I sure as shit won’t be voting for him. I’ll decide what local Democrats I vote for later.
Mnemosyne
@Origuy:
Back in our college days, a friend of mine agreed to drink Jagermeister thinking it was a beer and ended up doing lots (and lots) of shots.
She said it gave her the worst hangover she’d ever experienced.
Raven
@mechwarrior online: You are such a fucking jackass and I’m really getting tired of your bullshit.
mechwarrior online
@Catsy:
No, a Navy veteran. This whole thing is a mess. I am a shocked that Naval officers are after a Democrat, fuck no. In fact I’d be shocked if Naval officers weren’t trying to find a way to screw a Democrat. They can’t say it in public but “fuck Clinton, he’s a Democrat” was the standard response to anything while I was in.
On the other hand, what Obama did was completely outrageous as well. And certainly that sort of action means that “fuck him, he’s a Democrat” remains a valid viewpoint within the Navy.
Citizen_X
@mechwarrior online: Which entire fiasco? The one where they killed Bin Laden, didn’t lose a soul, and told us that they had killed our worst enemy? Cause that was one terrible, terrible fiasco.
SatanicPanic
@mechwarrior online: You’re not voting because Obama killed OBL?
ETA- oh, OK, I see your post above. I totally agree, mentioning units is terrible, so terrible I would rather have Mitt Romney as president. Also, DRONES!
gnomedad
OT: Holy shit, these guys are losing it:
National Review: Women ‘evolved’ to prefer superior rich men like Romney
Tom Levenson
@mechwarrior online:
This is factually wrong. I’ve interviewed on and off the record field and flag officers. Many but by no means all are on the right. Many are not. The proportion may skew right (though it sensitively depends on the service and the branch), but this kind of blanket claim is what we writers technically refer to as bullshit.
As for Obama’s mentioning the unit? Quit clutching pearls. That’s simply nonsense. Name one actual meaningful operational detail that the President released that has an impact on future ops. You can’t.
Mnemosyne
@Raven:
He’s SteveinDC under a new name, so you already know he’s beyond help.
ETA: And he’s already given several different stories for why it’s, like, totally impossible for him to vote for Obama. Troll just keeps trolling.
Legalize
@Punchy:
Ugh. Gross.
Violet
@gnomedad: Wait, wait…so now they believe in evolution? When did that happen?
Emma
@mechwarrior online: Snark or stupidity? Inquiring minds want to know.
Tom Levenson
@gnomedad: Whooey, that’s a doozy.
As I said. Please, GOPsters, for the love of Pasta, take the damn pills.
wrb
@wenchacha:
Is illegitimate rape sex?
gnomedad
@Violet:
Hahaha, great catch; I missed that angle.
Omnes Omnibus
@mechwarrior online: Bullshit. Pure, unadulterated bullshit. The officer corps certainly leans right, but it is by no means monolithic. Your head is so far up your ass that, at least, you should be able to see how full of shit you are.
scav
Art OT — ran across Giovanni Battista Piranesi and his Le Carceri d’Invenzione (The Imaginary Prisons) last night and they reminded me vividly of the state of mind of the GOP at this time: shattered and delusional improvisations in the illogical ruins of a past edifice. Can’t choose which, IV or VII for a start.
roc
It’s probably just another propaganda piece like the first two sloppy government-leaked blow-by-blow accounts.
e.g. I’d bet dollars to donuts there isn’t a single active Seal who grew up in Alaska and the State was likely chosen for exactly that reason.
And there’s probably just as much deliberate disinformation as flag-waving and military-fetishism.
Tom Levenson
@scav: Oooh. Thanks for reminding me of this. To be used in the near future…
Meanwhile, did you ever catch this, Yo-Yo Ma playing a Bach cello suite inside a virtual set drawn from that Piranesi series. I didn’t think that this one of that set of six films was all that strong, but still, cool.
Bobby Thomson
@marianne19:
I hear there’s a decent blog at Esquire, too. Some dude who used to write sports for the Globe or something. Not sure if the stuff there is quotable or anything.
ruemara
@Punchy: no. satsq
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@mechwarrior online:
What did he do?
Kay
@gnomedad:
I certainly don’t speak for all woman (there’s Ann Romney, for one, she exists) but I don’t find Mitt Romney attractive in any way on any measure. He has the strangest combination of
abject, cringe-worthy pleading for approval and love COMBINED with insufferable arrogance that I have ever witnessed. I want to simultaneously tell him “get up off your knees, I’m embarrassed for you, begging them to like you” AND kick him in the shins. You can’t even pity him on the pleading, because he’s ALSO so sure he’s superior.
The thing with the bus driver was typical. Okay, he has to pretend he sees low-status workers, that they exist. He has to do that, because he’s unlikeable and awkward has nothing in common with anyone. I could sympathize a little with that. But then he speaks with such contempt on the bus driver! It’s: “like me, please oh please (but really I’m an asshole)”.
Bobby Thomson
@The Moar You Know:
For your information, the Supreme Court has roundly rejected prior restraint.
Tom Levenson
@gnomedad: The author must have missed this gem.
(Note — all the usual disclaimers arise, especially given that this is an attempt to correlate genes, time, and complex disease outcomes. IOW — I’m twitting Nat’l Review here, not claiming that this study represents a settled scientific conclusion.)
Jay in Oregon
@Punchy:
Welcome to post-racial America! /headdesk
Jay in Oregon
@The Moar You Know:
Hey, you have to share with the rest of us! Imma go get my popcorn…
Mnemosyne
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
He did what Bush couldn’t manage to do and made the Republicans look bad.
You know, the unforgivable sin.
The Moar You Know
@Bobby Thomson: Doesn’t matter. It still is done.
Picon
I dunno. I can’t help but enjoy some schadenfreude after the way Obama has persecuted whistle blowers. He should get whacked around on this one.
scav
@Tom Levenson: oooo back, that should be fun. Certainly hadn’t known about the film, really just discovered Piranesi (to remember him by name attached to specific artwork) last night. Escher meets Gormenghast by way of Goya. Dürer above is more Riddley Walker, speaking of shattered and illogical landscapes.
Older_Wiser
Written under a pseudonym and this guy was raised in AK? Released right before the election? Does anyone think there could possibly be a kind of swift-boating by this “Seal”? Why should anyone believe anything said by someone who is probably doing something illegal that would get him kicked out of the service and who hides his identity?
Bobby Thomson
@The Moar You Know: Forget it, Donny.
grape_crush
“Seal Boat Veterans For Truth“
And the brass isn’t too happy about it, either.
elmo
@gnomedad:
Oh, by all means get out of the boat on that one – the headline doesn’t begin to capture it. He also mocks Obama for having daughters, because manly men – “tribal chieftains” – have sons.
Seriously. And the comments eat it up.
I’m old enough to remember when National Review at least aspired to respectability, before Saint Katherine of the Immaculate Uterus and the Pillsbury Doughboy turned it into a weird Catholic frat house.
The Moar You Know
@Mnemosyne: He didn’t make Republicans look bad – what he did was much, much worse, in that the populace, by a small but significant margin, now thinks they’re safer with Dems in office than Republicans. That hasn’t been the case for decades.
He took away their second-biggest club. Clinton took away their first (the economy) but the Bush recession handed that club right back to the GOP. I know Obama’s done better than any Republican president could have with the disaster he was handed, but that’s neither an easy or convincing sell to a lo-info voter.
cckids
@Kay: Yes. He knows/has been told that he needs the votes of some of “you people”, but HATES that fact. He just knows he & his kind are SO superior to the rest of us, but yet he needs the votes. He doesn’t know how to win over people, since he’s never had to do it, which is where the creepy, weird pleading aspect comes in. The dichotomy is making him crazy. I think it may eventually melt his circuits.
jl
TL, have you seen this one? I think you find it handy for some campaign related post.
Push of pike, or “bad war”, in an early 16th c. engraving by Hans Holbein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bad-war.jpg
Kay
@cckids:
The cookies. Starts well. Normal candidate event. I’m going to pretend to eat cookies with these people, because I’m imitating what a candidate does.
Then he makes fun of their cookies.
This is why I’m starting to doubt the whole “George Romney was a saint” theme. George Romney raised Mitt Romney. Who doesn’t know that you don’t reject/insult food that people bring you, when you invited them there? These are basic things. Not learned.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
It’s possible that George Romney was a good man as a politician but a lousy father. Or that he bought into social and religious views of that time that said the father was supposed to work and the mother was supposed to raise the kids. Or that he did everything he could to teach Mitt to be a decent human being, but it didn’t take because Mitt’s brain is defective and incapable of empathy.
pragmatism
@Omnes Omnibus: we’re both speculating here, OO, but I believe that this was technically a CIA run (TF22) assault package. That’s why it was SEALs and not Delta. The operators should have had to sign a separate confidentiality agreement.
Maude
@The Moar You Know:
Obama also took away the hysteria of 9/11. The Repubs don’t forget that. Also he’s zapped quite a few terrorists. Takes away the weak on defense meme.
Soonergrunt
@mechwarrior online: Could you be anymore full of shit?
What classified information exactly did the President divulge?
Because I didn’t see anything divulged by the White House, the Pentagon, or anyone else that wasn’t already known. There was a lot of speculation about how things went and some of the equipment used, but that was going to happen anyway.
No names of operators were given.
No classified equipment was exposed except the Stealth Hawk helicopter and that was doomed the moment it crashed.
No classified procedures, methods, or policies were divulged except ones that touched on the OPSEC unique to that mission, and that information was blown the moment the first helicopter arrived over Abottabad. It became utterly irrelevant when Bin Laden’s body hit the floor.
It is no surprise to ANYONE that the US has intelligence assets.
It is no surprise to ANYONE that the US has helicopters.
It is no surprise to ANYONE that the US has stealth technology.
It is no surprise to ANYONE that the US has satellites.
It is no surprise to ANYONE that the US has Special Operators.
It is no surprise to ANYONE that the US has encrypted radios.
It is no surprise to ANYONE that the US has suppressed submachine guns and carbines.
I could go on and on and on about things which shouldn’t surprise ANYONE about the Abottabad raid, but the biggest thing that shouldn’t surprise anyone is that all of that stuff was used to find, fix, and finish Osama Bin Laden, or that the existence of any of it would not be publicly confirmed after such a momentous event.
If Bush were President–well, Bin Laden would still be alive, based on his past performance in that regard, but assuming for the sake of argument that Bush actually green-lit the mission, we’d have all been treated to pictures of Bush wearing a tac-vest, hockey helmet, NVGs, a drop-leg rig, and an M-4 in a Chalker sling, strutting in front of the other Stealth Hawk at the SEAL base in Virginia with a “Mission Accomplished” banner strung from the rotor blades.
There are only a few ways to assault a building. Most people with reasonable training and experience can figure that stuff out. There’s only so many ways to clear a stairwell, or breach a wall or a door, or enter a room.
This swift-boating crap the Republicans are trying, and that you are trolling here, doesn’t and won’t work because everybody, even the completely non-experienced, can see is bullshit, and because it is sour grapes.
catclub
@elmo: Huh?
George W Bush – Daughters.
Dick Cheney – Daughters
Dick Nixon – Daughters
Apparently there is a very high bias to daughters vs sons among the children of fighter pilots. They talk about G forces.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
All true, and maybe backed up by the fact that many people have less than perfect parents yet know not to invite someone to help you with YOUR ambitions and then insult their gift.
pragmatism
@catclub: NRO pulled it as it was intended to be a “joke” or “satire” but their commenters didn’t get the memo.
r. douchehat and williamson are twitter twatting about how great it is. https://twitter.com/DouthatNYT/status/238337291607744512
Roger Moore
@catclub:
There’s a common belief among chemists that we’re more prone to having daughters, presumably because of some kind of chemical exposure. I haven’t seen any actual facts to back it up, though.
Soonergrunt
@pragmatism: The story I’ve read is that it went to the SEALS because the CinC of SOCOM was (and currently still is) Admiral Bill McRaven, who himself is a qualified SEAL so he stayed in his own community.
It doesn’t really matter that much. There’s not a whole hell of a lot of difference for something like a raid. It’s a METL task for both SEAL Team 6 and SFOD-D, and they supposedly trade operators back and forth all the time.
pragmatism
@Roger Moore: SEALs have a high incidence of daughters. They call it the Frogman Curse.
Pinkamena Panic
Folks, don’t give mechtroll the time of day. He was one of my first pie filter occupants, and it was the right decision. He’s a righty idiot who thinks he’s convincing us stoopid leebrulz not to vote for That Black Guy Who Isn’t Like Us If You Know What I Mean.
pragmatism
@Soonergrunt: roger that SG. I can’t recall where I heard or read that it was a TF22. If it was, it’s technically contracted out to CIA and there should be more confidentiality hurdles. As others pointed out above, the publisher must have cleared it. another possible explanation is that the book won’t disclose anything that isn’t already out there
Catsy
@Soonergrunt: I really hate Facebook, but I wish I could “like” this comment.
Soonergrunt
@Catsy: Thank you,
Ma’amSir!Roger Moore
@Kay:
And I guess I’m generally distrustful of any attempt to put all the blame for children on their parents. People have their own personalities from a very young age, possibly even before birth, and that has a lot to do with the way they turn out. That’s why families can have both high and low achievers, geniuses and idiots, empaths and sociopaths. It’s not necessarily because the parents did well with some kids and badly with others, but because some of the kids were prone to one thing and others to another.
Catsy
@Soonergrunt: Not that it matters, since I get this all the time with my pseudonym, but the author of this comment is in possession of a Y chromosome. :>
Soonergrunt
@Catsy: Noted and corrected.
cckids
@Kay:
I’ve been a little leery to go there, because some people are so touchy about it, but as a parent, if one of my kids turned out to have the incredibly poor personality of Mitt Romney, I’d blame myself to some degree. Where else do kids learn to be human? George Romney may have had some of his generation’s belief that the raising of kids is Mom’s responsibility, but for both parents, the red flags sent up by the bullying/weird joke behavior of teen Mitt should have brought some kind of attention. Maybe that is just what they are like in private.
The Moar You Know
@Kay: Broke up with a woman a couple of years back. Fairly normal woman, fairly normal ex-husband, and one of the kids was a sweetheart.
The other kid was the main reason I left. Cruel, vicious. Loved to make people cry for fun. Exactly the kind of kid that would (and did) insult someone’s handmade food. Loved to hurt people. If Satan himself had been the father I wouldn’t have been surprised in the least. That little bastard is going to nail all the doors shut one night and burn the house down with everyone in it. I’m serious. I’m 6′ 2″ and over 225 and that fucking eight-year old kid scared the shit out of me. I made sure to never have my back to him, he was that kind of creepy and potentially violent.
I can tell you that it’s very possible that Mr. and Mrs. Romney might have been perfectly fine parents and that something went awfully wrong, something that wasn’t their fault, and they spawned a monster. I guess we should all be grateful he went into politics, because he’d probably have been a serial killer otherwise.
SatanicPanic
@Soonergrunt: Ouch, that’ll leave a mark!
elmo
@pragmatism:
NRO hasn’t pulled it. Still there, still providing giggles to Beavis and Butthead commenters.
Chris
@Tom Levenson:
From the exposure I got when I tried out ROTC, and also from the military and ex-military personnel in my own family, I’ve also noticed that conservative DOD employees tend to spout off about their political beliefs at a moment’s notice whether or not you’ve asked for them, whereas liberal, moderate and apolitical employees tend to be more professional about the whole thing. YMMV.
I am also eagerly anticipating Mechawarrior’s answer of what exactly the President is supposed to have leaked. The identity of an undercover CIA officer, perhaps?
pragmatism
@elmo: i guess their site was down when i checked it. Poe’s law writ large. Also, too, it’s the cover story for the print mag so i suppose they can’t pull it. So they gotta settle for second best, have douchehat run interference and explain to their own commenters that they were trolled.
Chris
@Tom Levenson:
Also, I’d imagine that having an overt conservative bias is much less potentially harmful to your career than having an overt liberal bias. Even if you assume that the military won’t judge you for it, all the people around it – the defense contractors, the think tanks, the PACs, the politicians – are likely to slam as many doors shut as possible to anyone who develops a reputation like Smedley Butler. Whereas if you’re of the opposite persuasion, all these people are on your side.
Supernumary Charioteer
Tangentially related note – absolutely love early modern portraiture, what with all the glossy black armor, heraldry, and tights.
Fred Fnord
@The Moar You Know: I guess we should all be grateful he went into politics, because he’d probably have been a serial killer otherwise.
And, honestly, probably killed a lot fewer people.