© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
The Yemeni raid earlier this month has been the subject of three investigations by the Pentagon, but defense officials told NBC News on Monday they have yet to find any valuable intelligence from the mission.
Comment: Perhaps the purpose of the raid was not, in fact, to gain intelligence but merely to instill terror and fear into the Yemeni civilian populace by murdering civilians, including children. This is a war crime that should be investigated, yet not a single mainstream media outlet is criticizing the US military for its boldly illegal action of attacking a sovereign nation without authorization from Congress to do so. Bear in mind it's certainly possible that this raid was not conducted under the orders of the current POTUS.
Remember, we're being told that the raid yielded no intel by "unnamed Pentagon officials," who aren't the most reliable bunch these days. It could very well be that this is another #fakenews story to undermine the Trump Administration. So what was the point of the raid? A few weeks back Niall Bradley outlined a pretty reasonable explanation:
While Trump's spokesman characterized the operation as "successful", anonymous US intel officials laid the blame for why "almost everything went wrong" at Trump's feet, telling the media that "Trump approved his first covert counter-terrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations." As a result, the mission found itself dropping into "a reinforced al-Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger-than-expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists."
With the American public abruptly exposed to the reality of 'boots on the ground' in Yemen, Trump - who campaigned, among other things, on the basis of reining in military adventures abroad - was left holding a bloody knife. [...]
The Pentagon is seriously asking us to believe that after 8 years of conducting periodic airstrikes, cruise missile strikes and drone strikes against Yemeni civilians and rebels in a hi-tech war in the poorest country in the Middle East, one week into his presidency, it gave executive oversight and operational planning for an apparently hare-brained mission to 'collect hard-drives' from 'AQAP terrorists' hiding out in a village barely located within Saudi-backed, loyalist-held territory... to President Donald 'Celebrity Apprentice' Trump?
I have serious doubts that he was fully briefed on the operation, then "gave it the green light." Nothing better illustrates the lack of real power held by US presidents - especially in foreign policy - than the seamless (and, in this case, apparently reckless) military actions carried out by the US, NATO and Gulf Monarchies during the transition from Obama to Trump
The operation left at least 25 civilians dead, nine being children, and has come under intense scrutiny after the father of the deceased Navy SEAL, Ryan Owens, criticized President Donald Trump for the mission.
The late January offensive was the first US boots-on-the-ground operation in Yemen in two years. Apart from the deaths, a $70 million military helicopter was also destroyed.
The White House, however, has stood behind the operation. On February 8, Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters, "We gathered an unbelievable amount of intelligence that will prevent the potential deaths or attacks on American soil."
That claim is being countered by unnamed Pentagon officials who assert that the only intelligence the attack turned up was a bomb-making video that was irrelevant to any current situation.
William Owens, the father of the slain SEAL, has gone public with his criticism of the raid and the administration's handling of it. Owens told the Miami Herald that he refused to meet President Donald Trump after his son's body was transferred to the US.
"I told them I didn't want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn't let me talk to him," Owens said Friday in his first interview.
"Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn't even barely a week into his administration? Why?" Owens asked. "For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen — everything was missiles and drones — because there was not a target worth one American life. Now, all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?''
Owens' comments come after Spicer rebuffed criticism of the mission by reporters and Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), saying anyone who "undermines the success of that raid owes an apology and a disservice to the life of Chief Owens."
SO many civilian Yemeni lives claimed by amerikkkan bombs for no reason and that's all he can say. Maybe that kind of mentality is the reason why he ultimately raised a son who wanted to dress up and fly all over the world to kill people whenever some idiot like Trump says "kill!"
And I'm sure he's full of pride for his "brave" son and his house is full of pictures of him in his military finery standing in front of many amerikkkan flags.
Some people will just never understand. Very sad.