Politicians vs. Navy Lives

During my years in the Navy I had a few interactions with our special warfare troops, specifically the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) and their successors, the Navy SEALs. SEALs are remarkable, extremely competent warriors whom our nation calls on to carry out the kind of special operations few others can do. Years ago, as a Navy helicopter pilot, I occasionally flew small teams of SEALs out over the Pacific so they could practice their night, over-water parachute jumps. Although I would never doubt their courage, as a pilot I will always question anyone’s decision to jump out of a perfectly good aircraft, particularly at night over the ocean. But that’s the kind of men they’re are. They do whatever the mission demands, all that must be done, even in training.

Something else most people don’t know about SEALs is their intentional avoidance of publicity. Indeed, the less said about the SEALs in the media or anywhere else, the happier they are, something that applies to most special warfare groups. As you might expect, they’re a highly decorated bunch, but many of the citations for their medals are classified and cannot be shared with others. There are, of course, important reasons for all this. Because most of the operations conducted by SEALs are clandestine, and for good reason highly classified, media coverage can jeopardize other related operations and national security. But media coverage can also endanger the lives of individual SEALs and even their families. This is especially true these days when the target of most operations are terrorist groups that would love to know the units and the men responsible for destroying their people and assets. The Navy and the entire Department of Defense, therefore, do not release the identify of individuals, unit names, or even which special warfare groups were involved in an operation. It’s always best to keep the enemy in the dark and guessing about who’s just hammered them.

At a Pentagon briefing the day after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011, a senior defense official was asked if it were a Navy SEAL team that found and killed the world’s most wanted man. The terse and proper response was: “Not going to comment on units or numbers.” On May 3, however, Vice President Joe Biden, at a awards banquet event in D.C., told the world that Navy SEALs we’re responsible for taking out the terrorist leader. His words:

"...the incredible, the phenomenal, the almost unbelievable capacity of the Navy SEALs and what they did last Sunday...I'd be remiss also if I didn't say an extra word about the incredible events, extraordinary events of this past Sunday. As Vice President of the United States, as an American, I was in absolute awe of the capacity and dedication of the entire team, both the intelligence community, the CIA, the SEALs."  

Hearing this, most folks considered it fine praise for our Navy special operators. But not the members of SEAL Team Six. They were surprised and upset that the Vice President had named the SEALs as the operators involved in the mission. Most told their families to remove any references to them and the SEALs from social media because intelligence folks had already alerted them of expected attempts to retaliate. For example, the next day, SEAL Aaron Vaughn called his mom and told her, "There's chatter and all our lives are in danger, including yours. Mom."

Three months later, on August 6, 2011, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. All 38 aboard died, including many members off SEAL Team Six, including SEAL Aaron Vaughn. Was this attack related to the earlier "outing" of the SEALs? Unanswered questions still remain about this incident, and many believe it was a well-planned attack by the Taliban in retaliation for the raid against their favored ally, Osama bin Laden.  Check out this report: SEAL Team Six Betrayal.

Here’s a brief news video from 2012 highlighting the family of one of those SEALs killed by the Taliban.

When it comes to understanding military operations, politicians often display abysmal ignorance. As you might expect this leads them to say and do a lot of foolish things. Joe Biden’s not alone here. Politicians of all stripes have fallen prey to the temptation to reveal information best kept confidential. Sometimes they do so simply to grab a headline, gain a few political points, or just to hear applause during their after-dinner speech. Ironically, too often they hope to highlight their patriotism by addressing things military. I suppose this is to be expected since so few members of Congress are veterans. Back in the late 60s and early 70s almost 80% of the members of Congress were veterans. Today it’s down to about 20%. Joe Biden was one of his generation’s exceptions. He never served in the military, but instead got one deferment after another. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump did much the same, but at least Trump seems to understand his job is to define the objectives and let his commanders do what’s necessary to achieve them. 

Perhaps our politicians' most catastrophic errors have been the politically inspired rules of engagement forced on our warriors by those who have never experienced combat. Our enemies today don’t follow the rules of the Geneva Convention, but use any means whatever to kill and destroy. How many 911s do we need to understand this? To send our warriors into harm’s way with their hands tied behind their backs always leads to unintended but predictable consequences that inevitably result in disaster.