CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, October 15, 2012

The November surprise: A movie?

The Internet is rife with rumors that the Obama White House, in desperation, will create some kind of October surprise, ranging from provoking Israel to attack Iran or vice versa or a Turkish-Syrian war or the U.S. will mount a major assault on either Libya or Syria, or both – anything to put U.S. forces on alert so they cannot get to the polls to vote Mr. Obama out of office.

Rumors aside, there will be a November event just two days before the election. Harvey Weinstein, a major financial backer of Mr. Obama, will release a motion picture that will give major credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden to Mr. Obama.

But wait. Before, that happens it might be wise to read: No Easy Day: The Autobiography of a Navy SEAL by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer.

No Easy Day is a firsthand account of the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. Mark Owen is the pen name of a now-retired Navy SEAL who was a member of the SEAL team that assaulted the room that housed Osama bin Laden and two of his wives. But No Easy Day, which tops The New York Times best-seller list, provides more than just the nitty-gritty details as to how the mastermind of 9/11 and other atrocities was killed.

No Easy Day offers great insight into the rugged SEAL selection process, the harshness of life as a Navy SEAL, and into the incredible risks the SEALs have been taking since 9/11. Also, the reader of No Easy Day learns Mr. Obama was very much a Johnny-come-lately and, for a long time, a hindrance to the mission to either kill or capture Osama bin Laden.

Indeed, the author laments that many terrorists who have been captured by the SEALs since the advent of the Obama Administration are turned loose and some of them go back into action against U.S. forces. No Easy Day recounts how the first question asked by Obama Administration lawyers of captured terrorists is: “Were you abused in any way?”

After 2009, to get any kind of SEAL operation approved by the Obama Administration, the skill most needed was not what was learned in rigorous SEAL training but how put together a Power Point presentation that might win the approval of the nit-picking Obama White House.

But the take-down of Osama bin Laden was not the first time that Mr. Obama took credit when very little credit was due. When Captain Richard Phillips of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama was held captive by Somali pirates, the captain of the USS Bainbridge gave the order for a team of Navy SEAL snipers to eliminate the terrorists and save the life of Captain Phillips. Guess who took credit? Folks, I don’t make this stuff up. Read No Easy Day for yourself.

Understandably scrambling to save their stars or any hope of future promotions, the Pentagon brass were quick to disavow Mark Owen’s characterization of the Navy’s SEAL community as having distain for Mr. Obama. In fact, the Pentagon is considering filing criminal charges against the retired Navy SEAL. Go figure.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.

©2012. William Hamilton.

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Email: william@central-view.com