Posted by
Steve on Wednesday, August 10, 2011 9:20:12 AM
There are a number of theories on why the Navy Seals were being used over the weekend, but there is one that seems to hold water more than the rest. That theory is that Barack Obama knew that the Stock Market was going to go into the tank in a big way on Monday. He needed a big victory like he got with Osama bin Laden to raise his stature in order to weather the storm. So, he sent in the Navy Seals to get the Taliban leaders who were holding a meeting in this obscure town. The operation was poorly planned and executed. It was also a set-up and a trap. As a result, 22 Navy Seals, 3 Air Force Special Ops and 5 Army Special Ops were killed when their Huey helicopter was shot down by an RPG.
There are a number of questions about this operation. First is, why send in the Navy Seals? If you have information that the Taliban leadership is meeting in a town, send in an unmanned Predator Drone to shoot them or send in a Cruise Missile. Those would not endanger American lives and would kill the Taliban leadership more effectively than the Navy Seals could have. I am not saying that the Navy Seals are not good. I am just saying that they were the wrong tool to use in this case. An unmanned unit was more appropriate than a unit of military personnel. An unmanned unit is faster and does not endanger American lives.
Second, why send in the Navy Seals with old technology? The Huey is a great helicopter, but it has been around since Vietnam. It does carry a lot of payload. But it is very slow and hard to maneuver. The Navy Seals are used to helicopters that are much faster and more maneuverable, which makes them less vulnerable to being shot down. Huey helicopters are easily shot down because of their slow speed. They are also very noisy which takes out the possibility of surprise.
The last thought on the Navy Seal debacle is that the Taliban sure knew when and how our men were coming. That means that the people giving us the information were plants from the Taliban. Why did we not check out the people giving us the intelligence before going in half cocked? How could the Taliban know of our plans without the plans being leaked by the informants? I know that getting the leadership of the Taliban is a great goal, but more care should have been put into this plan. The entire operation smacks of someone who is desperate for some splashy show of American might that he risked everything on poor information.
After the Navy Seals got shot down, Obama’s plan was doubly destroyed. Not only did Monday happen with all its destructive powers, but he did not have the win he so desperately needed. He had the loss of our most valuable troops to deal with as well as the Stock Market crash and the devaluation of our credit rating.
So, when Obama came out and gave his speech on Monday, the Stock Market dropped 250 points while he was talking. Since it only lost 600 points for the day, it lost almost half of that total during Obama’s speech. That does not speak well for Obama’s credibility. Now, yesterday the stock market gained back about 2/3 of what it lost on Monday. That is good, but things are not rosy.
S&P downgraded our credit rating because of the amount of debt we have. There are other issues as well, but that is their main reason. They also said that the budget deal does not really address the underlying problem, which is the debt. That is true. The budget deal only cuts about $1 trillion over 10 years. That is next to nothing. If it cut $1 trillion in the next two years, then we might have not lost our AAA credit rating. But, Congress would have had a cow over that amount of cuts that fast.