Former top Navy SEAL who oversaw the Osama bin Laden raid says the US is 'under attack from the president'
- The retired US Navy Adm. William McRaven, a Navy SEAL who oversaw the raid that took out al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, gave a bleak assessment of President Donald Trump and alleged the commander in chief was gutting the country of the "nation's principles."
- In his fiercest condemnation against the president yet, McRaven recounted in a New York Times opinion column a military ceremony he recently attended at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he reflected upon the thousands of US service members who marched on the parade field before him.
- McRaven pointed out what he said were examples of the US neglecting its duty to be the "the protectors of the less fortunate" — including Trump's recent decision to withdraw troops from Syria as Turkish-backed militants wage war against the once US-backed Kurdish militia.
- McRaven added that Trump "is wrong" to think empathy is "unimportant" or shows "weakness."
The retired US Navy Adm. William McRaven, a Navy SEAL who oversaw the raid that took out al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, gave a bleak assessment of President Donald Trump and alleged the commander in chief was gutting the country of the "nation's principles."
In his fiercest condemnation of the president yet, McRaven recounted in a
New York Times opinion column, titled "Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President," a military ceremony he recently attended at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he reflected upon the thousands of US service members who marched on the parade field before him.
"For everyone who ever served in uniform, or in the intelligence community, for those diplomats who voice the nation's principles, for the first responders, for the tellers of truth and the millions of American citizens who were raised believing in American values — you would have seen your reflection in the faces of those we honored last week," McRaven wrote.
But "beneath the outward sense of hope and duty," McRaven wrote that "there was an underlying current of frustration, humiliation, anger and fear."
McRaven said that despite the apolitical nature of various military branches, intelligence agencies, and public-service organizations, the people employed by these groups had witnessed "the assaults on our institutions" under the Trump administration.
"They have seen our leaders stand beside despots and strongmen, preferring their government narrative to our own," McRaven wrote. "They have seen us abandon our allies and have heard the shouts of betrayal from the battlefield. As I stood on the parade field at Fort Bragg, one retired four-star general, grabbed my arm, shook me and shouted, 'I don't like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!'"
More:
https://www.businessinsider.com/william-mcraven-navy-seal-us-is-under-attack-from-trump-2019-10