Former Navy SEAL Asks: Where Is The Leadership?
In an interview on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s AM 970 The Answer, a former Navy SEAL team leader in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden criticized Washington’s handling of the war on terror, including the U.S. response to ISIS.
The former SEAL, who wrote the controversial 2012 bestselling book No Easy Day under the pen name Mark Owen, was asked to rate the U.S. government’s war on terror amid ISIS advances in Iraq and Syria and the rise of Al Qaeda-linked groups in Libya and beyond. While stressing that he doesn’t like to get political, Owen stated: “We have a saying: ‘In the absence of order, take charge and lead.’ I don’t think there’s any leadership going on right now. All right.”
He continued: “I heard somebody speak recently, and they said the number one threat to the national security to the United States of America is Washington, D.C.’s inability to make a decision. I have to agree with that. Eventually, somebody needs to make a decision. Right, wrong, or otherwise.”
Owen did not mention President Obama by name. He took aim at Washington leadership as well as the Pentagon for its lack of a coherent policy in the war on terror.
“If you are a leader, make a decision. And if you’re an elected official or general or whoever it is, make a decision and let’s move forward on it,” he told Klein.
The pen name Mark Owen was meant to protect the SEAL’s identity. However, news media recently have widely exposed his real name to be Matt Bissonnette.
Progressive Think Tank Not Dismayed By Election Results
While conservatives widely view last week’s Republican sweep in the midterms as a victory, the most influential progressive think tank in America believes the GOP will compromise and work with the president on such transformational issues as immigration and health-care reform.
The Center for American Progress is often called the “idea factory” of the White House. Its research papers routinely dictate Obama administration policy. CAP founder John Podesta is currently a top adviser to President Obama and a White House counselor.
One would think CAP would be dismayed by the resounding Democrat defeat at the polls this week, which produced a Republican majority in the Senate. Instead, the think tank is expecting the GOP to compromise on key issues.
A posting at CAP’s Think Progress blog says Republicans “didn’t offer an overarching agenda or platform to voters during the 2014 midterm elections and party leaders were careful to avoid sweeping policy declarations.”
“Instead, they promised to compromise with the president.”
CAP envisions a possibly “more harmonious Congress” on some goals that already have bipartisan support. On health-care reform, CAP notes: “Both parties have expressed support for tweaking aspects of the Affordable Care Act by repealing the law’s medical device tax, an independent board tasked with controlling health care costs, and modifying or outright eliminating the law’s employer responsibility provision – a measure the administration itself has delayed twice and some prominent progressives have walked away from.”
CAP is hopeful Republicans and Democrats will work together to “fast-track authority for trade deals with the European Union and nations in Asia.”
And CAP envisions some bipartisan support for the GOP’s goal of approving the Keystone XL pipeline – a project, the CAP blog notes, that “16 Senate Democrats endorsed when the body voted on a non-biding resolution in March of 2013.”
Obama’s Attorney General Nominee Hopes To Emulate Eric Holder
Brooklyn-based federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s pick to become the next attorney general, is a big fan of Eric Holder’s reforms to the criminal justice system, recently pledging to do “even more,” this column has found.