"Loose lips sink ships!"
There are thousands to millions of individuals that have devoted their lives to silently serving and sacrificing to keep this Nation safe. Having sacrificed their bodies, having given up holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, births, deaths, and graduations with their families to serve in the worst s***holes of the world, they've withheld from even those families, the valorous acts they've undertaken. They've lived the law of "need to know" even when their colleagues had the security clearance to hear. Video produced by Special Operations (OPSEC) Political Committee.
It should be no surprise that there's a burr under their saddles, when politicians put those lives at risk, to prove how smart they are. The video above spells out why pretty clearly. I encourage readers to not only watch the video but share the video with everyone they know. But, before I saw the video, I heard complaints about it, from supporters of the Politician leaking the information. Those supporters "couldn't understand" why this would be an issue. As such, I'll throw my own two cents in the ring:
During WWII, Winston Churchill received classified information that the Germans would bomb a particular city. He was faced with a dilemna. He could warn the town and save thousands of lives, but if he warned the town, the Germans would find out he had, and there was but one way the English could have gotten the information. The Allies had broken the highest level of encryption the Nazis had, and had become privy to the highest levels of communications, communications the Nazis were certain could not be broken. Because they did not believe it breakable, the de-cryption of it revealed information that eventually defeated Nazi Germany. Churchill could not warn those townspeople, because while it would have saved those thousands of lives, it would have cost hundreds of thousands or millions more lives in the war.
In 2001-2003, US Forces came close to killing or capturing Osama bin Laden numerous times. And every time they were getting close, some idiot on CNN would have to prove how smart he was. He would explain in detail, how he had figured out to within 100 miles of where OBL was. Bin Laden would stop doing those things, and the trail would go cold.
In 2011, we finally got bin Laden. There was likely a single individual that put those bullets in our #1 enemy's body, but he didn't do it alone, and it wasn't a politician. It was a team effort, by individuals that have devoted themselves so completely to defeating Our enemies, that few outside their families and colleagues even know they are anything more than "common SeALs," which are elite forces in their own right.
It wasn't the decisions of a single bureacrat or politician that led to the information for that operation. It was information gleaned from Gitmo detained terrorists, as well as ongoing NSA operations, as well as CIA operations, and probably a dozen more agencies we don't even know about. But there was a single Pakistani doctor singled out, because a politician wanted to prove to the world how smart he is. That doctor was providing vaccinations and provided the DNA proof that that was the right house. He should be living large, basking in the millions of dollars of reward money. Instead, he languishes in a Pakistani prison, because a politician in the White House wanted to prove how smart he is.
And it's not just that Doctor that has suffered. By revealing the means of how we found out, for certain, where ObL was, that politician also put in jeopardy all Doctors providing polio vaccinations in Pakistan. 250,000 kids cannot be vaccinated, because the Taliban are worried that those Doctors too will give the CIA their DNA. Doctors have been killed as a result. Doctors have been shot and beaten, because a politician wanted to prove how smart he is.
If the Silent Professionals can overcome the temptation to brag in the bar about their exploits, then that Politician that watched them in an air-conditioned office on the big screen should be able to keep his trap shut too. Even Diane Feinstein of California understands that, and she's a supporter of the Politician in Chief. There's a good reason why those that sacrifice take issue with the senior politicians of this country, and this is just one more example. In this case, he is risking their lives, as well as their ability to keep this Nation safe.
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