Donald and Melania Trump make surprise visit to US troops in Iraq

wonderdog

New member
Being that it's a dereliction for an enlisted person to speak against the President, that statement doesn't hold much weight.

None of Catholic Crusader's statements hold much weight.

The Miltary Times poll I'd posted is is probably pretty accurate:

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"About 44 percent of troops had a favorable view of Trump’s presidency, the poll showed, compared to 43 percent who disapproved."

source: Military Times
 

Catholic Crusader

Kyrie Eleison
Banned
Being that it's a dereliction for an enlisted person to speak against the President, that statement doesn't hold much weight.

Guess what: That is the last stupid ignorant post I want to read from you. Welcome to my Ignore List.

For the record, it is NOT their duty to jump up and cheer and applaud and take selfies and get autographs from Trump but that's exactly what they did. Thats because they LOVE Trump, he supports them, unlike the socialist pig Obama.

I hope the other members here will enjoy your future ignorance and stupidities. Luckily I will not see them.


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Crucifer

BANNED
Banned
Guess what: That is the last stupid ignorant post I want to read from you. Welcome to my Ignore List.

For the record, it is NOT their duty to jump up and cheer and applaud and take selfies and get autographs from Trump but that's exactly what they did. Thats because they LOVE Trump, he supports them, unlike the socialist pig Obama.

I hope the other members here will enjoy your future ignorance and stupidities. Luckily I will not see them.


b3df948a-d6ed-4e34-9ab5-9fb76e2f5e5b.jpg



563726a28cccc1a612a9b5517539e395a6cf3a5a194e3974c73bf6665515f07b.jpg



770394-trump-surprise-iraq-visit-troops-dec-27-reuters.jpg





That's like- a couple troops.
So you didn't make a point.
 

The Barbarian

BANNED
Banned
There's something that someone should have stepped in and prevented before it happened:

Trump's reveal of SEAL team in Iraq could endanger its members
"The reason their identities are protected is in case of capture," said intelligence expert Malcolm Nance.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/do...-team-iraq-could-endanger-its-members-n952521

That's not wholly Trump's fault; someone should have stepped in and said "Sorry, Mr. President, but doing this will endanger the lives of these troops."

No one did. And so they are unnecessarily exposed to revenge from terrorists. These are very brave people, and they won't complain. But it was a serious breach of security.
 

Catholic Crusader

Kyrie Eleison
Banned

NBC News backtracks on report that said Trump did not visit troops over Christmas

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainme...aid-trump-did-not-visit-troops-over-christmas

NBC News attempted to backtrack on an article published Wednesday which claimed President Donald Trump did not visit the troops over Christmastime when in fact, he did.

The liberal news outlet admitted in an extended editor's note that "the thrust of this article is no longer correct." NBC also adjusted the headline to: "Trump becomes first president since 2002 not to visit troops on or before Christmas." The president and first lady left Wednesday night to visit the troops on Thursday
 

Catholic Crusader

Kyrie Eleison
Banned
......Trump's reveal of SEAL team in Iraq could endanger its members.......

You're a little behind the times there B. That lie has already been debunked by actual former SEALs interviewed on tv.

Good job spreading the fake news around.

But no source for that? (Barbarian checks)

No, Trump Didn't Reveal A 'Covert' Navy SEAL Team In Iraq
https://taskandpurpose.com/trump-reveals-navy-seals-iraq

You may have heard that President Donald Trump recently posted a video revealing a "covert" Navy SEAL Team in Iraq, and well, that's kinda bull***t......

......The Newsweek article itself isn't completely off base. The Pentagon hardly posts pictures of SEALs to its official visual imagery portal anymore and rarely talks about special operations units or deployments over operational security concerns.

But the headline on the Newsweek article, with the term "covert," is what many people have taken issue with, and for good reason (it's worth noting here that most news organizations don't let authors choose their headlines, so this may not be LaPorta's fault).

"Is it a secret that these guys are out there in that part of the world? No," a defense official told Task & Purpose on condition of anonymity. "It’s been a little more sensationalized than we would've hoped."

"Covert" has a very specific definition under Title 50 of the United States Code, which makes it a matter of intelligence authority, focused primarily on the activities of state organs like the Central Intelligence Agency (with some input from the DoD); this is a direct contrast to Title 10 of the USC, which deals solely with military authority. Title 10 "is used colloquially to refer to DoD and military operations," as the Harvard National Security Journal puts it, while Title 50 "refers to intelligence agencies, intelligence activities, and covert action."

While the two authorities detailed under Titles 10 and 50 aren't mutually exclusive, forces operating under Title 10 are explicitly prohibited from carrying out covert operations, instead relegated to clandestine activities which involve "the tactical concealment of the activity" and don't require an explicit notification of Congress, according to an April 2018 Congressional Research Service report.

"By comparison, covert activities can be characterized as the strategic concealment of the United States’ sponsorship of activities that aim to effect change in the political, economic, military, or diplomatic behavior of an overseas target."

As it stands, the vast majority missions carried out by U.S. special operations forces are non-statutory clandestine operations under Title 10 rather than explicitly (and legally) covert operations under Title 50; OPSEC, in the case of the former, is usually designed to conceal an operation for tactical purposes rather than fully embrace the level of plausible deniability usually referred to spies. In this context, the only true "covert" operation carried out by U.S. special operations forces was the SEAL Team 6 raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.

Simply belonging to a SEAL Team doesn't make your every move "covert," especially if you're hanging out in the DFAC during the commander-in-chief's visit.

All of this is to say that if SEAL Team 5 was deployed to Iraq on a covert mission, there's no way in hell anyone, including conventional U.S. forces, would likely know they were there. I mean, Lt. Lee, the SEAL chaplain, was identified as a member of SEAL Team 5 in the public pool report and photographed by Agence France-Presse. No commander on an actual "covert" mission would ever let that happen, no matter how amped they are to hang out with the commander-in-chief, given the gravity surrounding Title 50 activities; even letting personnel engage with the commander-in-chief in public completely negates the plausible deniability that supposedly comes with covert operations.

This may seem like a pedantic argument, but it's an important one, especially for matters of civil-military engagement. But make no mistake: Revealing the identities of SOF personnel is still bad news, even if they're not tasked with a real "covert" mission.

"Even during special operation demonstrations for congressional delegations or for the president or vice president, personnel either have their faces covered or their face is digitally blurred prior to a release to the general public,” as one DoD official told Newsweek. "I don't recall another time where special operation forces had to pose with their faces visible while serving in a war zone."

On the upside, at least nobody left a whiteboard with troop movements sitting in the background.

U.S. Special Operations Command and Naval Special Warfare Command did not respond to requests for comment from Task & Purpose.
 

Catholic Crusader

Kyrie Eleison
Banned
Trump visited the troops at Christmas even though the fake news first lied about him not going. Only petty snotty little hatemongers try to take away from that with these fake news little side stories
 

The Barbarian

BANNED
Banned
A conspiracy website denied what Trump did in exposing Seal Team 5. But there are pictures. So there's really no point. Further, it's not so much where they happened to be stationed at the moment, as their identities which Trump has exposed.
 
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