The US official speaking anonymously appears to be engaging in damage control. I read and posted a link yesterday to a CBS news article that quoted a survivor of the ambush, a US serviceman in the patrol. The information in that article said that the patrol had grossly overstayed its original 24 hour reconnaissance mission. The reason was that the mission was changed and the patrol was directed to proceed to a location where the ISIS target was seen, to capture or kill the target. The kill or capture mission was supposed to have been originally undertaken by another US lead patrol. The reconnaissance patrol was told they would be joined by the other patrol, but for reasons unexplained, the kill or capture patrol was not sent and the reconnaissance patrol was instructed to conduct the kill or capture on its own. The survivor claimed that the extended duration of the mission exposed the patrol to enemy surveillance. The evidence that they had been spotted was a transparent attempt to delay the patrol in the town they were in immediately before the ambush, and the sighting of two motorcycle mounted men who sped away when they were seen by the patrol. So it appears to me that the Administration is engaging in anonymous sourced leaks to inject a sanitized version of the events and the mission details. Why had the Administration said nothing about the mission until specifically asked about it middle of last week? And what connection is there between the mission and Trump’s idiotic quip about the calm before the storm which occurred after the ambush?
The used of the word “betrayed” is symptomatic of misunderstanding. when you’re in hostile territory, there are people whose allegiance is not with you but with the people you’re fighting. They’re doing exactly what a sensible person would expect them to.
It is to divert attention from the Administration’s having hidden the presence of 800 US troops in Niger from any congressional oversight and its orders for a reconnaissance patrol to conduct a kill or capture mission on its own, with no immediate air back up or reinforcements available.
Q: Just what is the military doing in Africa? No one seems to know…
But hey - let’s not look closely at that - instead… Lets hold hearings on: Her Emails! MoxNews Conspiracy Theory! Obama’s Fault!
In matters of extramarital sex, as in matters of using Private Email Servers and accounts to circumvent FOIA (originated by GOP politicians), as in matters of increasing the Deficit, as in matters of bungling intelligence and military operations, as in matters of causing Economic Depressions
It’s Always OK if You’re a Republican