Questions rise about tRump-ordered raid in Yemen - The Hill

[ffr]

The first military operation ordered by President Trump may have resulted in as many as 30 civilian deaths and the killing of an American operative, according to several reports questioning the intelligence behind the raid in Yemen.
<snip>

The Times and Washington Post have reported that just about everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong on the mission and that it appears al Qaeda fighters in Yemen were tipped off to the approaching forces from the United States and United Arab Emirates.

The U.S. has acknowledged the civilian casualties.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement that a team investigating the incident had "concluded regrettably that civilian non-combatants were likely killed." - The Hill

This is the guy who says he ALONE can defeat ISIS and knows more about doing that than the generals do.

Again, seeing this through tRump's eyes, THIS WAS A DISASTER. A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER. Now tRump's disaster.

[yallerdawg]

1. He said he would target women and children - families.

Fight fire with fire.

Even though this is not who we are.

Now he has managed to make us more like them already.

Expect more "amazing" and "beautiful" flag-draped caskets.

After all, as Spicer says: " ...most service members understand, that that's why they joined the service."

[The_Voice_of_Reason]

3. Good Post...

This Trump raid does seem to have kept some of his worst promises from the campaign...going after terrorists family members.

I recommend to every young man and woman...this is not the time to enlist into our military, service under Trump's command to dangerous, and not worth the risk.

[moondust]

5. "Many, many brave soldiers died for me."

I fear he'll get high from twisting everything to feed his malignant narcissism, and that will lead to even more death and destruction in pursuit of more highs. I think "dying for the king" has been a fairly common notion down through history.

[Fred Sanders]

2. But the Trumpenfuherer and the military said it went peachy keen...they would not lie, would they?

One promise kept at least, to kill family members of alleged terrorists without mercy or compassion, including American kids it seems.

[Horse with no Name]

4. spicer said it was Obama's fault

[NBachers]

6. Can you imagine the howler monkey hysteria if Hillary had done this right after her inauguration?

[FairWinds]

7. How was this action in Yeman legal under US law?

Congress has not even held hearings on the wars in the
region, much less voted for any of them.

Seems to me that US military folks should seriously consider
whether they are being issued illegal orders.

If so, they are bound by their oaths to the constitution
to disobey.

Veterans For Peace

[IggleDuer]

8. Trump-ghazi!

N/t

[ffr]

13. Al Bayda

A raid he approved over dinner. DINNER!

This guy is a complete disconnected fool!

[irisblue]

9. and will that man stand at Dover and walk his victim back home?

[pansypoo53219]

10. which city will be his 9/11? the super bowl is a big target. gee? radicalize americans? you bet.

maybe hollywood will pay this time. TRUMP hotels look nice and handy too. just look for TRUMP.

[Blue_true]

15. Unfortunately, a blue city will be attacked.

Not the small red cities and towns that gave us Trump. Unfortunately, terrorist attack where the people and economic activity are.

[zentrum]

11. But Benghaaaazi.

Will the Democrats step up and investigate this Yemen tragedy for God sakes?

[Ilsa]

14. They don't have committee power to do it, but

They can have meetings investigating it, but it will be difficult to get press coverage from major news outlets unless the Dems can guarantee some fireworks. The networks might cover it if there is some drama involved.

[BobTheSubgenius]

12. Remember the failed helicopter rescue miision to Tehran.

Remember how damaging that was to Jimmy Carter? How is this Fail not at least as bad?

[Blue_true]

17. Republicans lie about their mistakes, Democrats

Own up to theirs. Terrorists killed far more Americans under Reagan, Bush I and Bush II than under Carter, Clinton and Obama - but how many people know that. We got tons of outrage over the sailors that died when the Cole was bombed under Clinton, but hardly none when the Beirut bombing killed over 220 Marines under Reagan.

[gratuitous]

16. I'm impressed with how la-de-da conservatives have suddenly gotten

The first reports out of Yemen said there were no civilian casualties. Now there's more than 40. Even an elitist coastal never-in-the-military pacifist like me knows that in the first hours after a military event, there isn't much good hard information available about exactly what happened. As tidy as the movies like to portray fire fights, there's a lot of noise and confusion, running and ducking, yelling and screaming, and it's not always clear who is where and whether those rounds whizzing by you were fired by the enemy or your own side.

Nevertheless, in the immediate aftermath of Benghazi, as the administration was trying to piece together what had happened, every preliminary statement, every valid surmise, every wild guess, was taken down in evidence against the administration and used against them in hearing after hearing.

I think getting to the bottom of what happened in Yemen should require at least two hearings, one of which must have an 11 hour live grilling of the Secretary of Defense, who must answer every question, particularly about why the military originally claimed that there were no civilian casualties.

I also think that everyone in the Trump administration who was in on this needs to answer a lot of questions. We know that the planning for this raid began under the Obama administration, but Obama never gave it the green light. Was that because there were too many uncertainties in the proposed raid? Not enough upside to justify a direct engagement with armed hostiles? Who asked the Trump administration for authorization of the raid? Who granted that authorization? Why wasn't the commander-in-chief in the Situation Room while the raid was going on?

Once we have answers to those basic questions, I'll bet that folks with actual military experience will be able to think up a lot more questions.

[uponit7771]

18. " al Qaeda fighters in Yemen were tipped off "