slate - "What Happened Behind the Scenes Before the Yemen Raid?"

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2017/02/who_s_to_blame_for_the_botched_yemen_raid_that_killed_a_navy_seal.html

We can’t be sure, but it was not a normal vetting process.

By Fred Kaplan

The Jan. 28 raid on an al-Qaida outpost in Yemen, which resulted in the deaths of a Navy SEAL fighter and several civilians, was approved by President Trump with no advice or consultation from intelligence officers or military commanders, according to officials familiar with the chain of events.


As the New York Times reported on Wednesday, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented the plan over dinner at the White House, on Jan. 25, to Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his political strategist Steve Bannon.

Officials told me that Trump approved the plan then and there. The next day, the National Security Council’s Deputies Committee—an interagency group of deputy and undersecretaries from various Cabinet departments—held a meeting to discuss the plan. But, as one official put it, the meeting was “pro forma and irrelevant,” as the decision had already been made.

The raid—which involved several dozen commandos from the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team 6 and from the United Arab Emirates’ elite forces—was the first operation in a new policy, proposed by the Pentagon, to step up joint ground attacks against al-Qaida militias in Yemen. Military officials briefed President Obama on the policy proposal, which would give lower-level officers broad latitude to carry out such attacks without going through the sluggish process of seeking authority from higher-ups. Since this would mean a significant escalation of America’s military involvement in Yemen, Obama deferred the issue to his successor, according to a former White House official.

snip

[uppityperson]

1. k&r

[gratuitous]

2. How much military training and experience do Donald, Jared and Steve have?

Isn't it weird that the military folks would present their cunning plan and accept authorization from three people who've never served in the military, and who didn't consult with anyone else? Did Mattis and Dunford have such confidence in their plan that they didn't think anything would go wrong? Or did they see an opportunity to finagle a dubious mission past a clueless new administration, one that the previous administration probably had enough experience to realize the mission had some problems that needed to be addressed?

Who didn't care enough about the troops involved to make sure the mission was planned as well as it could be?

[KittyWampus]

4. This needs be investigated.

[tinrobot]

6. Bannon was in the Navy and worked in the Pentagon

Doesn't mean he has sound judgement.

[underpants]

3. Trump wasn't in the Situation Room

Mattie had to leave an advent at the alfalfa club when it went tits up

[jmg257]

5. The Chairman of the the Joint Chiefs of staff isn't a military commander?

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) is, by U.S. law, the highest-ranking and senior-most military officer in the United States Armed Forces, and also the principal military advisor to the President.

The National Security Advisor, who serves as the chief in-house advisor to the President of the United States on national security issues, isn't an intelligence officer?

This article is pretty wack.

[Blue_true]

7. National Security Advisors don't have to

Have an intelligence background. The Director of National Intelligence normally has a loaded intelligence background.

I think the article seems to be attempting to make Trump's screwup not look as bad as it should. Other reports say that President Obama did not sign off on the raid because intelligence was inadequate to insure the Seals would not walk into a trap.

[central scrutinizer]

8. Fly on the wall

Deadbeat Diva: what did the Kenyan decide?
Toady: we need better intel
Diva: weak! Loser! Attack now! Let me know how fabulous it was after Celebrity Apprentice's ratings are in.