This bit in the article sounds odd -- "U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.
As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists.
The Pentagon directed queries about the officials' characterization of the raid to U.S. Central Command, which pointed only to its statement on Wednesday.
"CENTCOM asks for operations we believe have a good chance for success and when we ask for authorization we certainly believe there is a chance of successful operations based on our planning," CENTCOM spokesman Colonel John Thomas said."
Who were the "military officials" who said that? So, here we have Trump, inaugurated on 1/20, and between that date and 1/29, he approved this mission. However, later in the article (which you edited out) it shows Centcom asking for operations that they believe have a good chance of success, and when THEY ask for authorization, they believe there is a chance of successful operations based on our planning.
The article attempts to blame Trump for this - as if he went off half-cocked and directed a mission that just didn't have adequate intelligence, ground support or backup preparations. However, it was, as the article notes, Centcom that planned the mission and asked the President for authorization. They don't go to the President and say "hey we have this mission here ,and we'd like to go forward," and the President goes "sure, go ahead - no planning or intelligence needed, just do it."
I mean - is that how Obama authorized missions? He conducted detailed reviews of the intelligence, planning and backup of each mission, to ensure that sufficient intelligence, planning and backup existed? Or, did he oversea general policy and goals, and the Centcom planned the missions and represented to him that the intelligence was there and the planning was there, etc., which the President o.k'd?
Then folks take this and run with it -- like this article -
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/02/ ... -raid.html - which declares that "Trump bungled his first operation" becuase he ordered a raid without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations. Sarah Jones puts Ayesha Rascoe's article in quotes, quoting her, who in her article is paraphrasing unnamed "US military officials." LOL. Note, also, that Ayesha Rascoe, the author of the Reuters article, does not say SHE was told by the officials....she reports that the military officials "told Reuters." Oh, yeah? Who?
Weird.
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar
