The Trump Administration’s decision to continue hyping a failed Yemeni raid, despite all evidence to the contrary, as having netted a trove of intelligence continues to blow up in their face tonight, as Pentagon officials once again affirmed that the information gathered was minimal, and things they already knew about. Some equipment was recovered giving them some insight into tactics, but so far none of the laptops and cellphones seized has any useful information on it.
This is in keeping with what other US officials said just two days prior, that no “actionable” intelligence was gathered in the raid, but is in direct contradiction to claims by President Trump last night at the Congressional address, and Vice President Mike Pence today, that “significant” intelligence was obtained.
The first major foreign military operation on his term, President Trump has invested a lot of effort into portraying the operation as an unquestioned success. Repeated concessions from the military that there were myriad problems, and things didn’t go nearly as well as intended, have all been dismissed, with Trump continuing on with the success claims.
That we never really get good information on what the source of intelligence is for future raids means it’s likely impossible to ever conclusively prove no actionable intelligence came from Yemen, though the fact that the Pentagon keeps saying this is the case certainly lends credence to the idea that the operation, on top of all of its other failures, didn’t accomplish anything intelligence-wise.
This is where it would be good to try to keep that protruding thing from the mouth firmly in check. Since when is the public being so revnosly informed about the effects of a raid? Mostly never. In the Bin Laden assasination — there was a helicopter that crashed. And with some luck nobody was killed. But they were flying into Pakistani skies, and we need not be naive, Pakistan kept the air open for the operation. In this raid, they had no such advantage and they ran into ambush. It could have been worse. So, what is the point in letting the public know of actionable information, if any? No reason, other then to contradict Mathis and Trump. And how does it serve Pentagon’s objective? It does not serve anyone, other then inflicting deliberate pain to the desd soldier’s widow. This would not be the first or the last mission that went wrong.
The outcome demonstrates the value of gathering intelligence on the ground before acting. Hard but not impossible when you pay well.
NBC writes an article citing the ubiquitous “Pentagon officials” who present a different story other than what the Secretary of Defense said about what the mission accomplished (see: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/mattis-livid-at-reports-disputing-value-of-yemen-raid/article/2616233#! ).
So now the question is, who’s really in charge of the Pentagon?
Here is some Intelligence from the Yemen Raid Fiasco.
The V-22 Helicopter is an expensive, dangerous piece of junk.
https://warisboring.com/your-periodic-reminder-that-the-v-22-is-a-piece-of-junk-db72a8a23ccf#.dnsn3g1vo
http://www.g2mil.com/scandal.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_V-22_Osprey