In Their Own Words: Obama's Effect on Military Families

By Elise Cooper

President Obama seems to have a disregard for those defending America. Recently, on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, he commented on the death of three Americans and Ambassador Chris Stevens: "... it's not optimal." The mother of Sean Smith, a Foreign Service officer and one of the three killed, reportedly responded to the president: "My son is not very optimal. He is also very dead. It was a disrespectful thing to say[.]"

That is how many families feel about the president's attitude toward those who have died serving their country. Billy and Karen Vaughn spoke with American Thinker about their deceased Navy SEAL Team Six son, Aaron, and their views on this administration's rules of engagement policies.

Aaron Vaughn was one of thirty U.S. service members, including 22 members of SEAL Team Six, killed when the helicopter they were traveling in was downed on August 5, 2011, in Afghanistan. This was the largest loss of life in the history of naval special warfare. At the time of his death, Aaron left behind a two-year-old son, a two-month-old daughter, his wife, and his parents. He became a SEAL in 2004 and joined SEAL Team Six in 2010. He was one of the few SEALs to get his name on the "First Time Every Time Wall," an honor for those SEALs who passed every test on their first try.

Read more at: American Thinker  

The Fog of Fog

Today’s syndicated column summarizes the week in bin Laden narrative bungles. The Navy SEALs did what they were told to do. It’s President Obama’s civilian messengers who can’t tell a straight story and do right by our heroes who risked their lives. The White House Keystone Kops aren’t just squandering a public opinion bump. They’re squandering the victory of our men in uniform, along with the intel-gatherers who made the mission possible. Milblogger Greyhawk reminds us of a past bungled narrative from this administration that undermined troop morale and national security. As Blackfive military blogger Froggy put it bluntly: “Get your s**t together, Mr President!”

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The Fog of Fog
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011

The official White House account of Osama bin Laden’s demise has seen more slapdash cosmetic surgery over the past week than your average “Real Housewives” reality-show star. President Obama’s allies attribute the bungled “narrative” (their word, not mine) to the “Fog of War.” But each passing day — and each new set of hapless revisions — shows that what really ails the administration is the Fog of Fog.

Errors happen. Miscommunications happen. Confusing the name of which of bin Laden’s myriad sons died (Hamza, not Khalid), for example, is no biggie.

But the hourly revamping of key details of Sunday’s raid suggests something far beyond the usual realm of situational uncertainty that accompanies any military operation. The Navy SEALs did their job spectacularly. The civilians tasked with letting the world know about the mission, however, have performed like amateur dinner theater actors in a tragi-comic production of “Rashomon-meets-The Blind Men and the Elephant-meets-Keystone Kops.”

Incapable of straightforward answers, Team Obama’s clarity-challenged civilians have led nauseated news-watchers through more twists and turns than San Francisco’s Lombard Street.

Take your Dramamine, and let’s review.

Take One: Bin Laden died in a bloody firefight.

Read more at: Michelle Malkin