The sounds of silence:

Monday-May 9, 2011

The sounds of silence:

As I watch the President speak to our military and expound on the essence of American values, I accepted it with skepticism. I fear that the president if he is learning about the values that our forefathers set before us is learning about them late in life and for the wrong reasons.

His speech, his words and the attitude was right but I am still suspect. I am suspect about the drastic turn in his desire to use the military and to speak and support about everything he campaigned against. If he has made the turn and has seen the light that’s one thing but if he is using our military strength to prop himself up that is something entirely different.

Many Presidents go out of office different from when they entered office. I suspect that the pressures and the ability to do great things does put a perspective on things that we idle citizens don’t see. Friday I related a quote from Ronald Reagan, he said: “Don’t be afraid to see what you see.” What I am beginning to see is of great concern.

The killing of Bin Laden on sovereign territory in another country was a necessity because it was a raid that no one knew anything about. You might say, Pakistan harbored Bin Laden illegally and had full knowledge that he was there. You might be right. However, consider this for a minute. Pakistan is run by the military. Pakistan’s president is mainly a figure head. He can be thrown out at any time. The military might have known about Bin Laden and have information on the other terrorists that remain. If the military knew then there is a reason they did not share the intelligence with their president and the United States. This is how the sounds of silence work and there is a reason why some are silent about the obvious.

There was a 25 million dollar bounty on Bin Laden. If that didn’t cause someone to turn him over I don’t know what else would. The unintended circumstance that our president might now have caused is a military quo that will oust the Pakistani president and that will usher in enemies of the U.S. and India. This would become an intolerable situation in that part of the world because of the nuclear weapons Pakistan has.

While the president is telling us not to spike the ball over the killing of Bin Laden he is on the road taking credit and giving a pat on the backs to those who did the heavy lifting. Its one thing to try and galvanize a nation over a great event but it is an entirely different thing to perform an act just to get the credit and not concern your self with the unseen events that could occur in the path that was created.

It’s been a week since the news of Bin Laden’s death was announced to us here at home and the world. I have heard many opinions from liberals and conservatives about Bin Laden’s death. For once my liberal friends favor the fact that he was killed and the military did their jobs. Some of my conservative friends have mixed emotions. I believe some of the feelings that are mixed are that it was under this president’s watch that Bin Laden was killed and they only see the hypocrisy.

What I see is a danger that we might not have anticipated and that no one is talking about. After a week of presidential travels and presidential back slapping and handshaking all of our secrets have been made public. We know that a stealth helicopter now exists. We know that the remains of the destroyed helicopters tail section is in Pakistani hands and the Chinese want to see it and possibly buy it. We know that SEAL team 6 conducted the raid. We know where SEAL team 6’s home base is. We know that there were up to 24 participants. We know that a K9 unit was involved. We know that there was a treasure trove of information that was retrieved. We know that the raid took 40 minutes from start to finish. We know just about every detail including the weather. We also know that our new method of fighting the war on terrorism is with covert military teams similar to SEAL team 6 conducting covert missions through the CIA. We know that General David Petraeus is being tapped for the director of the CIA. Do you see the reason why he is being tapped now? We didn’t know any of this a week ago and our enemies didn’t either. Our enemy is still crafty and is now energized more than ever to do us harm. We now know they know all the details.

I believe that it would have been a far better approach to perform the raid as it was planned but not take any credit and let the news circulate by it self as we deny any involvement. We have stealth technology that no one knew about and so I guess we would have that plausible deniability that politicians like to have and use. This would have been a far better, braver and far gutsier move if no credit was taken. The enemy would have had no doubt over Bin Laden’s death but could not point a finger of blame. It would also have sent a quiet message that someone now has the ability to get anyone, anytime anywhere. This tactic would have caused for uncertainty and mistrust among the trusted in the ranks of our enemy especially in Pakistan. This is a tactic that a smart tactician would prefer over a public proclamation that Osama was killed. But then again this was not a military victory in as much as it was a political victory.

When politics are concerned there is no code of silence even when the sound’s of silence is a far better strategy in the long run.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: The sounds of silence work. During WWII the saying of “loose lips sink ships” was the rule of the day. The same should still hold true today however, the participants with the loose lips need the political victory more than the smart victory