Former top Navy SEAL who oversaw the Osama bin Laden raid says the US is 'under attack from the president'

https://www.businessinsider.com/william-mcraven-navy-seal-us-is-under-attack-from-trump-2019-10?fbclid=IwAR112jj4j0fAjqOuU6A2MQ8ST9-AyzfuPWrUVeVL-0SS9YhuytYWo0UY9wU

David Choi
Oct 17, 2019, 5:25 PM

The retired US Navy Adm. William McRaven, a Navy SEAL who oversaw the raid that took out al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, gave a bleak assessment of President Donald Trump and alleged the commander in chief was gutting the country of the "nation's principles."

In his fiercest condemnation of the president yet, McRaven recounted in a New York Times opinion column, titled "Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President," a military ceremony he recently attended at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he reflected upon the thousands of US service members who marched on the parade field before him.

"For everyone who ever served in uniform, or in the intelligence community, for those diplomats who voice the nation's principles, for the first responders, for the tellers of truth and the millions of American citizens who were raised believing in American values — you would have seen your reflection in the faces of those we honored last week," McRaven wrote.

But "beneath the outward sense of hope and duty," McRaven wrote that "there was an underlying current of frustration, humiliation, anger and fear."

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"They have seen our leaders stand beside despots and strongmen, preferring their government narrative to our own," McRaven wrote. "They have seen us abandon our allies and have heard the shouts of betrayal from the battlefield. As I stood on the parade field at Fort Bragg, one retired four-star general, grabbed my arm, shook me and shouted, 'I don't like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!'"

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McRaven added that Trump "is wrong" to think empathy is "unimportant" or shows "weakness."

"These are the virtues that have sustained this nation for the past 243 years," McRaven said. "If we hope to continue to lead the world and inspire a new generation of young men and women to our cause, then we must embrace these values now more than ever."

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