Barack Obama doesn’t know his Navy from his Army or Marines

Posted on August 23, 2012August 23, 2012 by Bookworm

In my previous post, I huffed and puffed about the fact that the top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan ruminated that, quite possibly, it was the NATO troops’ own fault that Afghan forces shot them, because NATO forces had been insensitive to the stress of Ramazan (the Afghan version of Ramadan). My hope is that General Allen was playing a deep game, one that involves some degree of self-deprecating tact on camera, and aggressive action behind the scenes. Otherwise…. Well, read my post.

Of course, it’s worth remembering that leadership begins at the top — and the top isn’t General John Allen in Afghanistan, it’s our august Commander-in-Chief, Barack Obama, he of “corpse”-man fame.

CIC Obama, leader of all American troops, has now added a new gaffe to his resume, one that sees him incapable of distinguishing the Navy from his other commands. Thus, when he condescendingly dismissed a charge from Special Forces to the effect that, for political advantage, he’s been leaking military secrets, Obama managed to make this doozy of a mistake:

Perhaps most seriously, however, was Obama’s slip in an interview with KSDK in St Louis, Missouri when he was asked about the new 22-minute film ‘Dishonorable Disclosures’ by a group of former Special Forces troops and intelligence operatives.

‘I won’t take this film too seriously,’ he responded. ‘I gather that one of the producers is a birther who still doesn’t think I was born in this country.

‘You’ve got one who was a candidate, a Republican candidate for office. And a proud card carrying member of the Tea Party. So this is obviously a partisan film.

‘I’d advise that you talk to General McRaven, who’s in charge of our Special Ops. I think he has a point of view in terms of how deeply

I care about what these folks do each and every day to protect our freedom.’

The difficulty with this is that William McRaven is and admiral not a general. As a SEAL, he is member of the US Navy, not US Army or US Marines.

You should actually read the whole article from which I quoted, because the Daily Mail is unsparing in highlighting Obama’s many gaffes — gaffes that are not just a matter of mixing up words but that, instead, bespeak a profound ignorance about the world, coupled with an arrogance that is ill-suited to a man who knows so little.

Speaking of arrogance, you did catch that, when introducing several NBA basketball players to a crowd, Obama said that “It is very rare I come to an event where I’m like the fifth or sixth most interesting person.” This is a typical Obama self-referential joke, one that involves the unseemly spectacle of him placing his ego on display, before delicately backing away from that (to him) enchanting spectacle. In other words, you just know he’s not joking. In his mind, he is the most interesting person in every room. Or maybe it’s just his teleprompter that is.