Navy SEAL's book breaks code of silence

If you’re a Navy SEAL, you don’t kill and tell.

Author Matt Bissonnette, the ex-SEAL who wrote a firsthand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, is self-aggrandizing at best and disloyal at worst.

His book, “No Easy Day,” which was released just before the anniversary of 9/11, tells his version of what happened the night of the raid, making the point that bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot. Bissonnette claims to be one of the shooters who finished him off. He also wrote that he and the other SEALs joked about how President Obama would take outsized credit for the mission.

In an appearance on CBS’s “60 Minutes” last week, Bissonnette gave the impression that the successful assault on the bin Laden compound was a tribute solely to his team. He seems to forget that the SEALs are just one — albeit invaluable — spoke in the wheel of events that led to bin Laden’s death. The CIA, specialists around the world who studied the compound in Abbottabad and the military strategists who worked for months on the plans are all spokes in that wheel.

But only one man turned that wheel, and that was Barack Obama. He took the risk of making the singular decision that might have crippled his chances for a second term if it went wrong. The odds, according to military leaders involved in the planning, were only 50-50 that bin Laden was in the house. Even after years of surveillance, no one could say for sure if the Al Qaeda leader was alive and in residence, or how the compound was rigged, or who was there to defend the stronghold.

As it happened, the operation was blessed by good timing, good luck and brilliant work by the SEALs, who got in and out quickly, mission accomplished, with no lives lost except for the bad guys. But it was President Obama who sent them on the mission and wished them godspeed. If you look at the photos from the war room during the raid, you know in your heart that this decision weighed mightily on this president.