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| U.S. Navy SEAL Trident |
Written by Greta Hyland
Do you know who Robert O’Neill is? No? Well, he’s supposedly the Navy SEAL who shot Osama Bin Laden. He has been heavily criticized for speaking out publicly about the secret mission and in a recent article in The Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/08/bin-laden-seal-robert-oneill-shooter-critics), has taken the gloves off and come out swinging at his critics.
Now, I don’t know why the guy would lie about something that could so easily be verified, so I’m going to say I believe him when he says he killed Bin Laden. But the point of contention seems to be over the fact that he is speaking publicly, not just about whether or not he pulled the trigger. The Navy SEALs have a history of being silent professionals, of being combat Special Forces who don’t talk about what they do, so when some of them do speak out, they are largely criticized from within their own ranks.
I can see both sides of the coin on this. I think there is merit to guys keeping their mouths shut, but people inherently want to know about what SEALs, and the military in general, do. Their missions are interesting, exciting, and largely, unbelievable. Why wouldn’t we want to know about what they do? But even more than that, the government promotes the military to keep enlistment numbers up. Everyone else can write stories about their lives, why not the SEALs?
It is an interesting thing to learn about our heroes, military ones in particular. We like the Captain America type stories, but often don’t like the real-life stories because they don’t have the perfect ending, the gloss, or the polished feel that comes with a propaganda piece. So when we get the real person, we often crucify him, not for what he did, but for who he is.
While questioning our military and our government is a good thing, and we should do it, we must also remember that our service members are human, and are often asked to do inhuman things – things that most of us wouldn’t do. People who join the military are inherently different than people who do not. Generally speaking, they cuss a lot, fight a lot, and are usually pretty wild and they have to be. But they are also disciplined and dedicated and learn a type of patriotism that most who have not served will never know.
Robert O’Neill has retired from the Navy and is now a public speaker. If he killed Osama Bin Laden, then he deserves the recognition that comes with it. Like the military or not, we have one and it is used for a very specific purpose. Osama Bin Laden was the mastermind behind the killing of thousands of Americans. When people who lost loved ones on 9/11 tell O’Neill he says this,
“All right, Osama bin Laden died like a pussy. That’s all I’m telling you. Just so you know. He died afraid. And he knew that we were there to kill him.”
Spoken like a true sailor with the added veracity of a frogman. We don’t get to create our heroes or mold them into our version of what a hero should be. When we ask the government to address something, and we did, it does it. My opinion? I say, Well done O’Neill, tell it like it is and let them howl. They’ll criticize you no matter what anyway. Hooyah.
