Since President Donald Trump spoke to the nation Sunday about the death of the leader of the Islamic State group, there has been surprise and concern expressed over the amount of information he shared about the top-secret mission.
“We landed with eight helicopters, a large crew of brilliant fighters ran out of those helicopters and blew holes into the side of the building, not wanting to go to the main door because that was booby-trapped,“ Trump shared in his remarks Sunday.
Congressman Seth Moulton, a former Marine Corps officer, says, “Talking about the number of helicopters, the strategies that the troops used to get in the building, you could tell how many troops there were, where they were coming from, these are all things that we do not want our enemies to know.”
Moulton says Trump‘s message to the nation Sunday was dangerous in how many operational details he revealed, adding, “Oh, it would never have been approved by the military, I can guarantee you that.”
Another comment Trump made: “We took highly sensitive material and information from the raid, much having to do with ISIS, origins, future plans...”
Boston College Professor Natana Delong-Bas, an expert on the Middle East and terrorism, says, “Sometimes the less you say, the better in order to protect the safety of our troops.”
Delong-Bas is concerned the information could have a negative impact on the military’s operational capabilities going forward. And she says there are reports that ISIS has already appointed a new Caliph.
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"I think the message that they’re sending in the process is that you may be able to take out a person, but the Islamic State is here to stay,” she said.
Moulton adds, “It’s also our adversaries like Russia and China who are paying attention and taking notes so that they know what our capabilities are.”
Congressman Moulton says while getting rid of al-Baghdadi is a tactical loss for ISIS, it does not outweigh the events of this past week – what Moulton describes as the precipitous withdrawal from Syria and abandonment of our allies the Kurds – resulting in what Moulton calls an overall win for the terrorists.
