New York: Osama bin Laden died as a former SEAL member who oversaw operations in 2011. He revealed that he voted for Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the presidential election.
In a column in the Wall Street Journal, the retired Admiral William McLavin severely criticized the Trump administration’s record and its “transactional approach to global issues.”
He did not mention the president’s name. He said that the global influence of the United States is waning because other countries have seen the world’s most powerful country “tore up our treaties, leaving our allies on the battlefield and fighting against tyrants and The dictator feels at ease. (They) see incompetence and contempt for their civilization, which is beyond their memory.”
He also rejected Trump’s assertion that the US is now held in high regard as a result of his leadership. McRaven, who was commander of US Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014, said that the world no longer trusts America to “stand up to tyranny, lift up the downtrodden, free the oppressed, and fight for the righteous.”
He stressed his traditional conservative values, including opposition to abortion and a tough stance on defense matters. But he also declared his support for many of the key issues Biden is running on, including support for racial equality and the Black Lives Matter movement, a fair path to citizenship for immigrants, a return to America’s founding ideals of diversity and inclusion, and the need to take action on climate change.
In recent months, more than 500 retired US military leaders have approved Biden, including four former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. However, since the president took office, McLavin’s criticism has been particularly strong, and he believes that Trump is not suitable for the commander-in-chief. In many interviews and interviews, he accused him of eroding American values and undermining the American democratic system.
He described Trump’s attacks on the media as “the greatest threat to democracy in his life.” In an interview with the Washington Post in February, he said that he worried that if Trump continues to govern, it will bring a future to his country.
“As Americans, we should be frightened,” he wrote. “(When) good men and women can’t speak the truth, (when) integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.”
In another severe criticism published in the New York Times in October 2019, McRaven stated that the United States of America is being attacked by men in the Oval Office.
Trump previously dismissed the criticism, claiming in 2018 that McLaven was a supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, and questioning why bin Laden was not killed faster.
In response, McRaven said: “I did not back Hillary Clinton or anyone else.”
On one occasion when asked to comment on the criticism from the retired admiral, Trump said he did not know who he was.
In his latest op-ed — titled “Biden will make America lead again” — McRaven restated the need for an American leadership driven by “conviction and a sense of honor and humility.”
He concludes with a warning that echoes one given by former President George H.W. Bush in the 1998 book “A World Transformed:” “If we remain indifferent to our role in the world, if we retreat from our obligation to our citizens and our allies and if we fail to choose the right leader, then we will pay the highest price for our neglect and shortsightedness.”
