"They died for nothing?"

Jake Tapper's Interview with Lone Survivor Vet Marcus Luttrell: 'They Died for Nothing?' - YouTube

Having been a journalist (admittedly a print journalist and not a broadcast air head) and a soldier, I find Tapper's performance here not only arrogant and ignorant but obscene. They were never without out hope. It may seem to have been hopeless from the outside, but that is because you know what happens. And it was not senseless nor were these men sent to their deaths needlessly.

First, ops go bad. Sorry, but that happens.
Second, you never have enough good intel.
Third, the bad guys always have a vote in any plan.
Fourth, just because mistakes are made, you don't go lopping off heads ... mistakes are to be learned from, even ones costing human lives.

War is not a video game. It just about as unsanitary and ugly as it gets, and unless you have seen its true cost (not on a screen but  up close and personal embedded in your skin and clothes close) then you really don't get to appreciate that reality. All losses are bad, but losses are necessary in combat because you have to take risks and sometimes those risks overwhelm you.

Tapper doesn't get it. Period.

People wonder why I don't like broadcast journalists ... Tapper, however genuine his sympathy and concern may be, is an example. He just doesn't get it.

To the SEALs: Godspeed, gentlemen, and may the grass be green in those Elysian Fields.