Overhead surveillance footage and no audio
The gloating emphasis Trump put on Baghdadi’s “whimpering” and fear disgusted me from the outset – I hate that kind of thing. I hate it anyway and I hate it x a billion in Trump, who has never in his life demonstrated any kind of courage, including moral courage. I suspected it was bullshit anyway because how would he know that and was it likely? (Not least, Baghdadi probably thought he was achieving a martyr’s death, with all those juicy virgins waiting.) The Guardian confirms he couldn’t know that.
Footage of the US special forces raid on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Syrian compound reportedly consisted of overhead surveillance footage and no audio, prompting questions over the extent of the dramatic licence taken by Donald Trump in describing the final moments of one of the most wanted terrorists in the world.
US officials who also watched the feed have declined to echo details of Trump’s macabre account of the Isis’s leader death on Saturday, including that Baghdadi was “whimpering, crying and screaming all the way”.
Along with all his other faults he’s a sadist. Of course he is.
The footage piped into the situation room would have consisted of overhead surveillance shots of the dark compound with heat signatures differentiating between US fighters and others, intelligence and military officials told the New York Times.
Those cameras would not have been able to peer into the tunnel where Baghdadi died, nor provide audio proof of his conduct during the last minutes of his life.
…
The US defence secretary, Mark Esper, declined to endorse aspects of Trump’s cinematic account in an interview with ABC’s This Week programme on Sunday morning.
“I don’t have those details,” Esper said, when pressed on how Trump knew Baghdadi had whimpered and cried. “The president probably had the opportunity to talk to commanders on the ground.”
The president probably made it all up.
Revolting imagery aside, I don’t get why people make such a big deal about this kind of thing. Your army kills the leader of the group, they get another leader.
The line about “whimpering, crying, and screaming all the way” isn’t even Trump’s own invention. He lifted it from The Jumbo Book o’ Schoolyard Taunts for Young Bullies.
He left out the second part (“Cry, baby, waaaah,! WAAAH! HaHa!!!!) but it’s still recognizable. My parents bought it for me when they caught me reading Anthology of Timid Quotations for The Little Sissy.
God I love you Sastra.
This appears to be Trump’s ground floor. But we haven’t got to the bottom of his lift well yet. Next stop: basement… After that ….
I’m all for terminating Baghdadi with extreme prejudice, but Trump’s gloating is foul.
All he can do is gloat vicariously. He doesn’t have any personal accomplishments of his own. Also notice the 100% projection: he would most likely cry and whimper too. And crying and whimpering at impending death doesn’t mean anything anyway. Those are completely natural and expected reactions to death threats.
Bullshit! Baghdadi blew himself up in a tunnel, a very confined space which would concentrate the explosion. Anybody close enough to hear him ‘whimpering and crying’ would be close enough to be caught up in the blast. The only recorded injury on the US side as a result of the operation was to a dog, and I seriously doubt that the dog was telling anecdotes en route to the vet.
I know we don’t usually do this around here, but can I +1 #3?
Trump’s gloating and insulting braying about Baghdadi’s death is just the sort of thing that will get other Americans killed. Contrast that with how Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden to the world.
Oh, I have been, believe me.
I remember feeling acute discomfort with the raucous celebrations happening outside the White House, and I remember how different Obama’s demeanor was.