Retired Commander of the USS Cole, Kirk Lippold is unhappy with President Obama’s decision to politicize the killing of Osama bin Laden. “This whole thing of even putting out that ad, to me is just disgusting because you are politicizing a national security decision,” Lippold said during an interview with The Daily Caller on the one-year anniversary of bin Laden’s killing.
(Listen to our full conversation with Commander Lippold here.)
“Any president that was put in that position would have probably made the difficult choice,” he said. “I don’t care what political stripe they are, they would have done it.”
Lippold, who commanded the USS Cole when it was attacked by al-Qaeda during a 2000 refueling stop in the Gulf of Aden, has substantive reasons for opposing the Obama ad: “I lived with the consequences of the disconnected national security policy between two administrations,” he said, “and I do not like to see national security decisions or events politicized to try to score political points during a presidential election year.”
Lippold credited President Obama with making the right call, but also added that “spiking the football like we are seeing done right now, I think is inappropriate.”
If you’re interested in learning more about the attack on the USS Cole, Lippold has penned a new book about it: “Front Burner: Al Qaeda’s Attack on the USS Cole.” You can also listen to streaming audio of our conversation here, or download the podcast on iTunes.