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“Thank you for your service. Matt Bracken has the air of a lifer on a pension who thinks he’s better than the hoi polloi who subsidize his literary career, such as it is.”

His bio says he completed the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, but it says nothing beyond that.

To become a Navy SEAL not only must the candidate complete BUD/S, but also SEAL Qualification Training (SQT) and have been designated as a U.S. Navy SEAL.

So, perhaps he didn’t go farther than BUD/S. Some guys complete BUD/S but for one reason or another go no further in the SEAL program; that could be because of injury, disability, change of heart, or failure to complete the next stage (SQT). But anyone who completed BUD/S deserves a hell of a lot of credit.

It took my cousin’s nephew two attempts to get his Trident (completion of the full SEAL program).

[So, perhaps he didn’t go farther than BUD/S. Some guys complete BUD/S but for one reason or another go no further in the SEAL program; that could be because of injury, disability, change of heart, or failure to complete the next stage (SQT). But anyone who completed BUD/S deserves a hell of a lot of credit.]

I’m sure he’s an excellent soldier. The question is whether his personal qualities match his skill at soldiery. Making excuses for a tyrannical conqueror like Putin has widened the distance between him and someone like our Cincinnatus, George Washington, to a chasm:

https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdstatehouse/html/gwresignation.html
At the end of the Revolutionary War, many people in America and Europe thought Washington would retain the reins of power to become the leader of the new nation, or even king. When told by the American artist Benjamin West that Washington was going to resign, King George III of England said “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”

Maybe in a different age, Matt could have been Alexander, a man who butchered his way to eternal fame. Maybe that’s what he sees in Putin - a man who is merely doing what he would do himself if he held the reins of power in Russia.