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Navy SEAL Who Shot Bin Laden Fires off Message to Liberals Trashing Trump's July 4th Parade

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The former Navy SEAL who claims to have fired the shot that killed 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden had a message Wednesday for those criticizing President Donald Trump over the upcoming “Salute to America” Independence Day parade in Washington, D.C.

Many people seemed to take particular issue with the fact that the parade was set to include tanks.

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Do you think there's anything wrong with including these tanks in the Independence Day parade?

But Robert O’Neill, who was part of the team dispatched to eliminate bin Laden, offered a bit of perspective on the tanks.

“Dear triggered Americans,” he tweeted, “These tanks are on your side.”

And then the kicker: “You’d know if they weren’t.”

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O’Neill was not the only former member of the military to see things this way.

In a piece for National Review, Iraq War veteran David French noted that “tanks have had their own very benign role in Washington parades for a very long time.”

“Tanks have rolled through the streets during inaugural parades for presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Kennedy,” he wrote. “This picture, from Eisenhower’s second inaugural shows tanks in motion in a way that would lead to a Twitter meltdown today.”

“There is nothing ominous about their presence, especially given the fact that our military is (rightly) one of the last trusted institutions in America,” French added. “It does not threaten our Constitution; it protects our founding principles.”

In fact, French believes most people will enjoy seeing the tanks.

“In reality, I suspect that many thousands of Independence Day visitors will enjoy seeing the tanks,” he wrote. “In fact, the sight of military equipment is a time-honored recruiting tactic. They fire the imagination of young people who could see themselves in command of a magnificent machine, performing noble and heroic service to our country.”

Trump, for his part, has continued to defend the parade.

“The cost of our great Salute to America tomorrow will be very little compared to what it is worth. We own the planes, we have the pilots, the airport is right next door (Andrews), all we need is the fuel,” he tweeted Wednesday.

“We own the tanks and all. Fireworks are donated by two of the greats. Nice!”

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Joe Setyon was a deputy managing editor for The Western Journal who had spent his entire professional career in editing and reporting. He previously worked in Washington, D.C., as an assistant editor/reporter for Reason magazine.
Joe Setyon was deputy managing editor for The Western Journal with several years of copy editing and reporting experience. He graduated with a degree in communication studies from Grove City College, where he served as managing editor of the student-run newspaper. Joe previously worked as an assistant editor/reporter for Reason magazine, a libertarian publication in Washington, D.C., where he covered politics and wrote about government waste and abuse.
Birthplace
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