"One of the things that marks us as a profession in a democracy – in our form of democracy – that’s most important is that we remain apolitical," Dempsey said. "That’s how we maintain our bond of trust with the American people. The American people don’t want us to be another special interest group." [...] "If someone uses the uniform, whatever uniform it is, for partisan politics, I’m disappointed by that, because I think it does erode that bond of trust we have with the American people," Dempsey told Fox.

"This is an unprofessional, shameful action on the part of the operators that appear in the video, period," U.S. Army Special Forces Maj. Fernando Lujan wrote on his Facebook page, to a chorus of approval from colleagues. A Green Beret who returned last year from Afghanistan, Lujan says that attaching the title of special operator with any political campaign is "in violation of everything we've been taught, and the opposite of what we should be doing, which is being quiet professionals."

The former special operations officers and current Republican activists who've formed the "Special Operations Opsec Education Fund" to try to turn President Obama's national security strengths into weaknesses with a little Swiftboating are drawing criticism from current officers, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey Dempsey is not alone The nouveau Swiftboaters claim their major focus is on leaks, but, in a straightforward Karl Rove tactic, the real goal is to downplay President Obama's role in the killing of Osama bin Laden and make him look like a braggart who didn't give credit to the people who carried out the operation. ( He did.