I wonder what the timeline was here? There are three interlocked events.
- Mattis and pals goad Trump into approving the raid. (on or before January 28th?)
- The reorganization of the National Security Council was announced on the 28th. This is where the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, one of the guys who neener-neener-neenered at Trump, was booted off the Principals Committee, to speak only when spoken to.
- The raid happens and fails, unless the goal was to kill civilians, a few of their guys and one of our guys. (Wiki says it was dawn on the 29th in Yemen, but Yemen is 8 hours ahead of Washington, so it was still around 10:30 pm on the 28th in the US.)
Did the outcome of the raid directly and petulantly lead to the reorganization of the NSC and the further glorification of Bannon? Or was that in the works anyway? Was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs demoted before the raid occurred, and how likely is it that it might have affected its operational success? How likely is it that Trump signs presidential memos at 11 at night?