Well, he got deployed out in 2009. Obama became President in 2009. Depending on how you look at it. The US military was deployed to Afghanistan under George W. Bush. But during Nicholas Irving's deployment, his Commander in Chief was Barack Obama as it pertains to his chain of command.
He can be proud of serving his country. You may not agree with everything that the executive, legislative, and/or executive branch of the government does, but him as a soldier doing his duties I believe is deserving of commendation. He's not a poser and has shown valor. The US Military has shown it is not preventing minorities from taking on roles and positions that, in the past, were filled with only white males. Wouldn't you feel that a certain level of discrimination existed if there were zero black snipers?
Regarding these books and movies about snipers and SEAL team stuff and special operations, they are all coming out way too early. We are still in a war with al-Queda and extremists Muslims, and we don't want to leak out tactics and strategies of any kind. Even though theses books and movies go through some amount of filtering for confidentiality, I think they need to put the clamps down on it until it is cleared to be declassified.
