Two raids, two situation rooms, two very different presidents

Pictures during the killings of terror leaders reveal vastly different styles of two presidents.

Donald Trump with Mike Pence, (2ndL), national security adviser Robert O’Brien, (L); Secretary of Defence Mark Esper, (2ndR), and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley (R), in the Situation Room monitoring developments as Special Operations forces close in on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's compound. Picture: The White House via AP.

Two high-risk raids. Two dramatic moments in the White House. Pictures taken in the White House Situation Room during the killings of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Saturday and of al-Qa’ida leader Osama bin Laden eight years earlier capture the vastly different styles of two American presidents.

The White House on Sunday released a photo of Donald Trump with five of his senior national security advisers monitoring the Saturday night operation against al-Baghdadi in Syria.

Mr Trump described the raid on al-Baghdadi’s village compound as “the biggest there is.”

“This is the biggest one perhaps that we’ve ever captured,” he told reporters. “This is the worst ever. Osama bin Laden was big, but Osama bin Laden became big with the World Trade Centre.

“This is a man who built a whole, as he would like to call it, a country.”

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The picture of the al-Baghdadi Situation Room shows the six men, all in dark suits or military uniform, posing for the camera and staring straight at the camera as they sit around a table.

The presidential seal gleams on the wall over Trump’s head.

The Situation Room photo released by Barack Obama’s White House following the May 2011 operation in which Navy Seals killed bin Laden shows a less ordered but more dramatic scene.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden L), along with members of the national security team including Defence Secretary Robert Gates (3rdR) and Hillary Clinton (2ndR), watch as Special Forces raid Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Picture: AP.

In this unposed scene, 13 faces are fully or partially visible in the crowded tableau with officials gripped by the actions on a screen out of the photograph.

Mr Obama, wearing a polo shirt and light coat, is hunched forward and perched on a folding chair slightly off centre. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the most expressive face in the group, holds her hand over her mouth as Defence Secretary Robert Gates sits next to her, his arms tightly crossed.

The Trump photograph, with the president in the centre and looking severe, is more formal and reflects the tight circle of advisers from whom he solicits advice.

To his right are national security adviser Robert O’Brien, Vice President Mike Pence and Defence Secretary Mark Esper. To his left are General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Brigadier General Marcus Evans, the Pentagon’s deputy director for special operations and counter-terrorism.

The jumble of ethernet cables, legal pads and computers covering the boardroom table stands in sharp contrast to the formality of the moment but adds authenticity. This is, after all, a situation room during a very high risk drama.

The less formal Obama photo from 2011 is more obviously suspenseful as the president’s team monitors the raid where Navy Seals killed bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The room is so crowded the presidential seal on the wall is barely visible.

Seated next to Mr Obama are Brigadier General Marshall Webb, who was communicating with the Seals commander Admiral William McRaven, who was in Afghanistan overseeing the covert special operations team that stormed the compound.

In the back of the room, Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken can be seen peeking around the taller White House chief of staff Bill Daley to get a better view of the scene unfolding on a video monitor.

The packed room seems to reflect Mr Obama’s more expansive team of advisers and his interest in receiving a broad array of opinions.

AP