I’m often critical of President Obama because I don’t like his world view or his policies one little bit, but today I have to say, he has hit all the right notes with the daring and dangerous raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. My congratulations and thanks to the president.
In many ways, this operation was out of character for Obama. It was well-conceived, planned in detail and executed flawlessly. No American lives were lost, which is astounding considering the potential for disaster. At one point it appeared a “Black Hawk Down” disaster could be in the making, when one of the two helicopters’ engine failed and the bird had to be downed and destroyed. But that eventuality had been planned for and the courageous Navy Seals were able to get in, kill and remove the body of Public Enemy No. 1, and get out to safety.
Also uncharacteristically, no one notified the Pakistanis that we were going in. That is pretty much an act of war among diplomats, but this was not a time for diplomacy. Now, the Pakistanis have “some ‘splainin’ to do”, since bin Laden had apparently been living in his large comfortable compound for years, with retired Pakistani military officers living all around him.
Perhaps the thing that will be most unsettling to Obama’s leftwing base is that the intelligence which made the raid possible came directly from the “enhanced interrogation techniques” applied at Guantanamo Bay.
One college student among those who poured out to celebrate in Times Square after the announcement by Obama commented, “Now we can bring our soldiers home from Afghanistan.” Wrong. Would that that was the take-away from this, but it is more likely that the War on Terror will escalate as true believers plan retribution.
However, bin Laden was still an important symbol and the fact that America persisted through three presidential administrations to pursue and dispatch the founder of al Qaeda must give at least some extremists pause to realize that, as Obama said, “When Americans set our mind to do something, we can do it.”
One of my Facebook friends correctly noted that it would have been unfortunate to mark the 10-year anniversary of 9-11 with Osama bin Laden still at large. Now that remembrance will have a completely different flavor.
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