Osama Bin Laden Dead

Obama will take the credit for this, but I can't fault him for that. Any president would. This likely got him re-elected, unfortunately.

bin Laden being dead is far better than having captured him, shame it took so long to do it. Unfortunately this won't do anything to end the wars. These groups operate as independent cells, so taking bin Laden out didn't change much other than eliminate a ceremonial figure head of the Radical Islam movement.

In other news, because I like to make things about me, I'm leaving for Europe on Thursday and if this messes up my vacation I'm gonna be PISSED. Obama has terrible timing.

 

Oh come on now, nobody took more vacays then G.W. Maybe that is why Bin Laden wasn't captured. I still remember G.W. stating "I just don't think about Bin Laden that much".

Abner

 

According to this morning’s news, ObL’s location was acquired by an interrogated ObL courier detainee at Gitmo. Isn’t that the same place Obama ran on to close down? As far as reelection, if the economic situation doesn’t improve drastically, Obama’s likely finished in 2012. Osama bin Ladin will be a distant memory to voters by then. News cycles evaporate quickly…

 

Whether he really was killed today, or almost ten years ago (as many believe)... no one person's death is worth the lives of millions. I am sad that so many people are celebrating this.

 

Yippee....

 

What TH said!

Abner

 

My take is this:

1.) Obama showed guts ordering a military strike in Pakistan without that government's knowledge or approval. It seems very out of character for him so I have to give the man some credit.

2.) Obama dang near broke his arm in his public announcement last night patting himself on the back using "I, me and my" language and never once congratulating the troops or giving credit to the U.S. military. He thanked his security council and the head of the CIA but not the fingers that pulled the triggers or the boots on the ground. I thought that showed a sad lack of leadership.

 

I agree. Obama took all of the credit. How convenient that this has happened just a little before re-election time.

 

Of course he took all the credit. Don't fault the guy, it's what anyone in that office would have done. He still sucks, he just sucks a little less now.
If he was staging all of this it would have been much better to come out 6 months prior to the election instead of 18.

 

GW public statements regarding Osama bin Laden were primarily sour grapes IMHO, except in his memoirs where he admitted that he was sorry he wasn't brought to justice under his reign. I can't really fault him though for this spin, assuming that privately everything possible was being done to bring him to justice, which I assume was the case.

 

Excerpt from The President's speech:

"Over the last 10 years, thanks to the tireless and heroic work of our military and our counterterrorism professionals, we've made great strides in that effort. "

Full text:

Text of President Obama's announcement of Osama bin Laden's death | Democrat and Chronicle | democratandchronicle.com

Abner

 

Yeah I read and watched the whole speech. He gave the military credit for looking for Osama but he begins the next part with

"Yet Osama bin Laden avoided capture and escaped across the Afghan border into Pakistan. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda continued to operate from along that border and operate through its affiliates across the world.

And so shortly after taking office, I directed..." Then he begins the me, myself and I portion as if without his leadership none of this would be possible, he never credited any military branch or members or as a whole on the actual successful completion of the mission on killing Osama. Taken in context he is not thanking the military for their part as much as demonstrating how he (Obama) made this possible. This issue was bigger than any one President, even him and took no less than personnel from 2 seperate administrations over 3 terms and countless sacrifices of other leaders (foreign and domestic, civillian and military) to make something like this happen. It would have been nice to see them get the lion's share of the congratulations rather than this guy jumping over to tap dance in the lime light after years of their effort and putting their lives on the line. I'm just sayin...

 

Obama took credit as Commander & Chief, any politician in his position would be stupid not too. As for not congratulating the military, I believe he did but he is not going to applaud the military in any detail, its called OPSEC. Any military operation is a TEAM effort.

 

For what it's worth, here's some pictures.







Gotta enjoy the humor in all this.

-Matt

 

Neah, he sucks just as much as ever. It wasn't staged and the timing would have been better in a few months, but it's still awfully convenient.

 

Did you miss this part?

or this?

Seems like he thanked the operators and folks behind the scenes about as much as he publicly could right now.