Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Observations on the death of Osama bin Laden, part II

I know this is a rather long post for me I but there is just so much garbage being tossed around now it could have been twice as long. I started to write it yesterday as part of that post but I didn't want to take away from my personal thoughts. I was going to end the whole with the following questions but they don't seem to fit either post so I'm going to put it here. Now that bin Laden is dead what is the reason to be in Afghanistan at all? Isn’t it time to come home before we follow the British and Russian paths out of the Hindu Kush?

And part II ....

One depressing aspect of bin Laden's death is how conservatives have come out to take credit for it. It was because of George Bush's policies or it was because of water-boarding they say. Bush had seven years to catch up with bin Laden and never did. No, it was because of continuing hard work of government agencies and President Obama having the guts to make the call to do it when he was advised not to, my gut tells me Bush wouldn't have done the same. He would have used jets or missiles and wiped out half of Islamabad in the process. I wish this would have happened sooner but thankfully Bush never had that chance.

Still some of the insane talk is more entertaining than other. Condoleezza Rice speaking on FOX News about Bush's bullhorn speech at Ground Zero; "But President Bush had at Ground Zero probably the most important moment maybe in American history." In all of American history, to name a few things that means Gettysburg, July 4th 1776, Pearl Harbor, and a moon landing. Granted it was probably Bush's finest moment as President but it was overshadowed by his 'mission accomplished' speech a year and a half later. Coincidentally bin Laden was killed 8 years to the day after that later speech.

But some of this commentary borders on sheer petty ignorance. Even Rudy Giuliani said "I thought the decisions about getting rid of the body were exactly correct." Yet some would have had it very different. Among them Glen Beck, "I really would have put him in a meat grinder with a pig." And the always charming Michelle Malkin, "They should have fed him to the pigs and not the fishes." Is it any wonder some parts of the world hate us?

Than there are those, too many to name, that believe Bush and not President Obama deserves the credit for the death of bin Laden. Let me remind them of this Bush quote from a press conference on March 13, 2002, just six months after the 9/11 attacks. When asked about bin Laden's whereabouts he answered "I don't know where he is, I’m not concerned about him anymore." Which is precisely the reason why President Obama did do in two years what Bush couldn’t do in seven. It all goes to prove, as Rep. Barney Frank said a few weeks ago, they all seem to live in cloud cuckoo land.

In a presidential debate on October 7, 2008 than candidate Obama said “"We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority." Senator John McCain mocked him as being naïve.