The above photo, into which some suspect the curiously shrunken President was photoshopped, was touted as depicting the moment(s) when Obama made “the gutsiest call in years,” namely killing bin-Laden. Joe Biden’s going around talking about that. The Obama campaign even came out with a video of Bill Clinton insinuating it was such a “gutsy call” that Mitt Romney wouldn’t have done it. Bill must be talking from experience, since Bill certainly didn’t,
Throughout the Nineties, bin Laden attacked US targets – military housing, ships, embassies – and Bill Clinton refused to respond. In 2000, after 17 sailors were killed on the USS Cole, Clinton’s Defense Secretary Bill Cohen said the attack “was not sufficiently provocative” to warrant a response.
So the question comes up, WHAT ‘GUTSY CALL’?: CIA MEMO REVEALS ADMIRAL CONTROLLED BIN LADEN MISSION
The memo puts all control in the hands of Admiral McRaven – the “timing, operational decision making and control” are all up to McRaven. So the notion that Obama and his team were walking through every stage of the operation is incorrect. The hero here was McRaven, not Obama. And had the mission gone wrong, McRaven surely would have been thrown under the bus.
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion looks at what happened after,
But the killing of one person has been against the backdrop of a complete disaster for the United States throughout the Middle East and Central Asia.
North Africa is or is on the way to domination by radical Islamists. We pushed Mubarak out without any transition, and the Muslim Brotherhood and even more extreme Islamists are nearing control. The same is true in Libya and Tunisia.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban are resurgent, waiting out Obama’s timeline for withdrawal. In Iraq, the Iranians have extended their influence and the nation again is dividing along sectarian lines, with the unifying factor (except among the Kurds) being hostility to the U.S.
In Syria, where for once we could have dealt a crushing blow to Iranian influence, we have helped Bashar Assad hang onto power to the extent that both sides hate us.
Our one true ally in the region, Israel, is in its most precarious position in decades, surrounded by massive Iranian-backed missile bases in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.
There is almost nowhere in the Middle East that the United State is better off than it was four years ago.
In our hemisphere, the Obama administration has fared even worse,
- Free trade agreements that are still not implemented, after years of being delayed by the Democrats and by Obama.
- Hundreds of Mexicans killed by the Fast and Furious guns, an operation for which Eric Holder will never be held accountable, if the Democrats have any say.
- Calamitous energy policies that keep the Keystone XL from happening but favor Venezuelan oils.
- Insisting that Mel Zelaya, a clearly unstable man with ties to Cuba and the drug trade, be returned to power in Honduras, when Zelaya had clearly violated his own country’s Constitution. And, to make it look worse, having the US Ambassador do photo-ops in the tin foil-lined room where Zelaya holed up.
- Botched Summits of the Americas that are treated like campaign stops, and embarrassing North American Summits where the pressing issues of the day are ignored so Obama can put down the Supreme Court.
- Siding with Argentina against the Falklands, and then adding ignorance to insult by referring to the Falklands (which Argentina calls the Malvinas) as the Maldives.
- Completely ignoring Iran‘s increased presence in our hemisphere.
These are but a few instances of failed foreign policy in Latin America by the Obama administration, and I’m barely getting started. As Professor Jacobson said,
Yet Obama and his campaign team trot out Osama bin Laden to cure all those political ills, and as political cover for a failed presidency.
Yet Obama’s “cool.”
Again, after four years of a celebrity president, is your life any better?
UPDATE,
Linked by Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion. Thanks!
Post re-edited for clarity and grammar.
