Even the title of Charles Krauthammer’s latest piece in the Washington Post is brilliant. But there’s so much more;
The new post-bin Laden dispensation is that the entire decade-long war on terror was an overreaction — as shown by the bin Laden operation itself, which, noted one critic, looks a lot like police work, the kind of law enforcement John Kerry insisted in 2004 was the proper prism through which to address the terror threat.
On the contrary. The bin Laden operation is the perfect vindication of the war on terror. It was made possible precisely by the vast, warlike infrastructure that the Bush administration created post-9/11, a fierce regime of capture and interrogation, of dropped bombs and commando strikes. That regime, of course, followed the more conventional war that brought down the Taliban, scattered and decimated al-Qaeda and made bin Laden a fugitive.
We came to kill. That is what you do in war. Do that in police work and you’ve committed murder. The Navy SEAL(s) who pulled the fateful trigger would be facing charges, not receiving medals.
You should read the whole thing.
I’ve watched members of the former Bush Administration credit completely the Obama Administration with bin Laden’s death, but no reciprocation from the Obama folks. They couldn’t have pulled off the flawless operation without all of things the Bush Administration had put in place, but you won’t hear that from the Obama crowd who are still on the campaign trail and still campaigning against Bush.
Don’t forget that this administration wants more diplomats and fewer troops in Afghanistan. If they were fighting the war the way they want to fight, there’s be a crowd of diplomats outside the OBL compound still negotiating with him to surrender. And that dick Eikenberry would be hogging the megaphone.
Let the O-bots have their moment in the sun. The bounce he’s getting isn’t very large, won’t last long, and at the end of the day, people will see through the bullshit.
In other news, the national average for gas is going down. Average price is down to $3.984/gal today, from $3.985/gal yesterday. Whee.
Dumb bastard doesn’t realize that if he would have tossed a little bit of credit to Bush and a lot of credit to the SEAL’s (where it righfully belongs), he would now be basking in the glory of a sucessfull op. Instead, he had to have all the glory and it is blowing up in his face. Life is good.
Great post! Thanks for the link.
Nice reposte! Violence turned the tide, not uncontrolled violence, but violence none the less, or the threat there of. That is the very definition of what hard power is, “soft power” is complimentary not a substitute for it. This is true for counterterrorist operations or counterinsurgency contigencies that provide the security bubble upon which soft power can be applied. But see if the liberal dissenters, or diplomats, or academics can tell the difference.
Considering that the interrogators who got the information are still facing the possibility of charges, the SEALs had best lawyer up now.
Learned under Clinton that having an attorney on retainer is always a good idea when your CinC makes decisions from popularity polls.
The only thing I’ll give Barry credit for, is he was able to keep his purple lips closed long enough so the mission didn’t get compromised. Hey Berry just stay out of the way and continue to let better men do the heavy lifting and dirty work for ya. Then take the credit, because we all know, its all about YOU.