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Jewish World Review May 7, 2012/ 15 Iyar, 5772 Don't dare shift the national conversation from president's courage to his ethics By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The one unalloyed success of Barack Obama's presidency came a year ago when he gave the green light to Navy SEALs to "get" Osama bin Laden at his safe house in Pakistan. That was the right call, and he made it at some political risk. Mr. Obama had to remember how Jimmy Carter's political fortunes plummeted after the mission he ordered to rescue American hostages in Iran came a cropper at Desert One.
Since it is his lone triumph, it's understandable why Mr. Obama has changed his mind about "spiking the football." But red flags flew when Team Obama asserted Mitt Romney wouldn't have ordered the hit.
To make that outrageous claim, Team Obama distorted wildly a 2007 interview in which Mr. Romney said killing or capturing one man was not enough to deal with the Islamist threat.
"Of course we get Osama bin Laden and track him wherever he has to go, and make sure he pays for the outrage he exacted upon America," Mr. Romney said in a GOP debate in Iowa that May. "It's more than Osama bin Laden. But he is going to pay, and he will die."
The attack on Mr. Romney shifted discussion from the president's courage to his ethics.
"Shame on Barack Obama for diminishing the memory of September 11th and the killing of Osama bin Laden by turning it into a cheap political attack ad," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Releasing that video was "one of the most despicable things you can do," agreed liberal activist Arianna Huffington on CBS Monday (4/30).
Mr. Obama's "nonstop campaigning is looking, well, sleazy," wrote liberal Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank. "His ad suggesting that Mitt Romney wouldn't have killed Osama bin Laden is just the beginning of it."
And by inflating the president's role, Team Obama has raised questions about how gutsy the "gutsy call" really was -- and who made it.
The "timing, operational decision making and control" of the mission was in the hands of Admiral William McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, according to a memo written at the time by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. This clashes with Team Obama's depiction of a "hands on" president carefully monitoring the mission and making the key decisions.
"The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President," the memo continued. "Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration."
"Which is to say, if the mission went wrong, the fault would be Adm. McRaven's, not the president's," wrote former Attorney General Michael Mukasey in the Wall Street Journal.
He can't imagine Presidents Lincoln, Eisenhower or George W. Bush trying to duck responsibility for failure of a mission they'd ordered, Mr. Mukasey said.
U.S. intelligence couldn't have located bin Laden's hideout were it not for policies instituted by President Bush which President Obama shut down, wrote Jose Rodriguez, former chief of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, in the Washington Post.
SEALs are unhappy Mr. Obama is claiming credit which belongs to others, said Toby Harnden of the London Daily Mail.
"Obama wasn't in the field, at risk, carrying a gun," a serving SEAL told Mr. Harnden. "He should be thanking the guys who put their lives on the line."
The president "was not the man who made the call" to get bin Laden, former SEAL sniper Chris Kyle told Mr. Harnden. " He can say he did and the people who really know what happened are inside the Pentagon, are in the military and the military isn't allowed to speak out against the commander- in-chief so his secret is safe."
But a liberal journalist fears retired SEALs -- who are free to speak out -- will do to Mr. Obama what the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did to Sen. John Kerry after he exaggerated his heroism in Vietnam.
"The frustration—or, even anger—within the SEAL community is real, and has been brewing for months, said Michael Hastings of BuzzFeed. "It wouldn't be surprising to see the website:navysealsagainstobama.com sprout up soon."
Mr. Obama's unseemly victory lap already has tarnished what should have been his strongest asset.
"I never underestimate this White House's ability to overplay their hand," said former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino.
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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.
© 2011, Jack Kelly |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
