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Jewish World Review July 16, 2010 / 5 Menachem-Av, 5770 So Where's Osama, Obama? By Greg Crosby
Remember the presidential campaign of 2008? Oh, sure you do! That was the one where Barack Obama said that the Bush foreign policy was completely wrong. He stated that going into Iraq was a huge blunder for the U.S. because the "real war" was the one in Afghanistan. Remember? He said again and again that Bush dropped the ball on going after Osama bin Laden. He said that if elected he would devote all his resources in finding Osama. If your memory cells just can't process information that far back, allow me to help a bit. During the first presidential debate (between Obama and McCain) on Sept. 26, 2008 the following question was asked to Obama: Q: What do you see as the lessons of Iraq? His answer: "…I opposed this war because I said that not only did we not know how much it was going to cost, what our exit strategy might be, how it would affect our relationships around the world, & whether our intelligence was sound, but also because we hadn't caught bin Laden. We hadn't put al Qaeda to rest, and as a consequence, I thought that it was going to be a distraction." From the CNN website dated Nov. 12th 2008 dateline Washington: "President-elect Barack Obama wants to renew the U.S. commitment to finding al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to his national security advisers. The Obama team believes the Bush administration has downplayed the importance of catching the FBI's most-wanted terrorist because it has not been able to find him. "We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority," Obama said during the presidential debate on October 7, 2008. The Atlantic Council web site dated November 11, 2008 also emphisized how during the campaign, Barack Obama repeatedly criticized the Bush administration's handling of the war in Afghanistan. "Most notably, he argued that we had been distracted by the war in Iraq and had diverted resources to that conflict, which he opposed, that could better have been devoted to fighting al Qaeda and finding Osama bin Laden. Now that he's been elected, he's about to become responsible for producing results." A front page story in the Washington Post written by Karen DeYoung on that same day outlines plans from unidentified "Obama national security advisers" about how the new administration will handle this challenge. "…President-elect Barack Obama also intends to renew the U.S. commitment to the hunt for Osama bin Laden, a priority the president-elect believes President Bush has played down after years of failing to apprehend the al-Qaeda leader." Again in Obama's own words, "We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority." Wow! That sounds pretty serious, doesn't it? Oh, and on a similar topic he said in a Democrat debate in Las Vegas on January 15, 2008: "I have put forward a plan that will get our troops out of Iraq by the end of 2009." Gee, I guess that plan of his just didn't pan out, huh? Oh well. The point is, that during his campaign for president Obama spent a lot of time talking about getting American troops out of Iraq and finding Osama Bin-Laden. Try to remember, if you can. Also try to remember this… all during the Bush administration the press was continually asking about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden at every single press conference and almost any time they could get a microphone near this mouth. "Where's bin Laden? Have you any news on his whereabouts? When do you think you will find him? Why is it taking so long to locate him?" Yes, the main stream media was relentless on this, they hammered on it constantly. Why are they so silent now? I haven't heard anyone in the Whitehouse pressroom ask about bin Laden since Obama has been elected. All of a sudden, with a Democratic president in office, the media just doesn't seem to care. So I will ask. President Obama, where's Osama? You promised us you would find him, remember? That was way back in 2008.
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© 2008, Greg Crosby |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||||
