President Obama appeared again today to says,"It's a good day for America." I wish he wouldn't use the killing of Bin Laden as an example of how Americans can come together and accomplish great things. Moon landings, I agree. Solar energy farms, I agree. The Hubble. I agree. But assassinations as a great collective effort? Hmmm.
The death immediately provoked discussion that the United States could hasten its exit from Afghanistan. Some even suggest that the change of Petraeus for Panetta is a sign that our strategy will change. Maybe so. But the key element seems to me is what General McCrystal said about Afghanistan,"Who ever believes they are winning, will win." Osama's death will propel American military morale sky-high since many volunteered after 9/11 and already we have seen defensive statements come out of the Taliban as they plan to launch their vaunted Spring Offensive. The Big Mo has tipped to our side.
Could someone tell me what those men on the Seals Team that took out Osama do for an encore? How do you top that on the history scale for a small operation? Do these guys get to retire for being the team that took out Terrorist #1?
I happen to agree with Politico for once that this represents a tectonic shift in the so-called War Against Terror. Al Qaeda was already experiencing problems with recruiting new militants and raising money. The heir apparent Ayman Al-Zawahiri's recent statements about the Egyptian Revolution revealed how out of touch he was and even his old colleagues, the Muslim Brotherhood, now recognizes the need for a secular state. It's a tough message to sell--that violence will bring forth Muslim states. We already have seen the track record of Al Qaeda for the past decade or more. They managed to kill several times more Muslims than Americans and the United States is even further entrenched in the region than before.
Mark Helperin and Nate Silver write that Obama's re-election chances brightened with this event. Steve Benen points out that the Obama campaign can list all its achievements and then say,"And, oh, President Obama also killed Bin Laden." Gallup has already alerted its readers to expect an Obama "bounce" in the polls. But several people remind us that George H.W. Bush soared in the polls after the Gulf War in 1991 only to face defeat. The best to expect is a bounce and then a flattening out. But one thing should be put to rest--the idea about President Obama's leadership. I guess he did well receiving the 3 A.M. phone call.
Rudy Guiliani was gracious in praising Obama " courage" for taking a risky method to take down Bin Laden. Like a good politician, Rudy said if it had failed, Obama would have to take all the blame.
Newt did finally manage the energy to make a statement where he praised both George W and Obama.
Dick Cheney said that he didn't really know much about the operation but that its success was guaranteed because of the "enhanced interrogation" techniques or ,as we Americans say, torture used in Gitmo.
The Christian News Network criticized President Obama for not showing enough joy in killing Osama. They said that he was too concerned with the Arab Street to express the happiness all American feel.
The teaparty organizer Judson Phillips of Americans for Prosperity fame criticized the Administration for burying the body at sea. He wanted the body to be smear with pig's fat. I wonder whether the Koch Brothers agree.
Andrew Breibart is opening his website to conservatives who doubt Osama is really dead. The deathers are insisting that the DNA tests could not have been so fast and that we don't have the photographs so he might be in Hawaii if you know where this is coming from. J. Michael Walker writes that it is the right of every American to walk up to the corpse to see whether he's dead. he went on to say that the body should have been digitally scanned inside and out to prove it is Osama Bin Laden. Emily Miller of the Washington Times wants further proof that he is really dead.
What's great about these Deathers is that the mirror some of the early writing among jihadists in the Middle East. Several jihadist websites deny the whole event and claim they received new messages from the Man. Others claimed its true and that Bin Laden was tortured and raped. mother Jones does an interesting comparison of some of the right-wing military and teabag websites and those of the radical Islamists.
The Obama Administration is debating whether to release the photos of the corpse. Given the likely flap in both the Middle East and the deatherzone here, I believe ultimately they will have to release them.
From a theological point of view, the scrubbing of the body, the wrapping in linen and burying at sea has generated article after article in the Middle East on whether that was OK in terms of Islamic traditions. Actually, the pieces are interesting, rather than politically provocative.
Keith Olbermann of FOK News gets my tip of the hat today because he is the only other person in this country that knows the story of Wilmer McLean. Keith likened the Paki blogger, who was escaping to the peace and quiet of Abbottabad only to end up tweeting the whole raid, to Wilmer. Wilmer had his farm run over by the fighting armies in the Battle of Bull Run and so he did the wisest thing and moved his farm and family to the peace and quiet of Appomattox, where his farm was overrun in the closing battle of the civil war. Nice analogy, even if not quite precise. But great to see someone knows this story.
Freeperdom and teabagger are all in an uproar over this Bin Laden thing. When the new was announced late last night, some freeper posted the comment,"That America is now lost. This means Obama wins in 2012." And the freeper posts keep coming--ranging from Obama claiming all the credit for himself and not the brave men and women who did it to the military never told Obama about it so it would not leak to all the members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the White House. All classy and all very patriotic.
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