He's dead...
On the surface, how could you not be glad? With no question about his involvement in the 9/11 attacks, plus a handful of other alleged terror attacks, the clock's been ticking on this guy for quite a while. There was no rehabilitating him. No prison sentence could be long enough. We either had to abandon the pursuit of him in the interest of moving on, or do what we did and hunt him down. You don't get many plea deals when you're involved in the deaths of over three thousand innocent people.
I've heard too much from the Left saying "Obama did what Bush couldn't do." Likewise, I've heard the Right saying that "Bush deserves the credit, Obama just got out of the way." I think the truth is, both deserve credit. President Bush smartly froze all of the financial assets of Al Qaeda. Which made moving financial resources around the world to finance various projects almost impossible. That move by Bush likely saved lives. President Obama, in turn supported an operation that began last August and culminated with a portion of Bin Laden's skull being blown away Sunday evening. He too deserves credit. There doesn't have to be a loser in this trio other than Bin Laden.
Driving to my afternoon gig, I heard a right wing talk radio suggest that liberals had conveniently flip-flopped on their prior outrage at US backed "assassinations." There is some question being tossed around about the Constitutionality of the operation. The notion of a Congressional hearing into the legality of the operation was hinted at. Likewise, I heard liberal talk show hosts suggest that President Obama is now a certain victor in 2012.
All of that is a load of crap.
There is a big difference between holding "enemy combatants" indefinitely with no charges filed vs. the manhunt for Bin Laden-who boasted of his actions. I place OBL in the same class as Hitler and John Wilkes Booth.
Constitutionally, it passes muster because the founding fathers documented our right to protect this Country. Bin Laden called for violence to be perpetrated on the United States of America. This isn't difficult. At all.
A Congressional hearing? Please. Who exactly wants to be the guy to stand up and be the guy or girl who takes the posture that the US over stepped its bounds? Nobody.
Last of all, that President Obama's re-election is now secure. He will enjoy a temporary bump in the polls. Before you know it, the airwaves will be dominated by talk of the economy, unemployment and Obamacare destroying the Country. His chances of getting re-elected are in my opinion, fairly strong. The process needs to play out. Does he say something stupid similar to McCain's gaffe of "The Economy is fundamentally sound" on the same day the market basically melted down? He might. We don't know the GOP primary candidates yet. WAAAAY too early to predict it one way or the other.
It didn't take long for this event to get turned into a clown show. Both Presidents deserve credit for their part in this success. It was a nice touch of Obama to include GWB in his remarks Sunday night. It showed leadership, in my opinion. Further, I think it just got a lot more difficult for anyone to make a serious charge that Obama is soft on terror.
A terrorist is dead. A symbolic leader of a terrorist movement is no more. On the surface, it feels pretty good. That's all. Its not great...its just pretty good, I think. It doesn't change very much, though...
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