I wouldn’t doubt that many of you have read this letter already, as it has apparently been circulating throughout the internet over the past few days. One of my family members, who is vehemently Republican/anti-Obama, sent me this guy’s letter in a text message as a way to rebuke my constant claim that Obama deserves a fair amount of credit for the bin Laden raid.
“Yet reliable sources continue to report that not only did you attempt to stop or delay Bin Laden’s demise, you did not even leave the golf course for the situation room until 20 minutes before SEAL Team 6 took out Osama Bin Laden. Even the clothes you wore in the situation room betray this fact. This is a Commander in Chief? A man who takes credit for actions largely taken while he was out golfing?”
The bolded part is really the only area of the letter that makes me pause for a minute; I don’t really know what “sources” this guy is referring to, but if they’re out there I’d like to at least verify them I guess. Still, I watched the recent NBC special documenting the bin Laden raid a few days ago, and nothing that this guy says in his letter seems conducive to what everybody involved says had happened.
What do you guys make of this? It’s obviously biased to the extreme, but is any of this man’s letter merited?
Not everything you read on the internet is necessarily true. For example, I couldn’t find any media accounts about the author of the piece: is there any reason to believe that he is actually a Navy Seal? He might be. Is he a friend of yours?
On the substance, I’m afraid your correspondent is mistaken. One website I’ve found useful is snopes.com: they make it their practice to compare internet folklore to confirmable facts.
Here’s the link:
It turns out that while Obama was on the golf course earlier in the day, he kept this appointment so as to stick to a normal routine as everyone else did. And the 20 minute claim is just false.
Furthermore, the President ordered the raid against the express wishes of many (not all) of his staff. The idea that he “attempted to stop or delay Bin Laden’s demise” is an odd claim.
Thanks for forwarding this letter to me though. I’m glad that you take time to keep up with current affairs and hope that in the future you check claims made in circulating emails against known facts.
… and Eisenhower likewise deserves zero credit for Overlord. And while we’re at it, FDR is in no way responsible for anything during WWII.
C’Mon, people!
Really, if both helicopters had gone down, and the whole operation failed a’la Eagle Claw, Obama would have been fully responsible. Barack doesn’t hesitate to give credit to those who carried out his orders. He likewise gets to take credit for giving the order, and it should be noted the order was not in any way a no-brainer at the time.
OK, enlighten me here: what does it matter that the President was in the Situation Room “only” 20 minutes before the operation was a go, exactly ? What should he have done, chill in there for a couple hours ? Look very tense and concentrated for the whole day ? Does his seat in the room channel a morale buff or something ?
He knew it was going on, his generals put a plan together and he gave it the go ahead, what more is he expected to do ?
And the night before he sat at the correspondence dinner and, through the humor, had to act like he didn’t know what was coming down the next day. Obama should get an Academy Award just for that.
Who are these people that hate Obama so much that they won’t give him credit for anything? Yet, the people they support accept no blame for their screw-ups and mismanagement and take credit where it is not due.
According to Attack from the 3rd Dimension’s snopes link that part is not true:
Not sure what he did in those two hours, but I believe he’s likely to be a busy guy. Doubt he was twiddling his thumbs. Maybe debating how long before they should inform the Pakistanis about the raid?
You realize, of course, that (at least according to the Freepers, to whom I am not going to link) Snopes is a liberal conspiracy?
Just wait till Andy Schlafly gets done with the Conservative Bible project and can turn his attention to ConservaSnopes — then we’ll see some debunkin’ as is debunkin’!
Saw a documentary on the mission a while back in which one of the interviewees (an NBC correspondent, if memory serves) said that he does not want to play poker with President Obama. Ever.
It’s part of the conservative effort to give Obama no credit for anything having to do with the bin Laden raid. I’m not sure how much this stuff would matter even if it were true since Obama was not commanding the mission personally, wasn’t at risk of getting shot himself, and wasn’t going to shoot anybody. Nobody thought otherwise. But as it happens it’s crap, and the good news (such as it is) is that I don’t think this nonsense would work on anybody who doesn’t already believe Obama is a do-nothing who shouldn’t be credited for authorizing the raid. If you already believed that, it doesn’t matter what figleaf you use to justify it. The bottom line here is that some people are desperate to give Obama no credit for his decision and prevent him from taking any credit for it, and that’s not going to work on anybody who’s paid any attention.
Oh I’m sure there were lots of details to iron, doubts to assuage and so forth ; but none of that requires him to be anywhere in particular. He could have debated this while playing golf.
I guess maybe I’m biased by The West Wing I’ve watched so much - in the show, whenever some Heavy Shit is going down, the President nips down to the situation room to meet a handful of uniformed advisors who quickly summarize what’s going on and the various possible courses of action available (and their probable consequences), the prez ponders a bit, says “All right, we’ll do this and that, keep me informed of any new developments ; report to me every 30 minutes” then he leaves the room and goes on with his schedule because the President is a somewhat busy guy.
It’s not like the SEALs required his immediate input during the raid or were in direct communication with him, is what I’m saying.
I expect one of the contingencies prepared for was the possibility that somebody *might *have to get on the phone to the President of Pakistan in a big ass hairy ape hurry. Somebody who will not be put on hold. Just in case.
