Obama's Courage Vastly Overrated in Pakistan Raid

The American Thinker ^ | May 06, 2011 | Victor Volsky

[Scanian]

So our valiant President dismissed his generals' suggestion to bomb Osama bin Laden's compound to kingdom come and ordered an extremely risky commando raid on the arch-terrorist's lair. By doing so Barack Obama exhibited incredible courage and showed once and for all how resolute and warlike he can be when America's vital interests are at stake and what a great wartime president he is. An epic heroic story -- except that is not supported by facts.

It is one thing to fly unmanned Predator drones along the Afghan-Pakistan border and shoot missiles at terrorist targets in the tribal areas of North-Western Pakistan which for all intents and purposes lie beyond the central government's control and are only tenuously connected to the national fabric. Such a tactic also offers the advantage of plausible deniability; the U.S. can always reject the allegations or, at worst, admit an "inadvertent" intrusion into the Pakistani air space, offer an apology and that would be that. Even so the Predator operations cause wide-spread indignation in Pakistan as flagrant violations of the country's sovereignty and constitute a major stumbling block in the relations between the two countries.

Whether a bombing run or a commando-style operation, the attack on the compound in Abbotabad, a virtual suburb of Pakistan's capital Islamabad, is a clear-cut act of war. No responsible government would ever tolerate such an egregious offense -- unless it is in cahoots with the perpetrator

[MestaMachine]

Yet another...
How many is this now? And what will the next one be?

[mewykwistmas]

Bottom line no one cares. It went great so he takes the credit. Otherwise he would be https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw

That’s how it is in politics and it goes for military matters, economy and everything else.

[Outlaw Woman]

Rush called him Orambo today...Funnier than heck. He was talking about how the lsm keeps trying to pump the guy up...into a rambo type...

Orambo

[NTHockey]

Roman generals attended their triumphs with a slave whispering in their ear: “Sic transit gloria.” (All glory is fleeting) Pehaps 0bambi should remember history.

[wiggen]

First off i don’t see why the Pakistani govt takes such a big black eye for Obama. Doesn’t seem plausible.
Second its unquestionable that someone and most likely several people knew he was there. On the other hand its doubtful that most of the government knew he was there. They had an election a few years ago and threw out Musharraf who was in place when the compound was built. Secrets stay secret when few know them,not many.
Thirdly,i can’t question that the Pakistani’s may have gone crazy had they seen missles flying in. India? All it would take is a phone call. Missles will be headed in this direction into Pakistan. When they ask whats up you simply tell them to read about it in the papers like everyone else. They are not going to get in an uproar over missles being shot into Pakistan.
The real problem with missles,aside from what our government stated,no proof,is its a residential neighborhood. As good as our technology is theres always the possibility of a catastrophic mistake.
All that said however,i don’t believe for a second theres anything resembling courage in our president. It would not surprise me if he thought until the last second that it was a mission to capture only.