Bin Laden May Ironically Be Obama's Albatross

IBD Editorials ^ | May 8, 2012

[Kaslin]

Election '12: The president seems to think bragging about killing Osama bin Laden will help get him re-elected. But the question is increasingly becoming why the president hesitated on such a no-brainer decision.

Jack Keane, the Army vice chief of staff from 1999 to 2003, told Mike Huckabee on Fox News over the weekend that the U.S. government knew exactly where Osama bin Laden was nearly a year before President Obama gave the order to send in the Navy SEALs to his compound in Pakistan.

The retired general told Huckabee, "We had the target in the summer (of) 2010, and it took until the following May to execute the mission."

Keane was surprised at the delay "because, you know, the longer you spend on something like that, the greater likelihood is that the target will be compromised because of your surveillance, and then that target will flee."

Keane added, "I know for a fact that we had it that summer, maybe even sooner than that."

So why didn't Obama act sooner?

"My sources tell me the White House was trying to verify that the target was actually there as opposed to just relying on circumstantial evidence," Keane said. "They actually wanted a photo ... and that without that there was a lot of delay and procrastination about it, because they wanted verification."

He said those few officials who knew that bin Laden had been located "wanted to get after" him "because they realized that the target could be compromised and it took so long to actually find it. And you sort of had the sense that this was it, it was real, and let's go get it."

[Brilliant]

He hesitated cause he was skeered.

[CitizenM]

IIRC the order to get Osama was given when Obama's popularity had started to wain. And, Obama seemed to be going into a depression. I am sure those around him were looking for something to boost both his popularity and his emotional state. Getting Osama would do that...and, as we have since learned, if the mission had failed, they had already drafted a statement that faulted the military. So, from the administration's perspective, this was just the "tonic" the doctor ordered, and held for the most opportune time to help his failing public image.

The same thing happened when the Health Care bill was ramrodded through Congress. If we can all recall, that happened at another low point in Obama's presidency, and the push was made more for him, than for the American public.

Now the Health Care bill has been shown to be totally absurd, most likely un-Constitutional, and far more expensive than the administration lied about Obama never mentions it as an accomplishment. So, if the bin Laden killing he claims credit for comes back to bite Obama on the arse, it will be yet, another item he will have to stop bragging about. Just desserts!

[bicyclerepair]

Has to be tough to order a kill on your kin.

[C210N]

The only question that remains is what time of day on the Friday prior to election day, for it to sink in over the airwaves and play on Sunday morning TV shows, that Bin Laden killing photos will be “leaked”.

I am putting in my dibs now for 4:45 PM.

[Cicero]

I think the original intention was to save it for an October surprise.

But the birth certificate issue was becoming more and more widespread. So, I think, he got the Donald to “attack” him. That gave him the excuse to release the new long-form COLB. But it was an obvious forgery. So, he distracted attention from the issue with the bin Ladin raid.

I doubt whether it was a coincidence that the raid was announced to the world right after the new COLB was put on-line. He must have scheduled the raid, and then told Trump when to begin his “attacks.”

It would have been very useful to save the raid for October 2012. But things were just getting too hot, so he changed the timing.

[GreyFriar]

Ping. Retired General Keane is particularly trustworthy, in my opinion. He was Vice Chief of Staff of the Army during General Shinseki’s time as CSA. And turned down the CSA position after Shinseki was essentially “fired” for telling Congress the truth about the number of troops that would be needed for the invasion of Iraq and the amount of time we’d probably be there after Saddam was toppled.

[Max_850]

Doubtful it will be a problem for him. The mass media will not question him, many of us are oblivious to any news that is outside of the mass media.

I seriously doubt Romney has the nads to publicly point out any shortcoming of Obama. I fear he will be the McCain campaign part 2.

[adorno]

Has to be tough to order a kill on your kin.

When it comes to communists, the ideology comes first.

Obama hesitated, hoping that the target would move and he wouldn't have to order the hit. Unfortunately for Obama and for Bin Laden, the target stayed in place for the year. And, far too many people already knew about where the target was located, so, Obama was stuck with making the "decision" to kill. But, that decision had already been made for him and all he had to do was give the go-ahead.

[scooby321]

His lawyers had to draft a memo if something went wrong Obama would not be blamed

[ldish]

BC and the NBC issues were beginning to get wider attention with trump picking up on it...he had that option as a diversion...wonder what the next diversion will be when and if needed?

[ldish]

BC and the NBC issues were beginning to get wider attention with trump picking up on it...he had that option as a diversion...wonder what the next diversion will be when and if needed?

[redgolum]

Mitt does want to be president awful bad.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping and the info on General Keane.

[TomasUSMC]

Might have been a back room deal made between Obama and Iran. Iran let osama’s wife go. A month after she arrived so did the CIA.