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A Tale of Two Terrorists
Townhall.com ^ | January 12, 2020 | Derek Hunter

Posted on 01/12/2020 3:12:56 AM PST by Kaslin

It was the best of people, it was the worst of people…

Osama bin Laden deserved to die. Only the fringe of the fringe disagree with this statement (looking at you, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn), which is why no one seemed to mind when Seal Team 6 invaded Pakistan to upgrade his train ticket to Hell to first class.

Make no mistake: the word “invaded” is the correct word. We did not have permission to enter, nor did we tell them we were coming. There was a chance, however remote, of something horrible happening that could have started at least a serious battle, if not a war, with Pakistan had things gone horribly wrong. Thank God things did not go wrong and the al-Qaeda leader is now fish excrement.

Taking risks in foreign policy is a part of the deal, even the best plans can go horribly wrong. See the President Jimmy Carter-ordered mission to rescue the Iranian hostages in 1980 that resulted in the tragic death of 8 U.S. service members.

“Operation Eagle Claw,” as it was called, planned and plotted with care, then things turned bad. It was aborted.

The raid that killed bin Laden, “Operation Neptune Spear,” worked. The world’s most wanted terrorist had his head ventilated by Rob O’Neill and no American lives were lost.

The country was ecstatic, justice had finally come to the man with the blood of 3,000 Americans on his hands.

Almost immediately, the raid was politicized to benefit President Barack Obama. After all, he was facing re-election. Democrats in and out of the media had themselves a new catchphrase: “gutsy call.”

Leftists insisted the order to authorize the raid was a nearly unparalleled act of courage on behalf of Obama, and additional drool was released down liberal chins while remarking on how “cool” he was at the White House Correspondents Dinner the night of the raid, when it was still secret.

The order to go was the right call, but it was also the only call. There was little chance of a war with Pakistan over it, and if bin Laden had escaped during any delay in giving the order and the public found out, that would’ve been the kiss of death for a second Obama term. Even if it had ended in failure or tragedy, the American public would have understood why the order was given.

Still, Obama was treated as a hero after giving the only order he really could have. Fine, to the victor goes the spoils.

Now compare that to the reaction from those very same people to the operation that killed another terrorist mastermind, one with the blood of at least 600 American soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians around the world, Qasem Soleimani. The Iranian government monster has been killing his own people and anyone else he saw fit at will for decades. His fingerprints were all over the murder of American contractor Nawres Waleed Hamid on December 27th, and on the invasion of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad days later. Hamid’s blood on Soleimani’s hands was still wet when he was liberated from them, and the rest of his body, on January 3rd.

You would think the killing of a man actively killing Americans would be met with some semblance of the relief that greeted the death of a hermit in a self-build prison in Pakistan. You would be wrong.

The very same people whose catchphrase had been turned into “gutsycall.com,” which redirected visitors to Obama’s reelection website (and fundraising operation), not only didn’t heave a sigh of relief, they expressed outrage.

These liberals claimed Soleimani’s death could lead to war, that it would lead to anger against America in the Muslim world. The Venn diagram of people driven to anger over the death of an Iranian terrorist leader is roughly one circle filled with the same people driven to anger over the killing of bin Laden, but OBL’s killing didn’t elicit a similar reaction in the press.

Part of the lack of public sighs of relief that Soleimani died last week was due, in part, to the American media’s lackluster job of reporting on Soleimani over the years. An amusing part of the “tisk, tisk” media reaction were admonishments from Democratic journalists saying, “If you didn’t know who Qasem Soleimani was before tonight, spare me your ‘hot takes.’” It’s their job, of course, to inform the public about what’s going on in the world and who the major players are, so it was more of them exposing how poorly they are at doing it than anything else.

Still, they knew better. “Iran will retaliate,” they insisted. And Iran did…by bombing dirt and empty buildings. We knew they were coming even before they tipped us off through backchannels.

They needed to save face. The launching of missiles was for domestic consumption. They needed to show the fanatical faction of their public they would avenge the hero they’d built up, lest those willing to support and engage in the murder of their fellow countrymen who don’t share their zealotry for being oppressed could lose faith.

The whole thing was a political show.

Iranian state media parroted government talking points. What the Iranian government likely did not predict was how the American media and Democrats would do the same.

The portrayals by the left could not have been more different from the bin Laden raid. Osama was a monster who deserved to die, Soleimani was a national hero so beloved his popularity spilled across the entire region.

Iran shooting down a Ukrainian airliner and watching Democrats blame America for it was just the cherry on top. Our enemies don’t need to waste money and energy on trying to destroy America, they just need to be patient and wait…liberals are trying to do it for them.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: aidandcomfort; enemedia; enemywithin; soleimani

1 posted on 01/12/2020 3:12:56 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

And when B.O. attacked Libya and that encouraged his people to kill him in a torturous way,there were crickets serenading the night. At least Salami was fast and merciful.


2 posted on 01/12/2020 3:39:17 AM PST by HighSierra5
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To: Kaslin

You know if bin Laden survived and Trump just got him killed, the Democrats and the media would be outraged. How dare Trump assasinate a Muslim person of color without even a trial! Racist! Islamophobe! Imperialist! Impeach, impeach, impeach! After almost 20 years the leftists would have taught the snowflakes that bin Laden was a folk hero/victim/revolutionary, but because Obama had him killed the leftists cannot allow bin Ladin any glory. At least Obama did one thing right in eight years, against the urging of Biden. But if Trump had just killed bin Laden, the media and the Democrats would be talking like bin Laden was a saint.


3 posted on 01/12/2020 3:43:58 AM PST by Wilhelm Tell (True or False? This is not a tag line.)
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To: Kaslin

Obamas “ call” to take out Bin Laden was not gutsy
In fact as I remember, he waffled for so,long and denied the order for so many opportunities, Robert Gates and co finally crafted a blanket authorization to act, then got it slipped by Valerie Jarrett who was the real WH CinC

The night they took down Bin Laden, obama was called after the raid was launched, why he was sitting in the back of the table in his loungewear and ValJar was nowhere to be seen


4 posted on 01/12/2020 5:36:41 AM PST by silverleaf (Age Takes a Toll: Please Have Exact Change)
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To: Kaslin
Re: Make no mistake: the word “invaded” is the correct word. We did not have permission to enter Pakistan, nor did we tell them we were coming.

I have never believed that claim.

Osama’s house was less than one mile from Pakistan's military academy.

The neighborhood was relatively affluent and home to many retired military officers.

Two helicopters landed around 1 AM. One chopper hit a concrete wall with its tail rotor and made a hard nose first landing inside the compound wall.

Immediately after, there were multiple explosions to get through the exterior walls and doors.

Then, about 10 minutes of suppressed automatic rifle fire followed.

Total time on the ground - 38 minutes.

No Police or local military came to investigate until all USA troops were airborne and on their way home.

No assistance by Pakistan?

Sorry - that's just not believable.

5 posted on 01/12/2020 5:37:40 AM PST by zeestephen
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To: zeestephen

I do think we had to work around ISI Pakistani intel that was safeguarding Bin Laden

Their loss of face was why obama’s WH let them work with Taliban to take down Seal Team 6 “ Extortion 17”

Those guys were blood payment

My opinion


6 posted on 01/12/2020 5:42:25 AM PST by silverleaf (Age Takes a Toll: Please Have Exact Change)
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To: silverleaf

Your opinion is a lot harder to believe than mine is.

I’m just thinking in terms of normal people picking up the phone to report a series of extraordinary noisy events at one o’clock in the morning.

38 minutes - and no one came to investigate?

I cannot believe that.


7 posted on 01/12/2020 6:00:15 AM PST by zeestephen
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To: zeestephen

My experience with bureaucracies is that they move very, very slowly. The Pakistani bureaucracy is no different.


8 posted on 01/12/2020 8:12:30 AM PST by spintreebob
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To: Kaslin

Am I the only one that thinks this guy looked like Captain Marco Ramius in The Hunt for Red October?


9 posted on 01/12/2020 8:17:45 AM PST by China Clipper ( Animals? I LOVE animals. See? There's one there, right next to the potatoes!)
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