Obama and bin Laden's killing

President Obama went to Afghanistan to sign an agreement with Karzai and to observe the anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden.

His campaign released an ad that brags a little bit about Obama's courageous decision and his credentials as a bold commander in chief.   Maybe the ad was a little bit tacky -- but the Republicans, who are crying "how awful" to politicize such an historical and solemn moment, are just jealous that they didn't get to do the bragging themselves.

Jon Stewart lit into them -- reminding them of George Bush's putting on a jet pilot's costume and landing on an aircraft carrier to declare "Mission Accomplished" -- BEFORE the fact.  In fact, it was waaay premature to claim victory -- about six years, in fact.

More than that, though, Stewart said those going "Waah" (and that includes Mitt Romney and Rudy Giulani) are "just pissed that they didn't get to do it [the bragging]."

Here's my take on it.     How much criticism have these same people heaped upon Barack Obama as a "weak" commander in chief, taunting his "leading from behind" strategy in Libya, saying he is endangering our national security by his "weak" foreign policy stances?  Nothing he could do was right.

The truth is that Obama has been a bold warrior president -- and he has acted against his own inclinations and done it magnificently, in some instances.   He had to play the hand he was dealt, not the hand he would have held if he had been in charge in 2003 and beyond.   We would not have invaded Iraq;  Afghanistan would not have been half-abandoned in order to invade Iraq on trumped up charges and lies.

So give Obama credit for stepping up and doing what had to be done to get us out of his predecessor's mess (and that means not just Bush, but Chaney, Rumsfeld, and the whole pack.)

Taking out bin Laden was a very risky special operations mission.  If it had failed, Obama would have been pilloried by the right and the left -- one for failing, the other for trying.  So let him have some bragging rights about making the bold decision and taking the responsibility -- when his advisers were divided.  This was an act of presidential courage.

Ralph