The crossroads of blind ideology and sheer incompetence is a scary place, indeed...
Without rehashing the long history of the Obama administration's failures on Middle Eastern policy and the war on terror (here, here, here, here, here and here, for starters), let's dive right into the current mess:
- The intelligence that led to the raid was directly tied to Guantanamo Bay, enhanced interrogations and - yes - WATERBOARDING. Remember, Obama has been trying to shut down Guatanamo Bay for three years and he has been a vocal critic of enhanced interrogations.
- Far from the official "Obama is a decisive warrior" narrative coming out of the White House, it now seems Obama was unsure of the military action that led to bin Laden's killing. Instead of acting on a no-brainer, Obama needed to sleep on it. Sounds like dithering to me!
- The multiple misstatements and falsehoods coming out of the White House are becoming worrisome.
- President Obama seems to be getting cold feet when it comes to releasing the bin Laden death photo. This is AFTER CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that the photo would be released.
- Pakistan is claiming it alerted the Obama administration of bin Laden's compound in 2009.
Closing thought... While it's certainly possible that President Obama made the right decision for the right reasons, it's becoming difficult to understand his motivations. Why did it take 16 hours to make a decision on something that any American would have made in a heartbeat? How does he feel about enhanced interrogations, now that they have proven to work? Would he like to apologize to President Bush or Vice-President Cheney? How do recent events influence his plans for Afghanistan? Will he replace Eric Holder with someone who will acknowledge the existence of radical Islam?
At the very least, President Obama would be well-served to hold a press conference to set the record straight. This issue is simply too important for him to ignore. There will be plenty of time for golf after everything has been explained.
And please, Mr. President... No teleprompter this time.
