WASHINGTON – After reading the raid accounts from Marc Ambinder, Mike Allen, Brian Ross, as well as the White House briefing by senior administration officials the night after, it’s clear our mission against Al Qaeda hasn’t been in Afghanistan since Pres. Bush left office. What was found under the nose of the Pakistani government’s nose was enough to start an entire new group to decipher it all.
The assault force of Navy SEALs snatched a trove of computer drives and disks during their weekend raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, yielding what a U.S. official called “the mother lode of intelligence.” – Mike Allen
The surgical raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, which could not be shared with the Pakistani military, whose training center was nearby, also proves that V.P. Joe Biden has always been right about Pakistan. (Some of you may remember this piece he shared with my readers in 2007 when he was running for president. Few others bothered to cover Joe Biden at all.)
The initial circumstantial evidence suggests the opposite is more likely—that bin Laden was effectively being housed under Pakistani state control. Pakistan will deny this, it seems safe to predict, and perhaps no convincing evidence will ever surface to prove the case. If I were a prosecutor at the United States Department of Justice, however, I would be tempted to call a grand jury. – Steve Coll
What the raid on bin Laden’s compound also illustrates is that Pres. Obama’s actions to bomb Libya are not only incomprehensible, as well as lacking enough intelligence to justify it, but a throw back foreign policy decision that looks incompatible with what was done in the surgical Pakistan raid. There is no through line thinking at all; conventional war ineffective, expensive and a throw back to the 20th century. SecDef Gates wasn’t keen on bombing Libya, a mission he characterized as “on the fly,” neither were other seasoned veterans, which I’d bet includes Joe Biden. Considering the paucity of intelligence about the amateur status of the Libyan rebels, it’s not hard to say that we went in prematurely and without anything close to the knowledge of DevGru of JSOC and CIA teams had in Pakistan to kill bin Laden.
Osama bin Laden’s body will be buried at sea and following Muslim laws, but the ramifications of his killing now are quite different than if he’d been apprehended at Tora Bora, an opportunity missed by Pres. Bush and Gen. Tommy Franks, with men on the ground long ago offering eye witness testifying of the blunder.
Politically speaking, Pres. Obama and the Democrats are doing exactly what Republicans and the Right would be doing, which is hailing the killing of Osama bin Laden as a huge victory for the Obama administration’s team work, but particularly focusing on the military and intelligence aspects, even if we’ll never know the men and women who made it all possible. Anyone thinking Obama and Democrats shouldn’t be declaring a win has gone done the memory hole of how Republicans beat Democrats over the head with national security. At least Obama didn’t appear on an air craft carrier after a mission had not been accomplished.
Republicans and the Right are congratulating Pres. Obama, with Rush Limbaugh offering the talking points you’ll hear everywhere. That Obama continued the policies of Bush-Cheney, so “victory,” as Rush put it yesterday, should be declared. Limbaugh also stating that the Gitmo policy produced these results.
The problem with these talking points is that it was detective work that got the job done, the very opposite of what was done in Libya, but also Afghanistan, since CIA Director Panetta said long ago there were only 50 or so Al Qaeda in that country.
In time, both Democratic and Republican talking points will meld into indecipherable mush, with the one symbol remaining being Pres. Obama, the man who was in charge when the legendary SEAL Team Six, CIA, National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency got Osama bin Laden.
Domestically speaking, Pres. Obama and his team are very likely to become more entrenched, the usual hubris from the Obama administration calcifying into a surety that progressives will not be able to budge, which Obama’s team will believe has been earned.
Some people will never give Pres. Obama an inch, which is the reality of our politics today, because our economic challenges have become so entrenched, with only the Republican economic model being represented, because Pres. Obama won’t offer a Democratic solution. Just one email I’ve received, this from “Craig W.”:
“The most important thing is for us to find Osama Bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.” – George W. Bush, 9/13/01
“I don’t know where he is. I have no idea, and I really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” – George W. Bush, 3/13/02
Alright, then. After eight months of careful planning, President Obama authorized a ground assault on Osama Bin Laden’s compound. Our troops engaged him in gun battle, rather than mail it in from the sky like a bunch of Nancies. Good going. So how about President Obama show up and support families whose homes are being foreclosed in record numbers, or stand with teachers and public employees who find themselves under attack by Republicans in every corner of the country? Or call out Republican congressmen bent on slashing every government program designed to help poor and working people? Those tasks require much more Presidential courage and leadership than killing Osama Bin Laden.
Osama bin Laden became a symbol a long time ago. Our biggest threats today are not Al Qaeda, but begin with our politicians thinking austerity is more important than trade, investment and job growth, all issues that continue to follow Pres. Obama, no matter Osama’s killing.
Taylor Marsh is a Washington based political analyst, writer and commentator on national politics, foreign policy, and women in power. A veteran national politics writer, Taylor’s been writing on the web since 1996. She has reported from the White House, been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her blog.
Photo furnished by the White House, Pete Souza.