WASHINGTON – There is nothing that can take away the brilliance of the SEAL Team Six warriors who killed OBL. The story of the heroism and stunning plan inside Pakistan is better than three Tom Clancy movies combined. Reports revealing secret stealth helicopters that made the daring night raid possible a fascinating addition to the narrative.
The presidency, however, lives in the land of politics and today it’s partisan, petty and perpetual.
The Obama administration simply couldn’t imagine Republicans would grab on the killing of Osama bin Laden as a moment to gain the political advantage. That’s how they got beat on message.
Officials inside the Obama administration have grown discouraged by the abruptness with which the news over the killing of Osama bin Laden has turned into a debate over the efficacy of harsh interrogation techniques and torture. – Administration Grows Frustrated As Conversation Shifts From Bin Laden To Waterboarding
That Pres. Obama and his team are still expecting something different from Republicans is stunning.
Speaking beyond the heroism to the politics that controls whether our military acts or not, how could any Democrat at the national level believe that something as profoundly earthshaking as killing Osama bin Laden wouldn’t be grabbed as an opportunity by Republicans?
Even some journalists, cable and traditional outlets were hailing that even Rush Limbaugh congratulated Pres. Obama on the gutsy call to authorize a surgical strike. What these people didn’t understand was that Rush was pouring on the snark to coat words that had at its heart that Obama was smart to continue the Bush-Cheney policies, chief among them enhanced interrogations, aka torture.
Republicans needed vindication, they need to sooth their conscience after being vilified for torture, including waterboarding, which Pres. Obama rejected his first days in office. That insult, that slap at Republican policy is why they’re now seeking acknowledgment through the killing of bin Laden. They are saying simply, we were right.
Was critical information gained through torture? We don’t know. Was any information gained that can be conclusively linked to finding Osama bin laden. No. It took many, many intelligence officers, military men, geography specialists and countless other professional analysts over many, many years to get the road map laid out that landed at OBL’s door this past Sunday, because of a phone call made by a courier. None of these people putting the puzzle together were likely partisans first, but simply Americans on a mission.
What policy is utilized after the information is gathered, however, is the business and treachery of politics.
It’s frustrating to non-partisans, but where the advantages are won and lost makes a difference or at least is supposed to. Torture is one of those differences, with the debate raging until Barack Obama took office, so the Obama administration should have been prepared. There’s no excuse that they weren’t.
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.