From Andrew Sullivan comes this gem:
No doubt we’ve come a long way from the days of former President George W. Bush – who once vowed to bring Osama bin Laden to justice – saying of bin Laden, “I don’t know where he is, nor do I really spend that much time on it really…to be honest with you.”
Personally I’m glad President Obama did what George W. Bush wouldn’t do – spend some time on finding Osama bin Laden – because bin Laden needed to be held accountable for his role in the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
Oh for Pete’s sake. It took an ass-load of military, and intelligence, and diplomatic people, along with trillions of dollars, many years, countless Iraqi and Afghan lives and injuries, our national sense of peace and security, and the obsessive focus of 2 Presidents to kill Osama bin Laden. (yes, I mean Bush who I think is an idiot, but for god’s sake…)
But okay, let’s pretend Barack put a tie around his head and went all Rambo, all by his lonesome.
(pssst. really – Assloads of people – over many years. but who gives a flyin’ F. about their efforts when Barack is running for re-election, eh?)
let’s pretend Barack put a tie around his head and went all Rambo, all by his lonesome
As has been amply documented, the Bushies were at best recklessly negligent in bottling OBL in Afghanistan, and allowed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to roam free in Kurdistan (and thereby enable him to kill thousands later) so they could instigate their pet war.
Obama took a huge risk in ordering this mission and choosing the riskiest of options on top of that. Had it gone the way of Operation Eagle Claw his presidency would be toast.
Give it a friggin’ rest, Annie.
President Obama didn’t go down to Wall Street and force it to securitize mortgages, did he? He didn’t confront corporations and force them to outsource jobs, did he? He didn’t cause a near-economic meltdown did he?
And yet, Republicans/rightwingers/teabaggers/Bush apologists like you have been trying to hang responsibility for the state of the economy and the jobless numbers on him since nearly Day One.
Just as an abstract proposition, it seems entirely cynical, hypocritical, partisan, and the ultimate example of a double-standard to be able to do that at the same time that you struggle so mightily to avoid giving President Obama his due for taking down Osama bin Laden.
Also, as an abstract proposition, it would seem as though even someone with such a large set of partisan blinders on should be able to recognize that successful operations like this REQUIRE strong, intelligent, insightful and courageous leadership. Someone has to make the final decision “to go”, don’t they Annie? Someone has to make sure that it is the right decision, don’t they? Someone has to LEAD, right, Annie?
Of course, we have to give credit where credit is due to the Navy Seals and the intelligence community, but YOU need to give credit where credit is due to the President for the part that he played in this. He led. That’s what Presidents do.
When Bush hung that “Mission Accomplished” banner across that battleship back in 2003, and strode across the flight deck in uniform and with pilot’s helmet in hand acting like he was Tom Cruise in “Top Gun”, I’m pretty confident that you found yourself thoroughly able to give him “credit” for the purported “success” of the Iraq “mission”, weren’t you?
So, cut the partisan crap out, and give our President his due for having the courage and leadership skills to ACTUALLY get the job done here, the “mission accomplished, as Bush was never able to. Bush was always in over his head. It is high time for rightwingers like you to accept the simple fact, once and for all, that President Obama isn’t.
By the way, Miss Annie, THIS was one of the important things that President Obama was focusing on over the last two years while understandably and appropriately ignoring the racist stupidity of the birther movement and its incessant calls for him to prove something that white Presidents have never been called on to do.
Annie parenthetically wrote:
“. . .(pssst. really – Assloads of people – over many years. but who gives a flyin’ F. about their efforts when Barack is running for re-election, eh?)”
(*laughing*) THAT’S the thing that really worries you about all of this, isn’t it, Annie? That it might have a positive impact on President Obama’s re-election chances.
Typical hypocritical wingnut. . .Writing a statement like that at the very same time that politics is ALL that you have on your mind. Hypocrisy and cynical partisanship all wrapped into one. So predictable.
Annie’s not a wingnut.
She’s talking like one. . .
“But okay, let’s pretend Barack put a tie around his head and went all Rambo, all by his lonesome.”
(1) Annie, it’s “President Obama”.
(2) Damn, THAT is a stupid statement!
(3) Why don’t we pretend that President Bush put on a “photo op” flight suit, carried a “photo op” flight helmet and strode across a “photo op” battleship with a “photo op” MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner stretched across it, acting like he had “put a tie around his head and went all Rambo [on Saddam Hussein], all by his lonesome”.
Jeeeez, Annie, you NEED to get a grip. Seriously. I think that those partisan blinders must be a LITTLE too tight. Either loosen them up a bit, or, and here’s a thought, just try taking them off, huh?
Wingnut watching. It’s a hoot!
(*laughing*)
Zuma, respectfully I think you’re seriously misunderstanding where Annie’s coming from.
1) If you’re familiar with her comments here, which you should be since you’re a regular, you’d know she’s quite possibly the most liberal regular commenter here (I mean that in a good way).
2) I think she’s more or less reminding the people singing “We are the champions, my friend” that the ultimate score in terms of body count is about 8,000-1, and in dollars about $1 trillion to, what, a few thousand.
But I digress…the reason I came here is to post this reminder that the idea of pursuing Bin Laden, in almost exactly this way, was a major point of debate in the 2008 election. Obama won, and Bin Laden’s dead. That does count for something.
I am a regular, JCG, but this is the first comment of Annie’s that I’ve seen. With all due respect, I still have to say that it read like something that a Bush apologist/Republican sycophant/wingnut might have written.
That said, given what she said and how she said it, I think that maybe she needs to have not just her liberal credentials re-certified, but her “most liberal commenter here” credentials re-certified, as well.
I also think that your interpretation is a stretch. If THAT’S what she meant, she needs to take a writing class, and maybe cut back on the caffeine.
In any event, if your interpretation is “on the money”, Annie, by way of her comment completely misconstrued, mischaracterized and overreacted to Zach’s story.
There was no grandstanding in it, nor approval of grandstanding. It simply highlighted three basic facts: (1) the fact that President Bush, the “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” grandstander-in-chief had not only actually failed in successfully find and take out Osama bin Laden, he had ultimately pooh-poohed the importance of doing so in order to save face because of that failure; (2) the fact that President Obama did successfully do so; and (3) did so, along with accomplishing a lot of other truly important things in the course of doing the job that the American people elected him to do, instead of worrying about the racist and partisan obsession of wingnuts/teabaggers/rightwing fringe conspiracy theorists/Republicans pandering to the wingnuts, teacbaggers and rightwing fringe conspiracy theorists/carnival barkers/clowns named Trump/etc with birtherism and the birth certificate issue.
The fact that the story tweaks the Right over its mindless and sycophantic adulation of Bush on matters of security and its demagoguery of President Obama over same is just a bonus. In any event, if Zach is “crowing” about anything. that’s it, AND there…is…nothing…wrong with his doing that.
Anyway, love the story, Zach.
Annie, if JCG is correct, you need to lighten up, and/or maybe wrap your brain around the idea that progressives/liberals/Democrats need to grow a spine and be willing to crow about their domestic POLITICAL victories more often. If JCG is wrong, and you’re not or no longer are a liberal and/or you’ve actually gone over to the “dark side”, AND your comment is just another silly, wingnut mis-characterization, not to mention overreaction, first take a reading comprehension class, then re-read Zach’s story.
AND, it bears repeating, lighten up.
Although maybe I’m the one who should read better – I was thinking of someone else, not Annie. My bad.
I guess that I should have scrolled down a little bit further before writing the comment just above, huh?
(*laughing*)
Anyway, no problem.
@ JCG
If it makes you feel any better, Zach says that Annie isn’t a wingnut.
I still say that she writes like one.
AND if it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck. . .
“She IS a wingnut” versus “she WRITES like a wingnut”…What’s the difference?
do not trust any boby as trust turns into betrayal