May 13th / 15th
"Bush, bin Laden, Obama, and the Royal Wedding"
This is not exactly a news flash, but elected officials cut deals and make
decisions based on political ramifications and relationships. JFK gave up
our missile base in Turkey in exchange for Khrushchev getting his missiles
out of Cuba. Jimmy Carter gave up the Panama Canal in return for Panama's
neutrality. And Reagan traded arms for hostages. But all of that pales in
comparison to what the past five Administrations have done to assist, pursue,
and ultimately kill Osama bin Laden.
In the 1980s America armed and trained bin Laden's rebel forces in
Afghanistan in order to thwart what we thought was Soviet aggression. Later, OBL
became offended by US involvement in the region. Suddenly we became infidels
to the man we once supplied with weapons and trained in terrorism, and he
was turning those weapons and that training back on us.
Osama's first World Trade Center attack happened on Bill Clintons watch,
so Clinton established a special counter intelligence unit known as "Alec
Station", whose sole mission was to track down bin Laden. Strangely enough,
though, when Bush Jr. became President, he ignored warnings of an attack by
bin Laden which would involve hijacking commercial jetliners. We now know
why Bush didn't pursue that threat, and why he disbanded "Alec Station" even
AFTER September 11, 2001. The Bush family had been in business with the
bin Laden family for years, including their involvement in the Carlyle Group,
which stood to gain financially from defense contracts during U.S.
military build-ups. Not surprisingly, Bush authorized private charter flights for
24 members of the bin Laden family out of the United States on September
13, even though every airport in the nation was shut down, and all flights
grounded.
Later, when President Bush learned that all but one of the 9/11 terrorists
were Saudis, he attacked and invaded Iraq instead of his buddies in Saudi
Arabia.
That misplaced, and misdirected war has cost American taxpayers nearly 3
Trillion dollars, and has led us into two other conflicts, neither of which
Obama has lifted a finger to stop, and all of which continue to enrich our
no-bid contractors. Obama is also waging a popularity war here at home, and
needed to manufacture some gravitas for himself to raise his sinking poll
numbers. And that brings us to May 1, and the attack on bin Laden's not so
secret compound in Pakistan.
By the Pentagon's own admission, Mr. Obama has known since last year where
bin Laden was living. But there is also reason to believe that both Obama
and Bush knew about the terrorist lair long before that. Appearing on "Real
Time with Bill Maher" on October 8, 2008, Christiane Amanpour revealed
that her source said OBL was living in "a villa in Pakistan", not in caves as
Bush had led us to believe. So, it is fair to say that President Obama
could have taken out the terrorist prior to May 1. Military experts will tell
you that when a raid is imminent, there is a limited window of opportunity
for an optimum strike. Such factors as weather, position of the moon, and
readiness of equipment all come into play. So let's say that window was three
days. My question is, why not order the raid on, say, April 29? Then it
occurred to me that our most loyal political ally was, pardon the expression,
engaged in the biggest, most expensive media event in history.
The marriage of Prince William and Princess Anorexia cost British
taxpayers a fortune. Factoring in the extended government holidays and business
shut downs, the Royal wedding (which was viewed by over 2 billion people)
cost the British economy over $8 Billion dollars. Had Obama ordered the Navy
Seals to strike on April 29, one of two things would have happened. Either
the Pakistan invasion would have disrupted the Royal wedding and pissed off
our best ally. Or, none of the 2 billion wedding viewers would have cared
about bin Laden's murder, thus defeating the purpose of Obama's quest for
much needed gravitas.
I make these observations with tongue planted about half way in my cheek,
but if I'm correct, and if Obama made the decision to hold off on the raid
until after the Royal wedding, then imagine what would have happened had
bin Laden escaped on April 30? He would have been free to carry out his plans
for a series of attacks on the anniversary of 9/11.
In any event, Osama is dead, so Obama should bring the troops home, and
take a page from the Brit playbook. If you're going to throw your nation in
debt, do it by throwing a wedding, not by waging a war.
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