Say Anything Blog

One of the constant cries from the left about Bush’s efforts in the war on terror had to do with Osama bin Laden not getting captured.  Obama himself promised during the campaign to “kill bin Laden” and “crush al Qaeda.”

Now that Obama actually has the job of waging the war on terrorism, and crushing al Qaeda/killing or capturing bin Laden, suddenly he’s not quite as certain that it can be done.  The media is spinning this walk-back with misleading headlines like “Obama: “Capture Or Kill” Bin Laden” and “Obama pledges to succeed where Bush failed on bin Laden”, but the truth is that Obama suddenly doesn’t think Osama is all that important any more:

Barack Obama suggested last night that removing Osama bin Laden from the battlefield was no longer essential and that America’s security goals could be achieved merely by keeping al-Qaeda “on the run”.

“My preference obviously would be to capture or kill him,” he said. “But if we have so tightened the noose that he’s in a cave somewhere and can’t even communicate with his operatives then we will meet our goal of protecting America.”

What’s sad is that the left excoriated Bush for not getting bin Laden.  They accused him of letting bin Laden get away.  They passed sanctimonious resolutions and amendments in Congress demanding the death or capture of bin Laden.  But now that Obama is saying Osama doesn’t matter any more, suddenly that’s ok.

The whole “get Osama” thing was only useful when it was a rhetorical tool to be used to undermine our mission in Iraq.

What’s sad is that Obama is right.  Osama has been marginalized (thanks to Bush), and even he wasn’t marginalized he was just a part of the international terrorism problem.  Putting all our eggs in one basket to “get Osama” would never have been good policy.  I’m glad that Obama understands this, but his doing so exposes a lot of people on the left as hypocrites.