THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS

Barack Obama gave an order to have Osama Bin Laden killed. Navy Seals executed the mission flawlessly.

Yet as is the case with so many missions, it is events afterward that can vex us.

Bin Laden was shot in the eye and killed. He was given the Muslim equivalent of a Viking funeral and removed from the Earth forever.

Yet one question still remains.

Where are the photos?

Do I believe that Barack Obama lied to the American people to distract us from domestic worries? Is this all one big conspiracy? Is Osama Bin Laden alive and well hiding in an Amish community in Pennsylvania?

No. Of course not.

The question then morphs.

Why are the photos not being released?

Some will argue that Mr. Obama has some very difficult decisions to make regarding these photos.

Will releasing the photos make matters worse? Will it make America and the world more or less safe? Are they too gruesome for people to see? Is there a national security reason the photos must stay hidden?

The problem with using the “difficult decision” argument is that Mr. Obama and his team had months to think about this.

People pilloried George W. Bush for “winning the war but being unprepared to win the peace.” He was ridiculed when he said that being President was “hard work.”

Well it is hard work. Yet Mr. Obama must have had this discussion with his advisers.

The “too gruesome” argument is very weak. Americans have seen photos of 9/11, JFK being shot, and Holocaust atrocities. We are adults. We can handle it. It is not the government’s job to decide what we can and cannot stomach. News reporters can warn parents to have their children leave the room. Then parents can decide what to do next.

National security is a valid consideration. Yet the problem is not that Mr. Obama is making an argument we may disagree with. The real problem is that he is not making an argument either way.

Forget the conspiracy nuts. Mr. Obama is never going to satisfy people who believe that his birth certificate would prove that Darth Vader was his father and Osama Bin Laden his mother.

Most people know that President Obama did a good job getting Bin Laden killed. Yet they want closure. We may not want to see the evidence, but many of us need to see it.

Jack Nicholson as Colonel Nathan R. Jessup bellowed “You can’t handle the truth.”
To quote Barack Obama, on this issue, “Yes, we can.”

Mr. Obama does have a reputation for being paternalistic. He does believe in the nanny state where the government knows what is best for us. If that is at play here, then he needs to understand that this is another example where he does not get to decide.

This is admittedly speculation, but if President Obama will not talk to us, then speculation is all that exists.

I have always been a supporter of presidential secrecy when appropriate. Presidents should have wide latitude to conceal things if disclosure would put the nation at risk.

If the issue is one of fear of inflaming the Muslim world, he needs to say this. This argument would be a weak one, but it is impossible to even consider a counter-argument when the initial argument is unknown.

The explanation may be completely reasonable. There could be something in the photos that must stay hidden. President Obama would not need to state specific details, but a general explanation must be forthcoming.

This issue of the photos is not going away. No amount of reality television, Royal weddings, or sporting events will end this conversation. This is about one of the most evil men the world has ever known. Unlike Japanese Earthquakes or even Libyan kinetic conflicts, this is not just a story. It is “the” story.

Mr. Obama must level with America, and he must do so quickly.

We need to either see the photos or be given the mother of all explanations as to why this will not happen.

In a world of Facebook, Twitter, DNA, and Wikileaks, nothing stays hidden forever. If the photos leak out instead of being released by the President, it would damage him and perhaps the country as well.

Mr. Obama, this cannot be delayed any longer. Release the photos and give Americans full closure.

At the very least, talk to us. Look us in the eye. You are known for talking. Sometimes your critics maintain you talk too much and do too little. This time you acted bravely and were rewarded for your boldness with a successful mission.

You did the hard part. Now do the easy part. Start talking sir. It is the right thing to do.

eric

Yesterday I analyzed what went right with regards to the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Today I will look at what either went wrong, or has the potential to be very wrong.

First let me again state that President Obama did virtually everything right with regards to the mission. Conservatives can praise him because we are not motivated by blind hatred of the man. The left should try this approach with George W. Bush and see if they can upgrade him to human status. If they cannot find anything positive thing to say about him regarding the War on Terror, then they need to look inward and see how far down in the depths they have sunk.

Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama contributed to the killing of Bin Laden. Only hyper-partisans would deny this.

Now while Mr. Obama got much right, there are some concerns.

He needs to release the photos showing a dead Bin Laden. I can understand waiting a couple of days so as not to spoil the initial jubilation. Yet unless there is proof that Osama’s death certificate was swapped with Osama’s birth certificate and both were secretly born in Israel to Orthodox Jews, what is the delay? If Mr. Obama has a national security reason, he should tell us what he can without compromising sensitive information. The photos may be gruesome, but we need to see them.

No, I do not think the death was faked and that Bin Laden is playing shuffleboard on a cruise ship near Palm Beach. So just release the pictures.

One area of criticism with Mr. Obama I am going to dial down is his lack of graciousness with Mr. Bush. He was totally right to call Mr. Bush after the mission was completed before the general public knew. Yet he was wrong to not be more gracious toward Mr. Bush in his nine minute speech to the nation.

I am dialing down this criticism because Mr. Obama did call Mr. Bush again and invite him to participate in a ceremony on Thursday at Ground Zero. Thursday, May 5th is the National Day of Prayer. I want to see in the coming months if Mr. Obama can finally put his animosity toward Mr. Bush aside. It would actually raise his own standing if he did, and disarm his conservative critics on the issue. Time will tell.

What Mr. Obama may get wrong regarding Bin Laden is that so far there is no hint that he will use this successful operation as a precedent. He could kill Khadafi in Libya and Assad in Syria tomorrow, and be totally justified in doing so. He should repeal the executive order banning the targeted killings of foreign leaders.

Syria is a tougher case to make because they did not directly attack the United States. Mr. Obama could simply watch Benjamin Netanyahu do the deed from Israel and then stay silent. Getting out of the way is good enough. George W. Bush gave Ariel Sharon a virtually free hand in dealing with Arafat, and this was proper.

Libya should have been carpet-bombed every day since Reagan did it in 1986. Khadafi did murder Americans over Lockerbie, Scotland. There is no statute of limitations on murder. Mr. Obama has every right to take out Khadafi, and he should do it. His reasons for killing Bin Laden apply very well to Khadafi.

Another thing that Mr. Obama is definitely getting wrong is his refusal to acknowledge that the George W. Bush War on Terror policies are right. They absolutely must be kept in place. Karl Rove labeled seven things that the Bush Administration did.

1.) Al Qaeda were treated as enemy combatants, not common criminals.

2.) Rendition.

3.) Enhanced interrogation techniques. They are not torture. (John McCain is a hero. That does not automatically make it unpatriotic to disagree with him on this issue.)

4.) Military tribunals. No more civilian trials for terrorists.

5.) Guantanamo Bay.

6.) Donald Rumsfeld transforming the military.

7.) Intelligence reform. The Chinese walls set up by Clinton appointee Jamie Gorelick had to come down.

Mr. Obama cannot have it both ways. He cannot take credit for killing Mr. Bin Laden while disavowing the Bush policies that allowed for the process to get to the final stage.

Congressman Peter King stated that waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed absolutely was use dto obtain the nickname of a courier who Bin Laden trusted. Even the liberal Washington Post back Congressman King.

Liberal radio host Alan Colmes appeared as a guest of  Bill O’Reilly and piously declared that Donald Rumsfeld disputed the claim made by Mr. King. Yet one hour later, Rumsfeld told Sean Hannity that he never said that. What he said was that nobody was waterboarded at Gitmo. People were waterboarded and then later brought to Gitmo. This is a far cry from saying waterboarding did not yield the intelligence information. Mr. Rumsfeld absolutely backed Mr. King, and Mr. Colmes should admit he screwed up. As Warner Wolf used to say, “Let’s go to the videotape.”

Mr. Obama has to know deep down that coercive interrogation methods cannot be ruled out. Therefore, he should not allow liberal ideology to get in the way of sound policy. He must continue these policies.

He got the Bin Laden killing right because policies set up by Mr. Bush did not handcuff him. Yet Mr. Obama has handcuffed himself over the past couple of years, resulting in the dreadful decision to initially have KSM receive a trial in New York. This political correctness has led to Fort Hood, the Christmas Day Bomber, and other plots that were total security failures. Dumb blind luck prevented tragedy in some cases.

As for American liberals, they are as hypocritical as ever on this issue. They have two options. They can call for Mr. Obama to be impeached for war crimes (an idiotic idea). Or they can admit that sometimes presidents need to take drastic measures to save American lives. Even better, they could choose a “third way” and just say that everything in life is acceptable as long as a liberal is doing it, while conservatives are evil for doing the same things. Heck, the left does this now.

Politics used to stop at the water’s edge. Now it only does when conservatives are defending liberal presidents. The favor is never returned as conservative presidents get accused by liberal leaders of war crimes.

The lazy liberal slobs in the media must ask Mr. Obama exactly what he plans to do regarding these policies. He must give clear answers. He must not be allowed to take a victory lap while placing us at future risk.

Mr. Obama and liberals have also gotten wrong the attitude of the Arab Muslim world in the Middle East. Bin Laden is dead. They are showing zero gratitude. Apparently Barack Obama and George W. Bush are the same to them. American liberals may wish to pretend to grasp this. We need to stop kissing backsides and start kicking them. The George W. Bush “boot up their @ss” strategy is the right way.

Mr. Obama and liberals continue to be clueless about the attitude of the Palesimians. Hamas is yelling for revenge.  That is a declaration of war. Obliterate all of the Hamas leadership now. Kill them all and let God declare them his worst mistake. There is no reason a single Hamas leader should be among the living right now. They are the same savages who handed out candy after 9/11.

Other people who got things wrong were useless, harmless, but still worthy of derision.

The American Indian community complained that the CIA used the code name “Geronimo” for Bin Laden. They are offended. I am offended that they would focus on utter stupidity. I am not interested in their feelings on this one. Let them name a newborn son “CIA Cracker” and call it even. I have nothing against American Indians. I loathe political correctness. Perhaps the American military should no longer defend them since soldiers yell “Geronimo” when jumping out of planes. I am more worried about those trying to blow up planes. American Indians know about being killed. They should focus on preserving life.

Priests who criticized those for “excessive celebrations” should become NFL referees and ruin that as well. The jubilation was totally appropriate. Celebrating justice is not celebrating murder.

Mr. Obama will see his deserved bounce in the polls evaporate in a couple of weeks when the glow fades. This happens to all presidents. Mr. Obama, contrary to MSNBC reports, is mortal.

Lastly, American liberals need to stop babbling about coming together and civility until they truly learn to mean it. George W. Bush loyally served his country. He was not a liar, warmonger, murderer, war criminal, or traitor. Those claiming he is are beyond the ability to engage in reasonable dialogue.

I am obsessed with combatting ideological bigotry, and the death of Bin Laden is another opportunity for leftists and Islamists to stop despising conservative Republicans and Judeo-Christian Westerners respectively.

When a liberal is told that the right rallied behind Obama while the left will not to this day, do that for Bush, the left has their simple, snide, smug answer.

“Mr. Obama deserves the praise. Mr. Bush deserves the scorn.”

After all, anybody disagreeing with this is either evil or an imbecile.

If the left does not give Mr. Bush his due, they will be the worst of all possible people. They will benefit from his actions while disavowing them simultaneously.

In a situation where much was done right, this is the biggest wrong. If the left ever decides to let policy trump politics, we will all benefit.

eric

Osama Bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals. That is the descriptive narrative. Now for some serious analysis.

Today I will look at what was done right and tomorrow what was either done wrong or could be a problem going forward.

The good news is that a lot went right. I can honestly say that with regards to President Obama handling this situation…I am genuinely proud of him.

Again, well done Mr. Obama. Good job sir. Let’s not sugarcoat this. Excellent job sir. Big thumbs up.

Mr. Obama took a bold gamble. He could have just dropped bombs and been done with it. Yet he insisted on us being able to identify the remains of Bin Laden to ward off conspiracy theorists. Had this bold gamble failed, I would not have ripped into him. Had it failed and he blamed everybody else, then I absolutely would have unloaded.

He deserves full credit for making a tough decision and getting it right. Virtually every criticism I have had of him on other issues disappeared on this issue. He showed real leadership. He was presidential.

Some on the right will say that the real credit goes to the Navy Seals, and not Mr. Obama. Wrong. I excoriated liberals for years when they would say they were glad Saddam was gone and supported the troops, but gave George W. Bush zero credit. I said then that you cannot praise a successful military action without giving credit to the man making the final decision. The Navy Seals are phenomenal, but Mr. Obama did the right thing in dispatching them the way he did. He has my appreciation for this.

Another thing Mr. Obama got right was the order to kill Bin Laden and not capture him. The notion of a debate on where to hold a trial like we faced with Khalid Sheik Mohammed would have been a nightmare. Bin Laden is dead. Problem solved. Again, I credit Mr. Obama for clearly getting this thought process right.

For those criticizing the decision to quickly dispatch of the body with a funeral according to Muslim law, let it go. As much fun as it is to be jingiostic (yes, I mean me too) and say that we should douse him in bacon grease and force other Al Qaeda members to eat him, that is not the right answer. Normally when the issue of inflaming the Arab world is brought up, I point out that they are born angry and die that way anyway, so nobody should care.

This time we should care. For those who read “The Iliad” by Homer, the vivid imagery of Achilles dragging Hector’s body all around until the gods had had enough applies here. We got him. We killed him. He’s buried. Leave it alone. A protracted argument over what to do with the body would be almost as bad as that type of debate over a trial. Mr. Obama got this one right.

Mr. Obama acted unilaterally. He did not seek permission or even discuss the matter with the United Nations, our allies, Pakistan, or even members of congress. I have always supported presidential prerogative in the name of national security, and that stance will not only be when Republicans are in the White House.

New York Congressman Peter King was asked if he was upset about not being consulted. He sincerely said he was fine with being left in the dark, because sometimes the presidency requires secrecy. Congressmen simply cannot keep their d@mn mouths shut. The only thing worse is telling a member of the media to keep quiet.

Mr. Obama had every right to handle this without consulting others, since he takes the blame if it fails. Had it been George W. Bush, liberals would have been screaming bloody murder. Nevertheless, my stand is consistent.

As for Pakistan, let them complain about their “sovereignty.” Too d@mn bad. They were hiding a mass murderer off Americans, and an American President has an obligation to the American people, nobody else. This is not “cowboy diplomacy.” It is high time the left stopped trying to be “neutral” when every other nation defends their own. Again, Mr. Obama got it totally right.

I also thank Mr. Obama for having the decency to call President Bush and Congressman King before the news leaked (another reason to justify secrecy….a “precious few” were told what transpired, and it leaked quickly). Had Mr. Bush not gotten such a call, it would have been very rude. I am glad Mr. Obama got this right.

Even Hillary Clinton got it right. Yes, I concede this with shock, but it is true.

Normally I say that her entire job is to issue meaningless blather. She does it well. Yet this one time, she issued “good” meaningless blather.

She went on television and said that Pakistan cooperated with the situation. This is nonsense. They certainly have not been as faithful as they could have been.

Yet as Sir Charles of Krauthammer points out, “The whole point of diplomacy is to lie.”

So if Hillary’s remarks were full of bunk and everybody knows this, why were they good?

To publicly call out Pakistan would have been a gigantic mistake. She was not speaking to Americans. She was stroking the egos of the Pakistanis. This is another example of where inflaming a situation serves no purpose (it often does). Yes, even a Neocon myself will concede that every once in awhile, diplomacy is not completely useless. Many situation require a battering ram. This was a rare occasion where finesse was appropriate. Hillary was insincere, and it was proper for her to be this way.

If praising Hillary leaves me shocked, then I am downright stunned over my having to praise the college students who assembled outside the White House and the people who gathered in Times Square.

While there were one or two people in the crowd with Obama signs, the bulk of the people simply waived American flags. I would have been outraged had they been chanting “Yes, we can.” Instead they chanted “USA,” which is what we chanted on 9/11. In the days following 9/11, people were not embracing George W. Bush simply for being a conservative Republican. In 2011 Mr. Obama has received far too much praise by liberals simply for being one. Yet for the most part, these demonstrations were apolitical. These college students were not dopey. They were dignified. Even though they were very young when 9/11 happened, this should not take away from their patriotism. It is far too rare, but this was a great display by those who congregated.

As for the CIA, let’s give them some credit. The often maligned agency was brilliant this time. This was intelligence gathering and espionage at its finest.

Lastly, a several minute discussion moderated by Bill O’Reilly was brilliant because the two panelists were a pair of the biggest military intellectual heavyweights in the country. Colonels Ralph Peters and David Hunt offered a fascinating discussion that should be mandatory viewing for everybody.

Colonel Peters brought up the Obama version of the helicopter that malfunctioned. Apparently our Seals destroyed it to prevent Bin Laden and his henchmen from gleaming any intelligence information from it.

Peters offered a theory that while unprovable, was still provocative and yet also reasonable. He speculated that Bin Laden and his men were already dead when that helicopter malfunctioned. He posed the idea that the Seals destroyed it to prevent the Pakistanis from getting any information about it. If they did, the Pakistanis would sell it to the Chinese, who would just steal another American technology like they steal virtually everything else we do. This is just a theory, but interesting nonetheless.

Colonel Hunt explained why the hovering of a chopper overhead would not tip off Bin Laden to flee. Given that his compound was 35 miles from a major military base, choppers overhead were a frequent occurrence. Our Seals spent weeks training how to simulate the exact flight patters of a friendly helicopter. Bin Laden most likely thought the chopper was protecting him right up until the moment that he saw the Seals and realized what had happened. As Mr. Hunt pointed out, by keeping Bin Laden near a military base to hide him in plain sight, this time the Pakistanis “outsmarted themselves.”

Both Colonel Hunt and Colonel Peters are brilliant (Full disclosure: Colonel Peters endorsed my second book. I admired him long before he did. I have zero connection to Mr. Hunt.). Mr. O’Reilly gave them wide latitude, and this made for journalism at its finest.

There is plenty of time for armchair quarterbacking, and tomorrow will focus on some things that are not so right. Yet much more was right than was wrong.

I would also like to Thank George W. Bush. He was totally right, in keeping with his character, of not overshadowing Mr. Obama this week. Mr. Obama has every right to take a victory lap, provided it is not an 18 month victory lap. A couple of days is fine.

Those cautioning that we have more work to do are also very smart to say this. We cannot get complacent.

Yet back to Mr. Bush, his hard work throughout his presidency cannot and should not be discounted just because those on the left despise him. It is time that they stop beating the daylights out of him and just admit that disagreements aside, he genuinely cared about protecting All Americans.

The Global War on Terror was the right thing to do, and Mr. Bush was always more interested in getting good results rather than who got the credit. To this day he still refuses to take credit for things he should get praise for. Credit is not a finite pie. So if conservatives can be gracious and magnanimous enough to praise Mr. Obama for finishing something important, liberals can show equal humanity by crediting Mr. Bush and his administration for starting the process and doing much of the legwork.

If that were to happen, then all this talk about “coming together” like we did after 9/11 really would be sincere. For all of us as individuals and collectively as a nation, that would be the most right thing in all of this.

God bless the USA.

eric

Justice was done.

Osama Bin Laden was killed by Americans nearly ten years after murdering 3,000 innocent Americans.

I am born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island. I live in Los Angeles but will always be a New Yorker.

My country and my state were attacked. My fellow New Yorkers were executed in an act of pure evil.

Finally, justice was done.

Today is not a day for political score keeping. There will be plenty of time for dissecting every ounce of this situation.

Right now I just want the despots all over the world to remember what President George W. Bush said.

September 14, 2011…”I hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and pretty soon the people who knocked down these buildings will hear from all of us!”

September 20, 2011…”We will not falter, and we will not fail.”

The entire world was put on notice. Either you were with us or against us.

We had victories along the way. We captured Khalid Sheik Mohammed. We captured Saddam Hussein. We killed Zarquai.

With help from Israel, Sheik Yassin and his successor Rantisi were taken out.

Yet the big prize eluded us.

Osama Bin Laden may be less important from a strategic standpoint than Mohammed. KSM was the actual mastermind of the planning of 9/11. Yet from a psychological standpoint, getting Bin Laden does matter.

So let me put aside partisan politics and say it.

Well done Mr. Obama. Good job sir.

As for the men who carried out the orders, thank God for these brave men. When politicians of all stripes let our soldiers do their jobs, the job gets done and it gets done right.

Bin Laden was the target of a strike but that did not kill him.

A firefight ensued. Bin Laden was shot in the head facing his enemy.

Most importantly, reports have it that an American killed him.

The cooperation behind the scenes with Pakistan was important.

Reports are coming fast and furious, and I have decided to hold off until we know much more.

It is not about being first. It is about getting it right.

Thanks to actionable intelligence and brilliant military precision, the attack on Bin Laden was swift, severe, and fatal.

None of this will bring back the lives we lost. It will not end the War on Terror.

Yet it is absolutely a cause for celebration.

So to all the despots of the world, just know that America never rests until the job is done.

You can hide in caves, but eventually we will find you.

You will not have an ounce of rest until we end your days permanently.

An attack on one American is an attack on all of us.

For a decade, every single day at some point 9/11 was in my thoughts.

As President Bush said, some people went back to normal. I never did.

There is so much more work to do, but this does call for a peaceful night of sleep for anyone capable of feeling that peace.

Osama Bin Laden is burning in hell.

Best of all, it was American skill, steel, and resolve that put him there.

This was not vengeance. It was justice.

Justice was done.

Now to get every single last murderous Islamofascist zealot until the children born today can sleep at night without the pain we felt on 9/11.

Until that day…

God bless the USA.

eric