Itinerant Air-Cooled

I think this because of the snafu we see in the press releases now after the mission was "leaked". To say Fox "leaked" it suggests Fox had privy info of the mission. I doubt that. First, if Obama and the WH leaked it to Fox before it went down, that would be stupid. Not that the WH isn't stupid, but it doesn't like Fox anyway. The WH leaked it to the press after the kill went down successfully. That's my take right now. So, if Bush had been prez, none of this would have happened. I think they would have decided to leak it after they figured out the best way. No one knew beforehand. If they did, it wouldn't have happened in the first place. No mission. So, after the fact, no one knew either, except the compound, Al Queda, the CIA, and special forces. After shit like that gets done the best thing to do is grab all the hard drives, kill everyone, leave unannounced and wait. Then you plan your next move. Going public before you have all your ducks in a row is a bad move. But I could be wrong.

It didn't make one lick of a difference who the president was in office at the time this all went down, because he's just one man and despite all of the moronic bickering that goes on about who's better at what, he is just the face of an entire organization that is actually running things.

saying 'Bush would have done ______ better' (in relation to the hunting down and killing of Osama) is just saying that the military and other back room workers, many of whom are still in office from before the Bush administration, would have somehow done things differently back then.

maybe, but it doesn't make any difference to anyone other than those trying to keep score.

Okay, yeah. But I do think Bush put a lot of the tactical ability in place in the years after 9-11. The special forces were revamped. They were increased in numbers. Intelligence was increased. Bush didn't have any doubts about what his objectives were. He was pretty clear. Iraq notwithstanding. He didn't claim it would be an easy objective. Anyway, I think you're right. There were people doing this even before he was there. But after 9-11 it got put on a fast track. This still won't be easy, especially for Obama. But it's great they got Osama. Now watch how many Guantonamos we will need. It's not easy.

Yeah, I'm sorta with Chris on this. Unless I pretend that he makes many of the decisions instead of making almost none.
Obama is the actor. He doesn't have much to do with the script. Those who are making certain the script is followed would be his cabinet and advisors, they follow what there bosses want.

Well, I agree with both of you then in the idea Obama is not more than a figurehead to appease some peoples' ideas of morality. An actor who is just doing his best to appease what was his base. In the end he will fail, I think because he didn't realize the silent majority is center right. The left has some good ideas but many of them are unrealistic. Now I will hear the never-ending progressive sometime stories of doom and gloom if I don't accept their utopian political concepts. Yes, the world is wicked and base, and we are all doomed if we don't accept full equality everywhere right away. I subscribe to the incremental change theory: Nature is greater than human philosophy. We are just busy ants. We should mind our business gratefully.

airkooledchris wrote:It didn't make one lick of a difference who the president was in office at the time this all went down, because he's just one man and despite all of the moronic bickering that goes on about who's better at what, he is just the face of an entire organization that is actually running things.

saying 'Bush would have done ______ better' (in relation to the hunting down and killing of Osama) is just saying that the military and other back room workers, many of whom are still in office from before the Bush administration, would have somehow done things differently back then.

maybe, but it doesn't make any difference to anyone other than those trying to keep score.

Yes it did. Because he's commander-in-chief. The mission needed his approval first. Then, after, it was his prerogative whether to announce what happened, or not. That was my whole point in the other thread. I could be wrong, and probably am. But, since the mission went pretty well, according to the press releases; my first question is, considering the consequences of going public are not fully known yet, as all the details of the mission's narrative are not either, was waiting is a better move? I could be wrong. Maybe waiting had worse consequences. I don't see how. We'll probably never know. But, let's see how it goes from here. My advice to Obama: don't use it politically. That might likely backfire. I guess it will be used politically though. So, if it was me, I'd gamble on not taking credit for the raid first, and waiting to see what intelligence had to say about that.

The shrub fouled it all up, which is why it took as long as it did. After we quit torturing and wasting resources tracking down and tracing bad information obtained by torture, we started to make progress.


neal