Tag: osama bin laden
Obama Made America Cool Again

Obama Made America Cool Again

WASHINGTON — The euphoria explosion at Barack Obama’s inauguration eight years ago flew in with the January wind. Never had the capital felt so arctic cold and yet so warm.

Here was a president to be proud of in public — every day.

Yet he kept us at an elegant distance. The greatest leaders capture the hearts and minds of the people, like Winston Churchill. Obama fell short of being a man of the people. Even Democratic allies in Congress felt distanced by the solo artist sitting in the Oval Office, a beautiful stranger.

So that thrilling togetherness vanished suddenly from the scene. Republican leaders were partly to blame, spitefully refusing to cooperate with Obama.

But remember, at first, Obama made America cool again, like Jack Kennedy, black and white blended. He made hope and history rhyme. We dared ask, were our hearts and minds destined to be his forever

Here’s the writing on the wall I’ve stared at since 2009: Obama’s soaring rhetoric was much stronger than his ground game in office. And he sure is cool — more dispassionate than we knew.

When Obama goes on long vacations, he finds bliss and solace in islands: Martha’s Vineyard, Hawaii. Far from the madding crowd of citizens. In temperament, our man is an island.

Obama’s legacy makes pure intellectual sense, but do you feel it? The economic recovery seems soft, cool to the touch — nothing like the peace and prosperity of the ’90s.

When it comes to his signature Obamacare, some flaws were harbingers of what was to come. It took too long to pass; Obama waited months on moderate Republicans who were never going to join him; he fired the best expert helping hand in town, his friend and former senator Tom Daschle, over a trifle; and he abandoned the public option, the linchpin in the legislation’s affordability.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally put the crying baby to bed — the flawed law — for the rookie president with growing pains.

Don’t get me wrong. If I met Obama, his brilliant smile would work its magic. I respect his reason, memoir, vision, lyrical words. But I never came to love him — as I did that beguiling Bill Clinton, a grown-up Tom Sawyer, or as the English loved Elizabeth I, the Renaissance monarch who spoke often of her love for her “good people.”

The President Roosevelts — Teddy and Franklin — had the rare political talent, to reach hearts and minds. Ronald Reagan won hearts even when their minds disagreed, and for that Obama admired the master’s art.

In waging wars in the Middle East, Obama had the burden of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. He never fully owned it or acted upon it, even after all his criticism of the Iraq War — which became a breeding ground for ISIS on his watch. Afghanistan is a shipwreck with an American military presence.

While Obama made good on a pledge to kill Osama bin Laden, he opened up a whole new kind of warfare, drones, to hit terrorist targets in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere. These secret CIA strikes were precisely trained on human targets he signed off on.

“It turns out … that I’m really good at killing people,” Obama told aides.

About 2015, a more seasoned Obama got a good deal done, worthy works that may soon be undone. In a way, that’s his fault. Few presidents leave their legacy undefended on an open field — to a hostile House, Senate, Supreme Court and White House.

The president’s imprimatur on climate change and the Iran nuclear deal are as vitally important as they are vulnerable.

The 2016 election was not only a loss for Hillary Clinton — who also appeals to minds, not hearts. Obama came up short on voter enthusiasm. It’s a hard failure to face. Building party political infrastructure was never his strong suit.

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s emotive, familiar and crude style of speaking to people at rallies (and tweets) sharply contrasted to Obama’s ethereal way with words. Crude is here to stay a while.

With a few exceptional scenes, as when he sang “Amazing Grace” at the funeral of nine murdered churchgoers, Obama’s persuasion aims to connect with minds — sweet reason — more than hearts.

And will we ever miss him when he’s gone.

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit creators.com.

IMAGE: U.S. President Barack Obama walks down the colonnade from the Oval Office at The White House in Washington, January 12, 2016. REUTERS/Mary F. Calvert

Endorse This: Rubio’s Love Of George W. Bush — On 9/11!

Endorse This: Rubio’s Love Of George W. Bush — On 9/11!

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Jeb Bush isn’t the only candidate that just doesn’t know how to quit George W. Bush. The newest entrant: Marco Rubio, who had some interesting things to say at an event Thursday in South Carolina.

“Jeb Bush has no foreign policy experience, period. And I’m an incredible admirer of him, and of his family,” Rubio declared, in an effort to repel criticism about his own résumé. “I thank God that George W. Bush was president of the United States instead of Al Gore on September 11, 2001.”

And just think: The crowd actually applauded at this — in praise of the president who six months after 9/11 boasted in public that he no longer even thought much about Osama bin Laden.

Of course, we can never know how a President Gore administration would’ve handled terrorism and the 9/11 plot. But we do know what Bush actually did: Talk big about how he’d track down the masterminds behind it, then fail to do so, go to war in Iraq instead, and leave Osama bin Laden alive and well — up until the Obama years.

Video via Reuters

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Former W.H. Press Secretary Remembers Bush On 9/11: ‘We’re Going To Kick Their Ass’

Former W.H. Press Secretary Remembers Bush On 9/11: ‘We’re Going To Kick Their Ass’

Former George W. Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer is again embarking on his annual tradition of sharing his memories of 9/11 via Twitter, recounting events as they unfolded on a nearly minute-by-minute basis.

In a series of tweets Friday morning, Fleischer remembered President Bush’s bold personal promises to defeat the terrorists who perpetrated that horrible act — you know, the mission that he didn’t accomplish.

 

Indeed, somebody was going to pay — even if it wasn’t the actual person or country behind the attack. Fleischer continued his account, recalling a solemn vow that Bush made to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Fleischer recounted phone calls that Bush made to officials throughout the country, including further conversations with Cheney:

 

But over the next few weeks, while the quickly assembled international coalition did indeed score many victories against Osama bin Laden’s state sponsors in Afghanistan, bin Laden himself eluded capture — and the administration, spearheaded by men such as Cheney, changed its focus to pursue a different war in Iraq.

Six months later, at Bush’s press conference on March 13, 2002 — a time when the administration was building the political case for the Iraq War — Bush openly boasted that he no longer thought much about bin Laden. Indeed, he repeatedly implied that the terror mastermind might be dead.

Kelly Wallace: Mr. President, in your speeches now you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden. Why is that? Also, can you tell the American people if you have any more information, if you know if he is dead or alive? Final part, deep in your heart, don’t you truly believe that until you find out if he is dead or alive, you won’t really eliminate the threat of—

President George W. Bush: Well, deep in my heart, I know the man is on the run if he’s alive at all. Who knows if he’s hiding in some cave or not? We haven’t heard from him in a long time. And the idea of focusing on one person is—really indicates to me people don’t understand the scope of the mission.

Terror is bigger than one person. And he’s just — he’s a person who’s now been marginalized. His network is — his host government has been destroyed. He’s the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match. He is — as I’ve mentioned in my speeches, I do mention the fact that this is a fellow who is willing to commit youngsters to their death, and he himself tries to hide — if, in fact, he’s hiding at all.

So I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you.

Wallace followed up by asking: “But don’t you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won’t truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?”

“Well, as I say, we haven’t heard much from him,” Bush responded. “And I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure. And again, I don’t know where he is. I — I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run.”

Five years after 9/11, the Bush White House continued to spin the non-capture of bin Laden in some truly monumental ways. In December 2006, White House Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend engaged in this phenomenal exchange on CNN:

Ed Henry:You know, going back to September 2001, the president said, dead or alive, we’re going to get him. Still don’t have him. I know you are saying there’s successes on the war on terror, and there have been. That’s a failure.

Frances Townsend: Well, I’m not sure — it’s a success that hasn’t occurred yet. I don’t know that I view that as a failure.

Of course, that success eventually did happen — just not under the Bush administration. Osama bin Laden was finally found and killed in Pakistan by American forces, in May of 2011 — during the first term of President Barack Obama.

Photo: Ari Fleischer via Facebook.

Bin Laden’s Papers Show He Studied U.S. Terrorism Investigations And Military History

Bin Laden’s Papers Show He Studied U.S. Terrorism Investigations And Military History

By Brian Bennett, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday released details of what it calls “Bin Laden’s Bookshelf,” more than 400 documents, reports, books, and other materials seized during the May 2011 raid by Navy SEALs in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.

The public release, the most expansive since the raid, suggests that the now-dead al-Qaida leader had eclectic interests and closely followed U.S. policy and operations relating to the terrorist network he founded.

He regularly downloaded U.S. indictments of accused terrorists as well as applications for U.S. passports, visas, and other immigration documents. His library of several dozen English-language books included works by Bob Woodward and Noam Chomsky.

And his collection of downloaded media included a Los Angeles Times review of a BBC documentary from January 2005.

The trove also included dozens of newly declassified letters, in Arabic with English translations, between bin Laden and his lieutenants around the globe. Bin Laden wrote about fundraising and recruiting young leaders as well as how the terrorist group could take advantage of the unrest in the wake of the Arab Spring protests.

Bin Laden also collected 19 reports on France’s economy and military capabilities, indicating an interest in launching attacks inside the country. The raid also seized about 30 computer manuals, as well as documents believed to be used by other members of the bin Laden household, such as a video game guide for “Delta Force: Xtreme 2,” silk-screening instructions, and a sports nutrition pamphlet.

The release comes as the administration struggles to gain ground in Iraq and Syria against Islamic State, the al-Qaida offshoot that has overshadowed bin Laden’s organization as a terrorist threat around the globe.

It also serves to rebut claims by legendary journalist Seymour Hersh that the SEAL commandos took nothing from the compound in the city of Abbottabad.

Still, the material reveals more about bin Laden’s years in forced solitude than it does about the organization that launched the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed almost 3,000 Americans.

Intelligence officials are considering hundreds more documents for release “in the near future,” Jeffrey Anchukaitis, a spokesman for the director of national intelligence, said in a statement.

“All documents whose publication will not hurt ongoing operations against Al Qaeda or their affiliates will be released,” Anchukaitis said.

A trickle of reports from the bin Laden raid have been made public over the last three years. Seventeen reports on the haul written by the West Point Combating Terrorism Center were released in 2012. More than a dozen additional reports have been declassified for use in court cases.

Representative Devin Nunes, a California Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, called Wednesday’s massive release “a step in the right direction,” but said there were “hundreds” of additional reports about information gleaned from the haul at bin Laden’s compound that should be declassified and released.

“The public deserves more,” Nunes said in a statement. He pushed to include a requirement in the 2014 Intelligence Authorization Act to further declassify intelligence reports about the raid.

“It is in the interest of the American public for citizens, academics, journalists, and historians to have the opportunity to read and understand bin Laden’s documents,” Nunes said.

Photo: DEAD Osama Bin Laden via Flickr