Article

2011-05-04 -Obits-

Obama took SIXTEEN HOURS to make up his mind about Bin Laden mission

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Posted by tipper 2011-05-04 07:33|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 And from the fringe....

Posted by Besoeker 2011-05-04 07:56|| 2011-05-04 07:56|| Front Page Top

#2 That doesn't sound too bad to me. It wasn't an extremely urgent mission, and potential repercussions were severe (accidentally starting a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, perhaps?) Still, it shouldn't have come as a surprise to the President - planning has been going on for months in detail, and years in general, so the only real decision should have been now or not now. One wonders if the Ditherer-in-Chief was motivated to make the call when some handler reminded him that his NOT making the call might/would probably leak out sooner or later.

Posted by Glenmore 2011-05-04 07:59|| 2011-05-04 07:59|| Front Page Top

#3 I'm willing to cut him some slack on this one, for the reasons Glenmore has already mentioned. However, I don't want to hear any more about GWB being indecisive because he took seven minutes to finish his school visit on the morning of 9/11/01.

Posted by Mike 2011-05-04 09:02|| 2011-05-04 09:02|| Front Page Top

#4 Making his own mind up after sixteen hours is better than having it made up for him by semi-rebellious subordinates after months of intransigence, which is the story-line of Besoeker's link.

But that "White House Insider" story is way too... omniscient and confident for a supposed single-source "inside scoop". It's also way too "too good to check", by which I mean it hits all of my confirmation biases, as well as those of the majority of the commenters here at Rantburg. Distrust nebulous anonymous stories which tell you everything you believe is secretly true. That way lies the entrance to an iron-bound echo chamber with no exit.

Posted by Mitch H. 2011-05-04 09:03|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/ 2011-05-04 09:03|| Front Page Top

#5 Personally I think the final deciding factor was probably Pineta begging Obama to grab him while he was still the CIA guy, and telling him if Osama slipped away the Democrats would be unelectable for decades.

Posted by rjschwarz 2011-05-04 09:13|| 2011-05-04 09:13|| Front Page Top

#6 16 hours doesn't seem unreasonable to me. We got UBL. Slick Willy Clinton had opportunities to get UBL and screwed it up. The donks didn't want to screw it up this time.

Posted by JohnQC 2011-05-04 09:22|| 2011-05-04 09:22|| Front Page Top

#7 It took longer for Nancy Pelosi to come around. The dishonesty of this woman is appalling. She said recently:

The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant development in our fight against al-Qaida. . . . I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment. . . . [T]he death of Osama bin Laden is historic. . . .

Posted by JohnQC 2011-05-04 09:41|| 2011-05-04 09:41|| Front Page Top

#8 While the "i" and the "o" are adjacent on my keyboard, the secrect source in Besoeker's link kept saying CoC, when I think he meant CiC, right - Commander in Chief? Maybe not such a good source?

Posted by Bobby 2011-05-04 11:29|| 2011-05-04 11:29|| Front Page Top

#9 CoC in that context almost certainly means "Chain of Command", Bobby. Namely, that people were doing end-runs around each other, and making decisions for the President instead of accepting his decisions as he made them.

I don't know, Stephen Green just made a pretty good argument in favor of "White House Insider", namely, that the White House PR apparat certainly don't *act* like they were in the loop & properly prepared. In fact, they're behaving rather like sulky, confused children on a lit stage, being forced to go through the motions by some unseen offstage guardian or teacher.

Posted by Mitch H. 2011-05-04 13:01|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/ 2011-05-04 13:01|| Front Page Top

#10 Its easy to Monday morning quarterback decisions that were made by President Obama. He is not the star in a the movie Navy Seals or a character in the game Call of Duty so none of us know the complete story behind this. I have heard at least five different versions that include as few as six and as many as 50 personnel involved.
Whatever time it took (18 seconds, minutes, or hours) does not diminish two things: The mission was a success and it was a VERY risky decision for the U.S. (and the President). Looking at the room of people with the President watching the live feed I cant imagine any of them advising him to go through with this mission or making that decision if they were in his shoes. There were so many things that could have gone wrong and we were lucky that we had a backup to the 1st chopper that went kaput.
I am not a huge President Obama fan and I can see where he is going to milk this for all the publicity he can get. IMHO its his victory as much as Americas as much as those brave men who landed in that compound. Good job SEALS and good call President Obama!

Posted by Cyber Sarge 2011-05-04 13:15|| 2011-05-04 13:15|| Front Page Top

#11 (accidentally starting a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, perhaps?)

Sorry, unclear. Does that go in the Pluses or Minuses column?

Posted by SteveS 2011-05-04 13:54|| 2011-05-04 13:54|| Front Page Top

#12 This is the same genius who needed a TelePrompTer to speak to grade school kids. In fact, it recently came out that it costs $100k per year to teach him how to read his TelePrompTer. This guy is no brain trust. Probably took 16 hours to explain to him where Pakistan is and why some guys named "seal" wanted to go there.

Posted by Iblis 2011-05-04 16:43|| 2011-05-04 16:43|| Front Page Top

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