Some things are harder to lie about, though. If they didn't really kill OBL, that would mean that President Obama's entire cabinet would have to be in on the charade, + the military forces and the CIA that helped take him out. Oh, and then you have the guys on the ship who took him out to sea to be buried. And if it wasn't OBL, it would be quite easy for him to pop up with another terrorist video to show he was still alive and kicking. Which of course he would want to do in order to embarrass the U.S.
What I do think is that the CIA and the President and whoever else have probably known of OBL's whereabouts for quite some time, but hadn't made a move because of the problem of riding roughshod over the Pakistani government. It could be that the President was willing to make a tough decision because he knew his approval was drooping, or maybe he really wanted to take out OBL, but was weighing the decision for other reasons. He never really campaigned against the war in Afghanistan and did state from the beginning of his presidency that OBL would be a prime target.
"In a strikingly bold speech about terrorism Wednesday, Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Sen. Barack Obama called not only for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but a redeployment of troops into Afghanistan and even Pakistan — with or without the permission of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf."
I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges," Obama said, "but let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will.
It does appear that this type of action was his plan all along.
Another point to ponder: Obama didn't get all the liberals in his corner with this move. Some of them are pretty dicey about this little piece of military action. So who was he trying to win over?
Miss B, could you not have posted this quote while I was arguing that this is what he has been saying?
Seriously, I don't believe this is an actual quote because he used the word terrorist.
j/k
__________________
There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Chuck Norris lives in Houston.
Either the United States will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States. – W.E.B. DuBois
Miss B, could you not have posted this quote while I was arguing that this is what he has been saying?
Seriously, I don't believe this is an actual quote because he used the word terrorist.
j/k
Stew,
You know they were trying to downplay the word "terrorist".
Quote:
I first want to apologize for the White House’s use of the word terrorism in their statement. This was an unfortunate involuntary impulse. Keep in mind that the term “terrorism” was a Bush administration dysphemism to fuel the “politics of fear,” and is much too inflammatory for this administration’s tastes. - Janet Napolitano
Stew,
You know they were trying to downplay the word "terrorist".
It's all Bush's fault!!
All I can go by are the speeches and statements I remember he himself making. I know that is archaic and unsophisticated in these sorts of political conversations...
I remember him using the word terrorist plenty whenever appropriate and discussing the war on terror. Either way, the larger point was about the strategy of focusing on that region...which I happen to agree with. That is all I was saying.
__________________
There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Chuck Norris lives in Houston.
Either the United States will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States. – W.E.B. DuBois
All I can go by are the speeches and statements I remember he himself making. I know that is archaic and unsophisticated in these sorts of political conversations...
I remember him using the word terrorist plenty whenever appropriate and discussing the war on terror. Either way, the larger point was about the strategy of focusing on that region...which I happen to agree with. That is all I was saying.
We have always had a base in Afghanistan, implemented by the Bush Administration.
That base helped us to:
1. Establish a presence in Afghanistan to hold Osama at bay
2. Limit the enemy's movements by Drone strikes
3. Flush Osama out of Afghanistan by conventional forces
4. Gather intelligence information by rounding up enemies and sending them to Gitmo
5. Launch the SEAL Team Six - which came later, after intelligence was confirmed
Obama's job will now be to not abandon Afghanistan and weaken our national security. Bush never abandoned Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, that was exactly what Condi Rice advised, "If you want another terrorist attack in the U.S., abandon Afghanistan," she said.
Quote:
Rice: I was very much inside the government at that time, and I can say it’s simply not true. We spent enormous amounts of time on both Afghanistan and Iraq. ... It was a deliberate decision in the early years to have a light footprint in Afghanistan, to have most of the fighting done by Afghans. When things went bad [on the border of] Pakistan that had become a safe haven for terrorists, then the strategy had to change. Afghanistan was always going to be hard ... but it’s now a place where there is a constitution, girls are going to school, women aren’t executed in a soccer stadium as they were under the Taliban. I think we undervalue the contribution of the NATO alliance, and Canada in particular, which made great sacrifices in the war to move Afghanistan forward. It doesn’t mean democracy has arrived, but it’s a better place than it was in 2001.
We have always had a base in Afghanistan, implemented by the Bush Administration.
That base helped us to:
1. Establish a presence in Afghanistan to hold Osama at bay
2. Limit the enemy's movements by Drone strikes
3. Flush Osama out of Afghanistan by conventional forces
4. Gather intelligence information by rounding up enemies and sending them to Gitmo
5. Launch the SEAL Team Six - which came later, after intelligence was confirmed
Obama's job will now be to not abandon Afghanistan and weaken our national security. Bush never abandoned Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, that was exactly what Condi Rice advised, "If you want another terrorist attack in the U.S., abandon Afghanistan," she said.
IMO, it's hard to want to support a leadership there that dote on "dancing boys" as part of their culture.
*sigh* We were neglecting Afghanistan in our efforts to focus on Iraq. We were expending too much in Iraq and the Afhgan/Pakistan front was suffering as a result. This was dangerous because that is where the greater threat to you and I was represented. The troops on the ground were saying it and the raw numbers bore it out.
Is it too hard to just recognize that your political "enemy" might be absolutely right about one thing? Or that your political "ally" could be absolutely wrong about one thing? We just won't get anywhere until we get past that mindset.
__________________
There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Chuck Norris lives in Houston.
Either the United States will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States. – W.E.B. DuBois
*sigh* We were neglecting Afghanistan in our efforts to focus on Iraq. We were expending too much in Iraq and the Afhgan/Pakistan front was suffering as a result. This was dangerous because that is where the greater threat to you and I was represented. The troops on the ground were saying it and the raw numbers bore it out.
Is it too hard to just recognize that your political "enemy" might be absolutely right about one thing? Or that your political "ally" could be absolutely wrong about one thing? We just won't get anywhere until we get past that mindset.
Let's put the discussion on hold until we see if Obama holds to his July 2011 pull out.
"It is important to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool," said the president.
"We don't trot out this stuff as trophies," Mr. Obama added. "The fact of the matter is, this is somebody who was deserving of the justice that he received."
Let's put the discussion on hold until we see if Obama holds to his July 2011 pull out.
Considering the fact that my son is leaving for Afghanistan in mid-June 2011 for a 12 month deployment, I'd say that it's pretty certain we'll still be there after July.
Miss B, could you not have posted this quote while I was arguing that this is what he has been saying?
Seriously, I don't believe this is an actual quote because he used the word terrorist.
j/k
LOL!!! Sorry! I didn't have time to research much yesterday.
__________________
"God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."
--David Livingstone
"To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—
abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;…."
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of the Open Road
Miss B, could you not have posted this quote while I was arguing that this is what he has been saying?
Seriously, I don't believe this is an actual quote because he used the word terrorist.
Hybrid Mode
