The comment above comes from Jim Hoft's unfortunate Gateway Pundit blog, which announced the death of Bin Laden with as little mention of President Obama as possible. "How long till Obama takes credit...5, 4,3,2,..." asks another commenter. "I think it took a week to confirm and for Obama to stop crying that his homey is dead."
Not to be outdone, rightwing nutjob Hugh Hewitt manages to report the death of Osama Bin Laden without mentioning that Obama guy at all, other than a reference to the "White House" in a blockquote from the New York Times. GWB makes an appearance, though.
Here's George W. Bush on the super-important mission of taking down Osama Bin Laden:
"I don't know where he is... I truly am not that concerned with him." It's that laser-like focus (some would call it an obsession) that drove the former president to come out of retirement, hop a plane to Pakistan, and shoot Bin Laden himself.
Fun fact: it was exactly eight years ago yesterday that Bush declared "Mission accomplished" in Iraq. This is the guy the right believes deserves all the credit. After all, it was Dubs who said he wanted OBL "dead or alive."
But here's another fun fact: it's impossible to imagine a president reacting to 9/11 in any other way. "We gotta get this Bin Laden guy" would be the gist of any post-strike policy -- man commits crime, goes fugitive, cops go after him. Can you really imagine any president saying anything else? Yet it's seen as a sign of brilliance that George W. Bush announced the most predictable policy in the world. If it weren't for him, this Obama guy never would've thought of it.
Of course, this will go on until the right realizes they've got a new conspiracy theory to replace birtherism. It'll be the new Elvisism, where Bin Laden is spotted all over the world, not dead, because President Obama only pretended to bring him down in order to boost his reelection odds.
The only real mystery is in how they'll manage to keep giving Bush credit for the kill.
-Wisco
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AmyJ · 727 weeks ago
Wait...you mean Saddam Hussein didn't plan the 9/11 attacks?
The war in Iraq was, hold on, what was it for again??
I'll just go consult Fox News, they'll clear this all up for me.
Thanks.
vet · 727 weeks ago
All in all, Osama bin Laden is alleged to have killed about 3400 "Americans and allies". That's the combined death toll of his terrorist attacks.
The wars launched to bring him and his organisation "to justice" (though not to trial) have cost America $1.2 trillion. So far. In direct costs only. That's $350 million per person he killed. And that's just America's financial spending - it doesn't count spending by allies, it doesn't count lives lost and ruined, it doesn't count civilians killed and infrastructure destroyed, it doesn't count the damage to US image and interests by such episodes as Gitmo and Abu Chraib and "extraordinary rendition".
Don't get me wrong, I'm heartily glad he's dead, and I give Obama great credit for putting a stop to this phase of America's national insanity. But to claim it as a "victory" seems kinda rose-tinted. We have a name for victories like that.
GriperBlade 70p · 727 weeks ago
Now seems like an excellent time to get out of Afghanistan, BTW.
Chester · 727 weeks ago