You know that President Obama killing Osama is killing the GOP and wingers everywhere. They sound like stuck pigs as they try everything possible to diminish the achievement of removing the biggest bogeyman they ever created. Anyone would have done the same thing. Criticizing the spiking of the football, and whining about voters being reminded that Romney advised against it.
Now they think they have a smoking gun with a 'recently revealed CIA memo' that really will prove that President Obama not only had nothing to do with the mission or making the gutsy call but tried to pre-emptively shift the blame to Admiral McRaven should anything go wrong.
The text of the memo from then-director Leon Panetta reads:
Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a decision with regard to AC1 [Abbottabad Compound 1]. The decision is to proceed with the assault.
The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am.
Ben Shapiro goes on to
say:
This, of course, was the famed “gutsy call. Only the memo doesn’t show a gutsy call. It doesn’t show a president willing to take the blame for a mission gone wrong. It shows a CYA maneuver by the White House.
Timing, operational decision making and control - you know, the military detail stuff you want your military commander to be in charge of. Giving him the authority to make critical time-sensitive decisions in a fluidly changing landscape. Sounds like managerial leadership to me.
And former GWB Bush AG Michael Mukasey jumps into the fray in an op-ed in today's WSJ on the 'bragging rights' of the bin Laden mission:
Consider the events surrounding the operation. A recently disclosed memorandum from then-CIA Director Leon Panetta shows that the president's celebrated derring-do in authorizing the operation included a responsibility-escape clause.
Which is to say, if the mission went wrong, the fault would be Adm. McRaven's, not the president's.
Really? It sounds like someone ensuring the mission would not go wrong. Sounds like a shrewd Commander in Chief to me, demanding any developments be reviewed with him before proceeding. This memo is all over the rightwing blogs today, triumphantly (laughably in reality) 'proving' how President Obama has no bragging rights to the successful end result. Referring to it as 'heads I win, tails you lose'. Only, as VP Biden said, his Presidency would have been sunk if it had gone wrong.
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