Mission Actually Accomplished

One year ago, Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. force who raided his home in Pakistan. Those U.S. forces were dispatched by the President of the United States, Barack Obama. He, the President, made an incredibly difficult and courageous decision when he ordered those forces into Pakistan. Had they failed, as David Frum notes, or had the mission ended as Operation Eagle Claw did, then he, the President, would have suffered the blame.*

For the Republicans who are, today, bemoaning the President's rightful claim of credit, please see the image below. Your dishonesty and lack of perspective are infuriating because you are wrong, because it is dishonest, and because some of us still remember the 2002 congressional campaigns and the 2004 presidential campaign. Now go away.

* It is appropriate to here note James Fallows' piece in The Atlantic regarding the Romney attack line comparing President Obama's decision to go after bin Laden to President Carter's decision to launch a rescue attempt for the Iranian hostages. That, too, was a very gutsy call. It went awry. And President Carter suffered the political consequences of its failure. How Carter has been remade into some sort of coward by the Republican party is bizarre and tremendously unfair.