No one else it seems has asked the question yet so I guess I will [cynical, muckraking bastard that I am]: to wit, US intel seems to have known for quite sometime where Osama was - and, as I referenced before, there's an indication that they only went after him now because arrest of the Bali bomber possibly risked spurring a move on Osama's part - plus, there have been some rumors swirling about that Obama put off making this hit for possibly as much as a few months - so, is it possible they were trying to push this thing to as close to the election as they reasonably could or simply waiting to spring it when polls looked to be sliding as they were last week? Granted, there could be several very good reasons for the delay - but, given what we have seen of the way Obama likes his Chicago style politics, I don't think it's absurd at all to wonder if maybe there was a less than honorable motivation to the delay. Just wondering - after all, you have a wild card like that in your hand it gives you a lot of options - I mean, this whole Libya debacle was done knowing full well that at any time he could dramatically change the story simply by sending a bullet through Osama's head [and accordingly Libya drops way down below the fold, a mere distraction to be marginalized lest it draw light from the real story of Obama our warrior King]. Just wondering - for instance, how naive would I have to be to think it was merely a coincidence that Americans got to wake up Monday morning to this news thus guaranteeing Obama a full week of press preening topped off at week's end by all the Sunday political shows having Obama officials on talking talking talking about the president's 'guts' [every one of them used virtually the exact same language - 'guts' - one exuberant catamite even compared the president's courage to that of the SEALS who pulled the trigger] and finally a gushing lionization on 60 Minutes that night? Pretty god damn naive the way I see it.
Still, though the politics of it may be annoying if not outright galling, such is to be expected, especially from Obama who, as I've said before, is all about manipulation of an image cleverly cultivated by vague, misleading rhetoric, idealist theatrics and shamelessly playing off the illusion of a post-racial sensibility - it's the willingness of the press to play along that truly troubles. After all, there are serious questions that need to be raised here about this operation that are not being raised - one of course understands the rationale for keeping Pakistan out of the loop, but was that really the right decision if the consequences of that are a deeper unsettling of Pakistani politics and culture and a further push of it into China's orbit? You want me to believe that once you know where Osama is you can't then go to Pakistan and force their hand? I'm not saying the decision to go behind their back was wrong, I'm saying the alternative was probably viable and potentially of greater strategic value. Again, one understands the rationale behind simply executing the man on the spot, but how smart was that really and, of possibly more significance, why exactly was that decision made - to expedite things with the least amount of fuss or to avoid the necessary legitimization of military tribunals and Guantanamo that jailing OBL would have rendered unavoidable?
Finally, as far as I'm concerned Obama's foreign policy has been a disaster [although I believe an objective reckoning would substantially back up this opinion] - but now suddenly I'm supposed to see him as a strong leader blessed with a keen insight into American strategic concerns simply because he ok'd an operation for which he was only marginally responsible and in fact possibly doesn't even happen without the contribution of Bush era initiatives that Obama not only opposed but when you get right down to it should run decidedly against his ideological grain and the left wing sympathies of his most ardent supporters? That seems not only ridiculous, but distressingly dangerous - and yet that is the storyline the press is actively pushing.
