To Get Bin Laden, Obama Relied on Policies He Decried

[Geee]

National Review:


Let’s cheerfully and ungrudgingly give credit to Barack Obama for approving the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.

In my column last Monday, I criticized Obama’s foreign policy, which was characterized by one of his advisers in an interview with The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza as “leading from behind.” That criticism still stands.

But in tracking down and nailing bin Laden, Obama led from behind the right way: Behind the scenes he made a right but risky decision, without any leaks to the press, to achieve an objective sought by two presidents and thousands in the American government and military since Sept. 11, 2001.

The decision was risky because the operation could have failed, the way Jimmy Carter’s Desert One operation to rescue American hostages in Iran failed in April 1980.
But this time, even though one helicopter was lost, the operation succeeded. There was evidently a lot of redundancy in the plan and a lot of flexibility on the ground. A lot of good people did a lot of good things right.