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You guys are simply delusional and have very very short memory.
Only in the Right Wing political world could a President by his own admission completely fail at obtaining the man responsible for 9/11 (Missing his capture in 2001-2002, letting him escape Afghanistan, taking his eye off the prize by going after Saddam,disassembling the CIA plan to catch Bin Laden, ) AND take credit for it when someone else actually accomplishes it.
In Bush's own memoir he stated not catching Bin Laden was his biggest mistake and regret.
You Right wingers are simply grasping at straws to find a way to discredit Obama.
If it had not been for Obama telling Pakistan to sc*rew YOU we're going after Bin Laden anyway (which Bush refused and stated this would not work).
Bin Laden would RIGHT NOW be sucking down Curry chicken while his wives massage his feet!
You Right-wingers are crazier than I thought. How soon we forget the tragic war in Iraq that we are still not out of now. How soon we forget not fully taking out the Taliban/Osama after 9/11 and we're still dealing with Afghanistan 10 years later.
Bush's terrorism/foreign policy has been an utter failure by any measure.
I think this highlights the truth in that it's easy to lob attacks about policies that are in place that may not be popular, but are undeniably effective. I'm glad to see that Obama has graduated to training pants and realized that many of the policies from the Bush administration that he railed against, are actually the best options available. But, this is what you get when you elect someone with no executive experience whatsoever. There is a huge learning curve. I'm just happy that he is actually learning and not digging in his ideological heels.
Actually if you think the Bush policies where the best available you don't understand what the Bush policies were and you don't undestand how President Obama's policies especially in regards to how military and CIA special operators were used in PAKISTAN are in fact decidely different than George W. Bush's polices.
First, George W. Bush Jr. made the decision in 2005 to DISBAND THE CIA TEAM that was specifically tasked with finding Osama Bin Ladin. Ironcially this was the same year that construction began on the compound where Bin Ladin was found in. President Obama on the other hand made the finding and killing of Osama Bin Ladin and the destruction of Al-Qaeda the NUMBER ONE PRIORITY OF THE CIA.
SAD/SOG has been very active "on the ground" inside Pakistan targeting al-Qaeda operatives for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Predator strikes and along with USSOCOM elements they have been training Pakistani Special Service Group Commandos.[144] Before leaving office, President George W. Bush authorized SAD's successful killing of eight senior al-Qaeda operatives via targeted air strikes.[145] Among those killed were the mastermind of a 2006 plot to detonate explosives aboard planes flying across the Atlantic Rashid Rauf and the man thought to have planned the Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing on September 20, 2008 that killed 53 people.[146][147] The CIA Director authorized the continuation of these operations and on January 23, SAD/SOG successfully killed 20 terrorists in a hideout in northwestern Pakistan. Some experts assess that the CIA Director Leon Panetta has been more aggressive in conducting paramilitary operations in Pakistan than his predecessor.[148] A Pakistani security official stated that other strikes killed at least 10 insurgents, including five foreign nationals and possibly “a high-value target” such as a senior al-Qaeda or Taliban official.[149] On February 14, the CIA drone killed 27 taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in a missile strike in south Waziristan, a militant stronghold near the Afghan border where al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri were believed to be hiding.[150]
MQ-9 Reaper
In a National Public Radio (NPR) report dated February 3, 2008, a senior official stated that al-Qaeda has been "decimated" by SAD/SOG's air and ground operations. This senior U.S. counter-terrorism official goes on to say, "The enemy is really, really struggling. These attacks have produced the broadest, deepest and most rapid reduction in al-Qaida senior leadership that we've seen in several years."[151] President Obama's CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that SAD/SOG's efforts in Pakistan have been "the most effective weapon" against senior al-Qaeda leadership.[152][153]
These covert attacks have increased significantly under President Obama, with as many at 50 al-Qaeda militants being killed in the month of May 2009 alone.[154][155][156] In June 2009, sixty Taliban fighters were killed while at a funeral to bury fighters that had been killed in previous CIA attacks.[157] On July 22, 2009, National Public Radio reported that U.S. officials believe Saad bin Laden, a son of Osama bin Laden, was killed by a CIA strike in Pakistan. Saad bin Laden spent years under house arrest in Iran before traveling last year to Pakistan, according to former National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell. It's believed he was killed sometime this year. A senior U.S. counter-terrorism said U.S. intelligence agencies are "80 to 85 percent" certain that Saad bin Laden is dead.[158]
Beneath its commitment to soft-spoken diplomacy and beyond the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups, according to senior military and administration officials.
Special Operations forces have grown both in number and budget, and are deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. In addition to units that have spent years in the Philippines and Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.
Commanders are developing plans for increasing the use of such forces in Somalia, where a Special Operations raid last year killed the alleged head of al-Qaeda in East Africa. Plans exist for preemptive or retaliatory strikes in numerous places around the world, meant to be put into action when a plot has been identified, or after an attack linked to a specific group.
The surge in Special Operations deployments, along with intensified CIA drone attacks in western Pakistan, is the other side of the national security doctrine of global engagement and domestic values President Obama released last week.
Quote:
Special Operations commanders have also become a far more regular presence at the White House than they were under George W. Bush's administration, when most briefings on potential future operations were run through the Pentagon chain of command and were conducted by the defense secretary or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"We have a lot more access," a second military official said. "They are talking publicly much less but they are acting more. They are willing to get aggressive much more quickly."
The White House, he said, is "asking for ideas and plans . . . calling us in and saying, 'Tell me what you can do. Tell me how you do these things.' "
The Special Operations capabilities requested by the White House go beyond unilateral strikes and include the training of local counterterrorism forces and joint operations with them. In Yemen, for example, "we are doing all three," the official said. Officials who spoke about the increased operations were not authorized to discuss them on the record.
Overall President Obama has been much more aggressive in taking the fight to terrorist in Pakistan than George W. Bush ever was. Even to the point of pissing off the Pakistani government.
I can't believe that folks are still arguing about this nonsense.
As liberal as i may be, i don't give a damn about who gets credit. I just want the country to be safe for all of us regardless of ideology. Sitting around whining about who gets credit is ridiculous. President Obama made a tough call that required the Seal Team to use the riskiest of all options on the table. It could've been the doom of his presidency had the mission failed and those sailors got themselves killed or captured. That was a gutsy call. President Bush set the tone by being aggresive right from the beginning. And the Bush Administration also gets the credit for recognizing good talent at the command level by exalting Petraeus over other less talented generals. Bush could've probably wrapped up this thing during his term had he not diverted so much of his time to Iraq in 2003...but that's here nor there at this point. Bin-Laden is in the bag and we're all better off for it.
What terrorism policies has Obama initiated himself other than the great World Apology Tour?
"I'm Sorry."
-B. Hussein Obama
this is where my brothers on the right are off too.
Obama absolutly made a change in escalating attacks on Al Queda in Pakistan without approval of the Pakistani goverment.
That was an escalation and it has paid off in a large number of dead terrorists.
At the same time, he has used "fruit of the poison tree" by using intelegence gathered from waterboarding to find guys like UBL.
And he has not stopped rendition.
Obama has continued more than a few Bush Era policies that are paying dividends and he has added to the effort.
BOTH of them deserve credit in this area.
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