From this chain of events, it is obvious that the mission to capture Osama Bin Laden was a years-long effort requiring commander in chief approvals from two administrations and a lot of coordination, work and oversigth by the CIA, NSA, and our armed forces.

In the end, the key elements that allowed for the mission to come together...to find and then kill Bin Laden...were the fact that the Bush administration set up a very comprehensive intelligence apparatus, got legal approval for establishing enhanced interogation techniques (water boarding, sleep deprivation, nutrition modification, contant music playing, and phsycological methods) to glean the intel from the captured terrorist leaders. In addition, the Bush administration established off-shore places to hold these prisoners where their security could be maintained, and where no calls to try and extend US legal process to these enemy combatants (who according to the rules of war in the geneva convention could have been summarily executed). Barack Hussein Obama and the DNC leadership vocally and directly opposed most of this, both as a Senator and then later when running for President, where he vowed to end it. After being elected, he did end most of it, but was never able to close down GITMO because he had no better alternative acceptable to the American people, and the intel leading to Obama was already in the works and well along the path to finding him.

As indicated, by that time the military, the CIA, and the NSA already had gleaned the essential intelligence and they followed it and ultimately used it to find Osama bin Laden hiding in Pakistan. Once it was known, and an operation was planned, it was put off for several months by the Obama administration. We do not know exactly why, but the longer it was put off, the more likely it was for bin Laden to either find out, or move somewhere else. Could it be possible Obama was waiting for the best opportunity to gain political capital before making the call? You be the judge.

Ultimately the call was made and the armed forces of this nation, assisted by the CIA and NSA, pulled off the mission to a tee and assaulted the compound deep within Pakistan and killed bin Laden and then got everyone out of the situation safely. For the decision to make the call...to say, "Yes, do it," the credit goes to Obama. But, given the same circumstances with the avowed leader of the terrorists who killed over 3,000 Americans on 911, who would not have made that call? The answer to that is clear...but also not without controversy as we shall see.

The credit for getting us to that point, for the hard decisions and then the discipline to stick with it for years tenaciously, goes to others, notably to the Bush administration and the intelligence, clandestine, special forces, and regular forces of the US Military.

At the time, Obama, although identifying the units involved in the operation and how they went about it (which was a horrible lapse and leak in vital intelligence which the military was livid over at the time - they would have rather that those details not been made public because they compromise future missions and efforts), Obama indicated that there should be and would be no chest thumping or spiking the football regarding this operation. The leaks were a monumental mistake...but a commitment to not "spike the football" was a correct course of action...if followed..

However, now several months before his re-election bid, Obama, on the 1st anniversary of the event, flew to Afghanistan and made a big show of taking credit for the operation, saying "I did", and "my decision," and "me," over and over, and rarely or not at all mentioning the other critical players who made the accomplishment of this misison possible. You would have thought he himself caught the terrorists, detained them, interrogated them, analyzed and follow-ed up on the info, found the courier, tracked him to Pakistan, planned the mission, made the call, and went in himself to shoot bin Laden.

In short, in preparation for his re-election bid, Obama was making a blatant and obvious effort to "spike the football," and try and show what a brave, disciplined, and steely eyed leader his paints himself to be.

It was as brazen a politicization of this critical misison as can be imagined. In short, it was dispicable. He even went so far as to indicate that his challenger, Mitt Romney, if he had been President, would not have made the same call, thus trying to use a critical national event, that should unite us, to divide us and cast disperison on his opponent.

A sad spectacle for the office of the Presidency. By way of comparison, read what Bush said upon capturing Saddam Hussein, an almost equally compelling fugitive and target, which capture ultimately led to his execution by the Iraqi people:

George W. Bush, after the capture of Saddam Hussein:

"The success of yesterday’s mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq . The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator’s footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force. Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people. Their work continues, and so do the risks. Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and congratulate them."

Notice how he, presidentially, empowers and congratulates those who did the work, and not himself for putting in place the apparatus and giving the command. The only time he uses "I" is when he tanks them for doing all the work, not himself.

Now compare that to Obama's announcemnt of the killing of Osama bin Laden:

Barack Obama, after the death of bin Laden:

"And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as I continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network. Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by my intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility of locating bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan . And finally, last week, I determined that I had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad , Pakistan."

A huge difference in these two annoucments that says a lot about both men as individuals and as leaders.

What Obama clearly does not understand and fathom is that there is no letter "I" in the word "team." He never mentioned or congratulated the brave men and women who got the job done and gave him the opportunity to say, "yes." Now, a year later, Obama is politicizing the entire action and taking complete credit for it all, and openly suggesting that his competitor in the Presidential race would not have made the call to get Osama.

The fact is this, had Obama really been in charge the whole time, we never would have captured the other terrorists, never would have gotten the specific information, and never would have been able to conduct the mission into Pakistan to get Osama. Obama opposed all of the initiatives that led to that. The least Obama could do is to admit this graciously, and give that credit where it is due, along with the high praise of the military, clandestine, and intelligence personnel who risked their lifes for years to make this a reality, and ultimately risked their lifes going in to get bin Laden.

Bill Clinton, in supporting Obama, talked about how tough a call it was and what a "terrible risk," Obama took should those troops have been captured, tortured or killed. Really, Bill Clinton? You believe it was Obama who was taking the "great risk"? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

What a sad day that this administration and its supporters would be so callous about the lives of our service personnel and so anxious and selfish to try and bolster their political careers on a mission like this which was for the good of all Americans.

But this is the truth of the matter and something every American should consider when voting this fall, in November 2012.

Jeff Head
June 2012
Idaho, USA