Monday, May 2, 2011

Bin Laden–Rest in Hell

"I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." – Mark Twain

Despite Twain’s nifty quote, I can think of a few that I would have “wished dead.”  Of course Hitler is a “no brainer,” and Osama Bin Laden would be on the top of the list.

From what I have read so far, the immensely satisfying result of the operation that finally ended the life of OBL was in no small part due to the leadership, patience, intelligence, and tenacity of our President.  No leaks, no mistakes, no large civilian casualties, and lots and lots of training, including building a full “set” of the compound and rehearsing over and over.

Of course the right wingers, tea baggers, and assorted trolls will “pooh pooh” the plain truth and claim that Obama had nothing to do with it,  he was just lucky, the military did it all without his help, and so on.  It reminds me of something I heard a couple of days ago that is funny, yet sadly so true:

“If the President walked on water, the right wing would criticize him for being too lazy to swim.”

Peace out,

~Tom

4 comments:

JIm said...

It is wierd how liberals like your self are attempting to make this an Obama poliitical moment, instead of a great American moment. Obana rose to the occasion and made the right very difficult decisions. Let us all take a breath and enjoy the moment and the high point of his presidency so far.

Lally said...

Great post Tom, and great quote! (And it is, of course, the right that is turning it into a political moment by many of their main spokespeople leaving Obama out entirely (e.g. Palin) when commenting on Bin Laden's death, and instead crediting the last president (!) and/or turning it into a justification for waterboarding etc.)

Peter said...

I'm not overjoyed personally since it took the CIA 10 yrs, but OK.
I read that when Hitler died, Churchill cried. Something about living in tandem with an adversary I guess.At least it will be good that I don't have to see Osama's lanky face all the time in the news.And what's with our helicopters crashing on such an important mission after training over and over. ANd why does the account of the raid keep changing from day to day.Not a good thing.

Peter said...

I forgot to say that I heard on NPR today that the Mark Twain quote is often credited to the wrong man. Actually, it was Clarence Darrow who said that.