The death of Osama bin Laden provided a rare unifying moment among Republicans and Democrats in the fractious, partisan, political environment that we find ourselves in each day. There’s a very small part of me that feels awkward about celebrating someone’s death, but mainly I believe that he had it coming and the world is a much better place with Osama “sleeping with the fishes” as Don Corleone would say. The reputation of the Navy SEALs, already known as the elite among Special Forces units, has been further enhanced. Upon reflection two weeks later, the brilliance of the operation is striking.
The SEALs obviously did a great job pulling off this very dangerous mission without losing a man. They improvised when the helicopter went down outside the compound wall and had the presence to collect the central computer files of Al Queda after securing the house. After hearing the initial reports of the raid I was puzzled by two things; the burial at sea and the care taken in the preparation of the body. Why I wondered, was this monster treated with such regard? Now it seems like that was exactly the right thing to do.
By following Islamic custom in preparing Osama’s body, the US sent a message to the world that we are not at war with Muslims. We are at war with a dangerous fringe element of that faith. I’m sure that most of the Islamic world is pleased that Osama is dead and we need the help of mainstream Muslims to defeat terrorism. Disposing of the body at sea was also in retrospect, brilliant. Now there is no body for any of his supporters to dig up for the purposes of proclaiming his martyrdom. Also there is no physical evidence for any publicity hungry lawyer to use to fabricate a human rights claim against the US. There is enough photographic, eye witness, and circumstantial evidence to prove bin Laden’s death and with his body now shark feed, he has vanished along with hopefully, his legacy. President Obama also was right to not release the death photos to the public. While it would have been perversely satisfying to see what kind of humor the Photoshop artists would have come up with, keeping the pictures private accelerates bin Laden’s transition to historical oblivion and shows respect to mainstream Muslims.
The most surprising aspect of the raid is that the President approved it at all. This was an extremely dangerous operation and any number of things could have gone terribly wrong. We live in an age of instant global communication and the fact that someone in the Abbotbad neighborhood twittered during the event proves that outside communication was possible. In years past, cutting the phone lines was sufficient, but no more. The compound was a short distance from the Pakistani military academy and we gambled that if the Pakistani army heard about it, they would not be able to respond quickly enough. Suppose we were wrong and a firefight between the SEALs and Pakistan, an ally, resulted. How would Obama have explained that international incident? The President, in his 60 Minutes interview last Sunday, admitted that they were only 55% certain that it was bin Laden in the compound. It is very surprising that Obama, who is deliberate and cautious, approved the mission with those odds.
But approve it he did and the gamble paid off. Everyone connected with the operation from the President, the Secretary of State, the National Security staff, the military brass, and especially the SEALs deserve all the praise they have received. This will probably be the high water mark of the Obama presidency but the approval rating bump will not carry over to the 2012 election. Just ask George Bush Sr., who experienced a similar victory in the first Iraq war about that. Kudos to the US for pulling off a major victory against Al Qaeda and for terminating a killer who lived too long.
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