At a press conference with the prime minister of Japan this afternoon, President Obama said that Americans haven't excessively celebrated the death of Osama bin Laden, and suggested that Mitt Romney would not have made the decision to kill the terrorist mastermind.
"I'd just recommend that everybody take a look at people's previous statements in terms of whether they thought it was appropriate to go into Pakistan and to take out bin Laden," Obama said, obviously taking a shot at Romney. "I assume that people meant what they said when they said it. And that's been at least my practice. I said that I would go after bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him--and I did. If there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they would do something else, then I'd go ahead and let them explain it."
The president was visibly smirking as he made today's statement. It also mirrors a campaign ad the president released Friday, which likewise suggests that Romney wouldn't have killed bin Laden if he, as commander in chief, would have been in the same position.
The Japanese prime minister, for his part, said that the war on terror continues and did not end with the death of Osama bin Laden.
UPDATE: The Romney campaign responds with this statement from press secretary Andrea Saul: “It’s unfortunate that President Obama would prefer to use what was a good day for all Americans as a cheap political ploy. President Obama’s feckless foreign policy has emboldened our adversaries, weakened our allies, and threatens to break faith with our military. While the Obama administration has naively stated that ‘the war on terror is over,’ Gov. Romney has always understood we need a comprehensive plan to deal with the myriad of threats America faces.”
Osama bin Laden was killed by an elite group of Navy Seals one year ago this week. And bin Laden’s files, a massive trove captured in his Abbottabad, Pakistan safe house, have been the subject of various articles since. Now, the Obama administration has reportedly decided to release “some” of the files to the public.
In the wake of the Arab Spring, the Obama administration is grappling with how to handle Islamists, radical adherents to Islam. Particularly, the issue has come to the fore in regards to Egypt, which, as Reuel Marc Gerecht notes, "is now certain" to elect "an Islamist" as its leaders the next time the Egyptian people go to the polls.
A presidential candidate who runs against the foreign affairs record of an incumbent often appears to adopt policies that are more in line with the previous occupant of the Oval Office than not.
This tenth anniversary of that grim September day when so many innocent people died in the most horrible fashion is a time to mourn their loss, as well as the thousands who have been lost in the past 10 years of the war against global terrorists, and to share in the grief of the loved ones they left behind.
Has the United States been successful in its war against terrorism? Yes, without a doubt. Although Islamic militancy remains a potent force, especially in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, Washington’s relentless pursuit of armed jihadists has severely damaged the capacity of Sunni radical groups to strike the United States, at home and abroad.
The Associated Press reports that "a military helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan, killing 31 U.S. special operation troops, most of them from the elite Navy SEALs that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, along with seven Afghan commandos."
When you are in a fight and have your opponent down on the pavement with your boot on his neck, the last thing you want to do is step off. You keep the boot firmly planted, pressing even harder, until he yields. Otherwise it’s a certainty that he’ll get back up, start throwing punches again, and drag out a fight that should have been settled sooner.
House Republican leader John Boehner is delivering a speech on Iraq today at the American Legion's national convention in Milwaukee. Boehner doesn't declare victory, but credits the troops and Generals Petraeus and Odierno for the success that's been achieved in Iraq.
The tone is respectful to McChrystal, but mindful of his breach. Obama takes the opportunity to reinforce the American commitment to victory in Afghanistan rather than back away from it. And, the speech is blissfully, only eight minutes long.
Fresh on the heels of the world’s condemnation of Israel for blocking a convoy bringing aid to Hamas-ruled Gaza comes the United States Supreme Court’s statement of support…for Israel.
The editors of National Review write that Obama "needs to walk back his deadline by making it clear that next July is the date for a review of the current strategy rather than its necessary endpoint."
After years of litigation arising from the nation's detention of prisoners in the global war on terror, the Supreme Court's decisions confound as much as they clarify -- and none more than Boumediene v. Bush, the 2008 decision in which the Court declared that Guantanamo Bay prisoners could challenge their detention in federal court, under legal standards which the federal courts would create after the fact.
