My Opinion on Bin Laden & Foreign Policy

Like most Americans, I still remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard and saw the news on 9/11. It's our generation's Pearl Harbor. Many years later, I visited Ground Zero and gained an even more emotional perspective on those fateful attacks. When I heard the news about bin Laden's death, I must admit I almost cried. After almost 10 years, I never thought we would ever find him.

It seems like most people think Bin Laden has been outrunning US forces since 9/11 2001, when in reality it has been much longer.

In the 1980s, we secretly gave the Mujahideen, one of whom was bin Laden, $1 billion in weapons to rebel against the Russians occupying Afghanistan. The war left the country in shambles with millions dead and millions more displaced. Bin Laden raised money and helped fight the Russians from 1980 until they left in 1989. He founded al Qaeda in 1988. In 1990, bin Laden became enraged at the presence of the US military in Saudi Arabia near the holy sites of Mecca and Medina prior to the invasion of Iraq. From 1993-1998 he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American citizens in several different terror attacks around the world. In 1999, he was placed on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. 





The rest of the story is ingrained on our national memory...



They say hindsight is 20/20, so of course it's easy to criticize the actions of our leaders when we look back on what could have happened. But I'm going to do it anyway.

Clinton knew where bin Laden was, and failed to do anything about it because he was too busy screwing around. Pun intended. Because he was so entrenched in scandal he didn't have the political leverage to do what was needed. This article from MSNBC says that the CIA had video of bin Laden at a training camp in Afghanistan and knew the location! Why didn't Clinton authorize an attack to capture or kill him?? That is what we call an #epicfail. I'm not even going to say he could've prevented 9/11, because no one knows the future. But bin Laden was already one of the most wanted men in the world, and he had already murdered hundreds of Americans. Justice needed to be served and nothing was done.

My criticism for Bush is equal. I don't discriminate; Republicans and Democrats are equally to blame. His focus should have always been on bin Laden and Afghanistan. Iraq remains a mystery to me. When we invaded Afghanistan in 2001 the goal was to topple the Taliban government who was providing safe-haven to al Qaeda and find Osama bin Laden. This was definitely the right call, no question. We toppled the government in a matter of weeks, but didn't find our guy. In 2003, that became a NATO mission and we started focusing on nation building. Then we invaded Iraq to go after Saddam Hussein. In my humble opinion, the Iraq invasion was a distraction from the more important mission. If Bush had focused our manpower and resources on finishing the job in Afghanistan first, I think bin Laden would have been killed many years ago.

So I can't believe I'm saying  this, but I think Obama did the right thing. He finished the job that 2 Presidents failed to do by authorizing the mission to take out bin Laden. Plus, increasing troops in Afghanistan and replacing General McChrystal with General Patraeus were smart moves and now we finally caught the world's most wanted fugitive. But the whole story is much more complicated than that, and I actually don't think Obama deserves much of the credit. This is the culmination of the hard work of thousands of people over many years. Obama just happened to be the man in the Oval Office when the job was done. The credit should go to our military and intelligence community not President Obama.

But if any leader deserves the credit, it's General Patraeus. That man is brilliant. He wrote the manual on modern counterinsurgency and is responsible for turning the Iraq war from an utter disaster to whatever it is now. Then he took over in Afghanistan. It's his strategy and brilliance that finally led us to this day. And the war is far from over. We need his leadership not at the CIA but in the White House. President Petraeus has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

The war on terror rages on, but today we can celebrate this huge victory. Even if it changes nothing, bin Laden's death is a symbol of hope and victory that will once again unify the country and strengthen our resolve. This is America. We don't lose. I am so proud to be an American!