So much for Obama’s “courage” and patriotism. General Eisenhower had a statement written out taking full responsibility if D-Day failed, Yitzhak Rabin said before the Israeli commandos took off for Entebbe that the success belonged to the commandos and the failure would be his, Menachem Begin said the same thing right before the F-16’s took off to attack the Iraqi nuclear facility at Osirak. Obama is a low class poseur who should never have risen to the lofty position that he now holds.
by Beth Stebner
The Obama administration had a backup plan if the Osama bin Laden raid had failed and had drafted a ‘highly lawyered’ memo to protect President Obama from potential backlash, according to an official.
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey told Fox News’ Sean Hannity today that Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta drafted a note that would have put the blame instead on Navy Admiral William McRaven.
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According to Mr Mukasey, the ‘highly lawyered’ memo from Mr Panetta ‘was to proceed according to the risks, only according to the risks that had been outlined to the president.’
He told Hannity: ‘You better believe if anything else had been encountered and the mission had failed, then the blame would have fell on McRaven. That’s what this is about.’
President Obama sat anxiously in the Situation Room the night of the raid, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and other high-ranking officials as they watched the events unfold.
SEAL Team 6, a group of two dozen elite Marines, were able to bring down the terrorist leader in his stronghold in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
In today’s interview, Hannity prompted Mr Mukasey that the memo was ‘designed to protect the president politically.’
Mr Mukasey responded: ‘I think there is going to be more that come tumbling out about that escapade. But so far, that memo is enough.’
In the interview, the former attorney general put Mr Obama’s leadership in context to presidents of the past, including Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Speaking first about Lincoln, Mr Mukasey referenced the speech he delivered after Gen. Lee surrendered, ending the Civil War
‘Lincoln delivered what turned out to (be) his last speech from the window of the White House. He rejected taking any credit for it. Put it on General (Ulysses S.) Grant and the troops and then talked mostly about the problems of reconstruction.’
Several US Navy SEALs spoke out to MailOnline approaching the one-year anniversary of bin Laden’s death, saying that it was a group effort and that Mr Obama is using the killing to springboard his re-election campaign.
One currently-serving SEAL said: ‘Obama wasn’t in the field, at risk,carrying a gun. As president, at every turn, he should be thanking the guys who put their lives on the line to do this.’
[…….]
The original note, which was written by Mr Panetta when he was still serving as Director of the CIA, said the following: ‘Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a decision with regard to AC1 (Abbottabad Compound 1).
‘The decision is to proceed with the assault.
‘The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands.
‘The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President.
‘Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45am.’
Breitbart columnist Ben Shapiro echoed a similar sentiment, writing: ‘The memo doesn’t show a gutsy call. It doesn’t show a president willing to take the blame for a mission gone wrong.
‘It shows a CYA maneuver by the White House…the hero here was McRaven, not Obama.
‘And had the mission gone wrong, McRaven surely would have been thrown under the bus.’
Independent magazine Mother Jones responded today with a counterpoint. Writer Kevin Drum called the theory ‘absurd’ and applauded their ‘creative nutbaggery.’
He wrote: ‘The idea of Obama getting credit for killing bin Laden just drives conservatives up a tree.
‘At this point, many of them are, apparently, literally willing to believe anything that suggests otherwise.’
