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April 30th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda As reported by the New York Times last Friday, Republican leaders are criticizing President Obama for trumpeting his role in Osama bin Laden’s death. While Times reporters Peter Baker and Michael Shear were careful to present both sides of the argument, they appeared to embrace the Republican talking point that the president has been inappropriately boastful. They claimed that, “few presidents have talked about the killing of an individual enemy in such an expansive way” and that Obama has taken the “unusual route of bragging about how he killed a man.”
I’m disinclined to celebrate bin Laden’s or anyone else’s death. But the broader context is that Republicans have been criticizing Democrats for being weak on foreign policy for two generations, even when such criticisms were unwarranted. So it seems inappropriate to blame the president for inoculating himself against such accusations. That said, if Baker and Shear are correct in suggesting that Obama’s conduct has been “unusual,” then perhaps the Republicans would have a point. So, I decided to do some digging to determine how President Bush and other GOP spokespersons have talked about the death of U.S. enemies.
What I found is that President Bush bragged about killing U.S. enemies on many occasions. In some circumstances, the president used euphemisms to boast about killing, such as the September 2004 debate against John Kerry when he said that “we pursued al-Qaeda wherever al-Qaeda tries to hide. Seventy five percent of known al-Qaeda leaders have been brought to justice and the rest of them know we’re after them.”
In other circumstances, Bush was more explicit. In his 2004 State of the Union address, he said that “We’re tracking Al Qaeda around the world, and nearly two-thirds of their known leaders have now been captured or killed.” He added that “of the top 55 officials of the former [Iraqi] regime, we have captured or killed 45.” With the exception of his 2007 speech, Bush bragged about killing U.S. enemies in every State of the Union address between 2002 and 2008. So, Bush’s boastfulness about killing was not infrequent.
On some occasions, Bush used an arrogant tone to brag about killing. In his 2003 State of the Union address, he said that, “To date we have arrested or otherwise dealt with many key commanders of Al Qaeda… All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries… And many others have met a different fate. Let’s put it this way: They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.” I have never heard President Obama speak about the death of an enemy in such a chesty way.
Senior Republican operatives such as former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton have even gone so far as to brag that the killing of bin Laden was the result of policies that the Bush administration put into place. Karl Rove went out of his way, even while crediting Obama, to trace the success of the bin Laden operation to intelligence that was obtained four years ago, while Bush was still president. If the Republicans can take credit for the bin Laden operation, why should President Obama be panned for doing so?
Can one seriously doubt that the president, who appeared below a “Mission Accomplished” banner and who boasted about killing U.S. enemies in almost every State of the Union address, would have taken credit if he had found bin Laden?
If there is anything “unusual” about President Obama’s record, it is that he finished the job.
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