So This Is What Obama Is Made Of
I don’t oppose all wars
said Barack Obama in a speech back in 2002.
What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war…A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics…
As Sen. Clinton pointed out back then, this speech is the only thing Obama brought to the Primary campaign. It was enough. In that speech, of which only a few seconds of video remain, Obama laid out a vision for how to use (and not use) military force in the complicated world we live in.
His words in support of war under the right circumstances are even more remarkable because he was addressing an anti-war rally. It does not take much courage to speak for war at a VFW convention or against war at a peace march. Obama attracted us with his soaring oratory. Then he taught us to think beyond their first instincts. He talked to us as if we were adults, as if we can think beyond our narrow self interest. This combination had not been seen in America since the time of Kennedy. That is how he won the Primary and the General Election.
Some questions about Obama’s character remained unanswered even after his inauguration. Sure, he could talk a good game. But would he risk his reputation on a firefight? Will he order the use of force when an American life is at stake? Or will he take the easy way out?
The primary function of Government is to protect citizens from danger. Everything else comes after that. When people were dying by the thousands in New Orleans, the President of that time just flew over the city in his jet. He did not risk his personal reputation by getting involved in the rescue. He delegated it to people such as Brownie. (Hell of a job he did, too.)
Last week, the right wing talkers were playing on this uncertainty about Obama’s character. A few teenaged pirates high on kat and wielding assault rifles provided the first test of the young President’s mettle. Is he the panty-waist that Rush Limbaugh makes him out to be? Or will live up to the promise of that speech he gave back when he was just a State Legislator in Illinois?
Now we know. Obama did not grand stand. There was no
Bring it on
moment. He did not say the pirates were wanted
Dead or Alive.
Instead, he studied the intelligence. Gave his orders. If the life of the hostage is threatened, shoot. Until then, talk. Bring the best forces in the military to the scene. Bring in the best hostage negotiators from the FBI. And when you shoot, aim to kill and not to maim. And it worked.
It could all have gone horribly wrong. Not many people can shoot from a bobbing ship to hit a target in a lifeboat tossed by the wind and waves, a hundred feet away. It takes a special set of skills to do it simultaneously on three targets, a couple of them covered by the roof of the lifeboat. Even if you can pull that off, how can you be sure not to hit the hostage?
The truth is, you cannot be sure. This was an enormously risky operation. The braying hyenas on the right were poised to eat the President alive. They were licking their chops, waiting to pounce at the young President’s first mistake. After all, they are the ones who know how to defend the country. You know, the way they caught bin Laden.
The consequences of a mistake are not just domestic. If the operation had gone wrong, it certainly would have emboldened the terrorists watching in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kennedy’s mistaken invasion in the Bay of Pigs is what emboldened the Soviets into placing missiles in Cuba. A charismatic young leader always attracts opponents who want to test his resolve.
Surely, Obama knew the stakes were high. It would have been easier to not go through with the operation. After all, the French had tried to pull off just such an operation the week before. And ended up with a dead hostage.
Yet Obama gave the go ahead. That is kind of the kind of leader he is.
Greater struggles remain. In his own words:
Let’s finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings.
After the operation was over, Obama did not take center stage. The credit, as it should, went to the Navy Seals who pulled off an extremely difficult operation. In our jubilation we must remember that this was not a war. Just a minor skirmish, a mere digression from the task at hand.
In addition to the economic crisis, Obama has inherited a war in Afghanistan. Few Americans realize how dangerous is the situation we face there. The last person to pacify Afghanistan was Babur, the 15th century military genius who founded the Mughal Empire of India. The most recent people defeated by the Afghans are the British (in the nineteenth century) and the Soviets in the twentieth. We are now enmeshed in the intrigue of this graveyard of empires. Let us hope Obama has studied that history. We don’t know yet how it will turn out. We don’t know yet if Obama is the Babur of our time or Holbrooke the Chanakya.
But we do know that the Obama understands what is at stake:
The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not – we will not – travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain.
Amen to that. And Godspeed, President Obama.
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