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| Chronicle · May 4, 2011 The Foundation"The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind." --Thomas Paine Editorial Exegesis"The killing of Osama bin Laden comes at a propitious moment in the history of the Middle East. ... Starting in Tunisia and spreading to Egypt, Syria and elsewhere, demonstrators have been energized by opposition to corruption and repression and a keen desire for jobs. Justice, modernity and democracy are very much earthly demands. As such, these movements contradict the aims of bin Laden and al Qaeda, whose goals are harsh and immovable regimes and a notion of freedom wholly at odds with these emerging Islamic societies. ... Yet al Qaeda's decline doesn't mean Muslim countries will embrace a recognizable form of liberal democracy or resist the pull of politicized Islam. Egypt offers an unsettling preview of what could emerge. Less than three months after the fall of the Mubarak regime, the caretaker government in Cairo has surprised with its radical shifts in foreign policy. Egypt has extended its hand to Iran and to the Palestinian terror group Hamas. ... A budding Arab democracy that wants the world to take it seriously should have little time for Hamas, much less the world's leading terror sponsor in Tehran. Hamas showed its true, if predictable, colors yesterday in its leader Ismail Haniyeh's response to bin Laden's killing: 'We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior.' The Muslim Brotherhood, the best organized political group in Egypt, also condemned the bin Laden killing. ... The death of bin Laden disrupts but doesn't bring the death of bin Ladenism. Al Qaeda has a thriving franchise in Yemen and could gain other bases in the region -- for example, if Libya collapses into Somalia-like disarray. While bin Laden's death at least raises the possibility of the most extremist forms of Islam fading in the region, the early signs out of bellwether Egypt show how much close attention an interested world must still pay to these volatile nations." --The Wall Street Journal Upright"No matter how often our leaders insist the enemy is al Qaeda and its destruction is our goal, the reality is different. We confront a larger array of adversaries who share such terrorists' goals -- the imposition worldwide of a politico-military-legal program they call shariah to be administered by a Caliph -- but pursue them via different, often stealthy means. Such enemies, including the Muslim Brotherhood, operate here as well as abroad. ... Ending the sort of obstruction of justice his department appears to have engaged in with respect to the prosecution of Brotherhood fronts and operatives is a good place to start the next phase of the War for the Free World." --founder and president of the Center for Security Policy, Frank Gaffney Jr. "We are living in strange times indeed when it's not laughable to suggest that President Obama will be difficult to beat in 2012. Well, I'm not buying it, even considering any positive (but inevitably temporary) surge Obama may receive with Osama bin Laden's death. ... Provided Republicans don't forget they're in a fight for the survival of the nation and don't allow their stark policy differences with Obama to be diluted by failing to aggressively articulate their positions, 2012 will be the GOP's presidential election to lose." --columnist David Limbaugh "The government that tracked bin Laden to a compound in distant Pakistan and took him out with an incredibly talented, trained and brave team of SEALs could surely secure our border, too. The difference is our political leaders took their constitutional duty to protect our country seriously when it came to finding bin Laden over there. They do not take it seriously when it comes to protecting our borders here." --columnist Terence Jeffrey "So much of this administration's talk about energy sounds similar to a bull session in the faculty lounge, or what we would expect from lifelong bureaucrats and public functionaries who have never experienced long commutes or struggles in the harsher, profit-driven private workplace. Now the global economy is recovering and energy use is climbing, as the U.S. dollar sinks. The oil-rich Middle East is in chaos. And more than 2 billion people in India and China are desperate for imported oil. The result is that American gas prices are astronomical, and the public is furious and starting to demand relief from the administration. Its answer? Simple: Since re-election looms, the administration now insists that high energy prices are no longer good, but suddenly bad. And the evil oil companies are mostly to blame!" --historian Victor Davis Hanson Insight"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." --English writer G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) "It was self-serving politicians who convinced recent generations of Americans that we could all stand in a circle with our hands in each other's pockets and somehow get rich." --American radio broadcaster Paul Harvey (1918-2009) The Demo-goguesIt's all about me: "Shortly after taking office I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of [Osama] bin Laden the top priority. ... Last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. I met repeatedly with my national security team. I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action. Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan." --Barack Obama It's all about Obama: "This [the killing of Osama] was a direct result of President Obama's efforts to refocus on Afghanistan and Pakistan as a central battleground in our fight against terror. Over the past two and a half years, the Obama administration has significantly escalated our military, diplomatic intelligence and economic efforts to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qa'ida." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) If Clinton had tried this might be valid: "If Bush had gotten Osama after Clinton had failed do you think [Congressman Eric] Cantor would have given Clinton credit and said: 'Oh good. Bush got Osama bin Laden, he showed the same vigilance as Bill Clinton?'" --Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) criticizing Eric Cantor for "politicizing" the death of Osama by thanking George Bush as well as Obama Bizarre: "This is a country that was built by immigrants ... that became a superpower because of its immigrant population, and unless we continue to have immigrants, we cannot maintain as a superpower. Take a look at the big, old, industrial cities, Detroit, for example. They've got a great mayor, Mayor [Dave] Bing, but the population has left. You've got to do something about that. And if I were the federal government, assuming you could wave a magic wand and pull everybody together, you pass a law letting immigrants come in as long as they agreed to go to Detroit and live there for five or ten years. Start businesses, take jobs, whatever. ... You would populate Detroit overnight because half the world wants to come here."--New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg DezinformatsiaWipe the drool off your chin: "Leading off tonight, the president who caught bin Laden. The triumph of justice over evil. ... Barack Obama. The cool hand directs the operation step by step. All this time, the crazies were talking birth certificates, he was working. Planning, leading, bringing America's strength and brains to the enemy hideaway. Tonight, we see how it worked from the inside. We see how Obama now looks from the outside. We weigh the impact in this country of what happened yesterday in far off Pakistan. Will this make the Republicans look for someone who can do what Obama can do? Or will they keep on celebrating the clown show? Will they stop enjoying their passion and go from cheering their buffoon parade to finding a real pick to put up against a proven master and commander?" --MSNBC's Chris Matthews Party pooper: "It felt a little crazy, a bit much. Almost vulgar. When I saw that folks were celebrating in the streets at the news of bin Laden's death, my first reaction was a cringe. Remember how we all felt watching videos of those al-Qaeda guys dancing on Sept. 11? Are we simply creating star-spangled recruitment tapes for a new generation of terrorists killing in the name of their new martyr?" --Washington Post's Petula Dvorak Counting chickens a little early: "This guarantees his re-election!" --radio talk-show host Don Imus, proclaiming that the death of bin Laden guarantees Obama another presidential term It's all about Obama: "Another irony: this is the eighth anniversary, May 1st, of 'Mission Accomplished' in Iraq, the appearance by President George W. Bush on the Abraham Lincoln, that declaration, which we know was a premature declaration, became a controversy in itself. But Mission Accomplished became an iconic phrase in U.S. political policy and political parlance and now this could be President Obama coming out, and without literally saying it, having accomplished it, accomplished the mission that two American presidents tried before to capture or kill Osama bin Laden." --NBC's Andrea Mitchell Newspulper Headlines:It's Always in the Last Place You Look: "Bin Laden Was Found at Luxury Pakistan Compound" --Reuters Out on a Limb: "Hillary Clinton: Osama bin Laden Death Doesn't End War on Terror" --Associated Press Questions Nobody Is Asking: The Other Remains Were Buried at Sea: "Commander-in-Chief Keeps Cool Head" --Financial Times Bottom Story of the Day: "Americans Care About Global Warming Even Less Than Before" --Gothamist.com (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)
Village IdiotsPossibly the dumbest thing ever said: "[Using enhanced interrogation techniques] just encourages more of it around the world and our soldiers have to endure it. And then the other thing is it's possible that a $6 million book deal would have worked just as well, you know what I mean? There are other ways to get information out of people, pay them off. Who knows what would have worked?" Joy Behar of "The View" (See the video and comment here.) Over the top: "The president ... made what I believe was one of the most gutsiest calls of any president in recent memory." --White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan (Gutsy would be if Obama was point man on the assault against Osama, not making calls from his leather lounger.) From the peanut gallery: "The monster we created-yes, WE-in the 1980s by ARMING, FUNDING, & TRAINING [Osama] in the art of terror agnst [sic] the USSR, finally had 2 b put down. Which reporter has the courage to say it? American-armed terrorist from the 80s, Osama bin Laden, was killed earlier today by America. This caps off disastrous few months 4 Al-Qaeda. Non-violent revolts in Egypt, Tunisia, elsewhere were Al-Qaeda's WORST nightmare. Now this." --several tweets from a twit, Michael Moore Just keep spending: "Contrary to common misperception, the debt limit has never served as a constraint on future spending, nor would refusing to increase the debt limit reduce the obligations the country has incurred." --Treasury Secretary Timmy Geithner Short Cuts"Liberals are compassionate people. That's why they support abortion and oppose the death penalty. They figure it's best to kill a majority of black children before they are born. If they did not, a small minority of those black children would later commit homicide. Liberals are not just compassionate people. They're logical, too." --columnist Mike Adams "Not too long ago, Barack Obama promised to double our exports. Democrats, who are always ready and eager to listen to fairy tales, ballyhooed the fatuous pronouncement and then begged to have Little Red Riding Hood read to them before they'd go to sleep. Republicans, on the other hand, all knew better. They knew that the only exports Obama has any chance of doubling will be American jobs." --columnist Burt Prelutsky "Superman renounced his U.S. citizenship in Action Comics to pander to Iran's ruling regime. He wants to be seen as a global superhero. If Jimmy Carter couldn't rescue U.S. hostages from Teheran, Barack Obama will never get them out of the Fortress of Solitude." --comedian Argus Hamilton "After releasing the birth certificate today, [Barack Obama] said 'There's work to be done, there are real problems in this country, and we don't have time for this silliness.' Then he and Michelle got on a plane and flew to Chicago to tape an episode of Oprah." --comedian Jay Leno "I know some of you are concerned about when the Navy SEALs raided Osama's compound, whether he was then shot in the face in accordance with Islamic tradition. Well, don't worry; he absolutely was. The very last thing anyone wanted was for Osama to think while he was being killed, 'They're doing this to me because I'm Muslim!' Because, again, that would definitely not be true. So great care was taken, and he was shot in the face in a religiously respectful way. For instance, none of the Navy SEALs in the raid were eating a pork sandwich as they did it. And none of them had on them any depictions of Muhammad (PBUH). Also, the raid was done between prayer times -- not during! And when Osama was shot in the face, he was facing westward. I'm not sure that's actually religiously important, but if it is, then, yes, he was doing that. And when he was shot, the traditional Muslim expression of 'Allahu Akbar!' was shouted  except it was an English translation, so it was something like, 'Thank you, Jesus!'" --humor columnist Frank J. Fleming Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
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