Dallas News - "Obama owns this war ... except when good things happen " [View All]

[TomCADem]

The right wing cable media gets to have it both ways. Its Obama's failed national security policy when we expect the so-called war on terror to fail, but when it yield the death of Osama Bin Ladin, then President Obama was merely carrying out President Bush's master plan to capture him.

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/05/obama-owns-this.html

Remember back in 2009 when President Obama announced his plan for a troop buildup in Afghanistan? Go back and read all the conservative (okay, and liberal) commentary at the time. Conservatives were quickest to pin that war on Obama's forehead like a sticky Post-it note. They were certain he would fail. They were certain he'd get his butt kicked. They were dedicated to inflicting as much political suffering on Obama as President Bush suffered during his years of dithering over Iraq. And Afghanistan.

Obama's strategy -- beefing up troop levels, establishing more forward operating bases, unleashing Special Operations forces and relying more heavily on drone strikes -- has yielded its biggest of many successes: the death of Osama bin Laden.

Remember: In their words, Obama took ownership of Afghanistan, for better or worse, with his 2009 strategy. And he who owns Afghanistan automatically gets tarred by whatever mess develops in neighboring Pakistan.

Not so fast, the conservatives now are saying. Bin Laden's death wasn't because of what Obama did. It was because of what Bush did.