While much of the left refuses to acknowledge to fact George W. Bush played a key role in the war on terror, it appears some Democrats are coming around to reality. So let's give Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi her due when it comes to calling former President George W. Bush to thank him.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said she called former President George W. Bush on Tuesday to congratulate him on the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden.
Following a classified briefing on the operation to take down bin Laden, Pelosi told reporters that she called the former president earlier in the day to "congratulate him and thank him for the leadership role he had played in this quest over the years."
Meanwhile, many on the angry left have steadfastly refused to believe the fact that enhanced interrogation techniques had anything to do with aiding the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Well, let them chew on this.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Can you confirm that it was as a result of water boarding that we learned what we needed to learn to go after Bin Laden?
LEON PANETTA: Brian, in the intelligence business you work from a lot of sources of information and that was true here… It's a little difficult to say it was due just to one source of information that we got… I think some of the detainees clearly were, you know, they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against some of these detainees. But I'm also saying that, you know, the debate about whether we would have gotten the same information through other approaches I think is always going to be an open question.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: So finer point, one final time, enhanced interrogation techniques - which has always been kind of a handy euphemism in these post-9/11 years - that includes water boarding?
LEON PANETTA: That's correct.
Why is is so hard for the Bush haters to admit that techniques he authorized had an effect? We could be mean to them, but others can do that quite nicely. Oh well, they'll just move on to something else, like cheerleading Obama's very tepid poll bounce since Sunday. But remember, we're not supposed to politicize this stuff. Instead of doing that, let's give the primary credit to the right people:
When Americans are asked how much credit they would give to Barack Obama, George W. Bush, the CIA, and the U.S. military for finding and killing bin Laden, the U.S. military and the CIA emerge as the big winners in the public's eyes. Nearly 9 of 10 (89%) say the military deserves "a great deal of credit," while 62% say the same about the CIA.
If President Obama and his team want to enjoy continued goodwill among the public, they'd be wise to stop fretting over the delicate sensibilities of those who want us dead and do one thing in particular: Show us the damn dead bin Laden photos already. The longer they dither, the more it feeds the conspiracy theorists. It makes no sense to talk about courageous, gutsy leadership when you're afraid to show the public some photos. You had the stones to do the right thing in taking out the monster, now show us the evidence.
