Obama's 'Mission Accomplished' moment
The banner unfurled on the aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, let the world know that President Bush and the USA had achieved its goal of ending major combat actions in Iraq. This was May 1, 2003. The majority of our fighting men and women who died in Iraq died after this pronouncement.
George W. Bush was ostracized by the media, ridiculed by late night comedians and to this day has never lived that moment down. It was a lesson that future leaders would take note of and do their best not to repeat.
Fast forward to 2012. President Obama, campaigning for re-election the week before the big vote, (as he had been doing since 2009) spoke to a crowd in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
“Thanks to sacrifice and service of our brave men and women in uniform, the war in Iraq is over, the war in Afghanistan is winding down, al Qaeda has been decimated, Osama bin Laden is dead.”
Yes, he said that Al Qaeda had been decimated.
This was not the first time since the September Al Qaeda attacks on our US Consulate in Benghazi that the President had talked about the apparent victory over Al Qaeda. To the contrary, he had brought this up roughly 30 times after the attack. The attack that he so desperately wanted to be about an anti-Muslim video, but knew was an orchestrated terrorist attack which was planned for the anniversary of 9/11.
Just weeks before the speech in Green Bay, President Obama debated candidate Mitt Romney on the topic of foreign policy. Romney was asked about the prospects of terrorism overseas.
"…..Mali has been taken over, the northern part of Mali by al-Qaeda type individuals. We have in -- in Egypt, a Muslim Brotherhood president. And so what we're seeing is a pretty dramatic reversal in the kind of hopes we had for that region….
…..It's certainly not hiding. This is a group that is now involved in 10 or 12 countries, and it presents an enormous threat to our friends, to the world, to America, long term, and we must have a comprehensive strategy to help reject this kind of extremism….."
The national media ridiculed Romney for bringing up this place that most Americans didn’t care about, let alone had never heard of.
Now we know all about Mali. We saw Al Qaeda operatives attack a gas plant, assassinate many foreign nationals, including Americans, and kidnap others.
This was not about an anti-Muslim video. This was not to be unexpected, as Mitt Romney talked about Mali being a powder-keg just months earlier. This was Al Qaeda continuing their jihadist ways.
Now, how could this be so?
Didn’t President Obama say, during his perpetual campaigning, that Al Qaeda had been..in his own words ‘decimated’? If so, then how can they continue to kill innocent American abroad?
The bigger question is “when will the mainstream media ask Obama the tough questions about these killings?" When will they hold his feet to the fire over his bragging about his role in the ‘decimation’ of Al Qaeda?
When will the media connect the dots and admit that this is Obama’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ moment?
brian
9:25 am on Wednesday, January 23, 2013
omg...gop...tone deaf!
mix facts...Bin Laden, May 2, 2011, not 09, but who cares when ur tone deaf!
not to worry though, you won't get the difference...
Dan Arenov
11:19 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Brian, what i meant was that Obama had been perpetually campaigning since 2009.
He had only been saying that Al Qaeda was 'decimated' for a couple of months. My bad.
Rich Rostron
9:40 am on Friday, January 25, 2013
The media doesn't want to bring this up. That would be counterproductive. If their objective was simply to report the news, you'd be right - they should cover this story. But, that doesn't fit the objective anymore than ignoring a story about GWB prematurely announcing victory. The media is no longer the media, only some people haven't noticed that yet (mostly those who don't want to look). The media has taken sides. That used to be OK in the editorial section but the editorial section wasn't carrying enough weight, it didn't sway people enough. Members of the media are generally liberals and progressives. I should say overwhelmingly. It's entirely natural for a progressive to look at journalistic ethics and say to him or herself, "We can improve this. This is just too confining." Improvement means that journalists 'should' do all they can to support causes that are clearly good and proper. Of course, journalists are inherently gifted with the ability to discern between what is good and what is proper. Journalists can debate whether it's appropriate for members of their gild to stand by with camera and microphone to cover the story while someone lights himself on fire but, when it comes to the liberal progressive cause, "By golly, we've got a responsibility to get involved."
Journalism is all but dead. And in America, a free press is the equivalent of white blood cells that protect the body from illness. So, if journalism is dead, what does that mean for America?
McCloud
12:20 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
Talk about ignore. Madam Secretary on Sept 12th stated that a malicious reprehensible, despicable video was responsible for the ambassador murders. Yesterday she claimed never saying the video caused it. Yet she walks away with no outrage. New culture, new rules, it's a liberal world now folks.
Rich Rostron
12:36 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
The media isn't just guilty of violating the ethics of their profession; the media is guilty of betraying the 1st Amendment rights, upon which their members so proudly and vocally stand. And, the media is guilty of betraying America.
b garrett
8:01 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
The main stream media is so liberal biased that it is just brainwashing propaganda for liberal political agendas ...homosexual marriage "normalization" interracial marriage. Public Unions. Atheism Unending welfare benefits....the " great society" !
McCloud
8:17 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Dick Durbin attempted to feed Madam Secretary lines to divert the attention from her goliath failure to house Republicans. Our proud senator continues his work to destroy this country in the name of political power. The poster child for all that is wrong in America, Dick Durbin.
Rich Rostron
10:06 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Dick Durbin is a disgrace to his office and his country.
Dan Arenov
11:22 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
I believe that Dick Durbin is being groomed to be the next Senate majority leader. Illinois Democrats are loved by the east coast elitists.
They probably blame the GOP for the sorry state that our state of Illinois is in. Delusional projectors of causation that they are.
McCloud
11:41 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Certainly Durbin's resume of fiscal disaster makes him the perfect candidate for Obama. With Carol Marin feeding him soft questions, union thuggery, he's a shoe in for reelection.
McCloud
12:47 pm on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Astonishing blank stare from a bespectacled Madam Secretary after being told her tragic failure that cost lives should have led to her walking papers. A silent media can only echo her comment, "What difference does it make!" Meanwhile her husband receives the father of the year award.
Dan Arenov
2:36 pm on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Mac, thanks for the reminder on the Clinton award.. what a farce.
Rich Rostron
3:18 pm on Saturday, January 26, 2013
I guess he's father of the year because he spent how many million on his daughter's wedding.
Brian
1:54 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013
I know this is an older opinion piece but I just read it today as it didn't carry across all the local patches. (Keep in mind I am a different Brian than the first responder here). I'm not disagreeing with the overall tone of your article because I do think the administration has artfully dodged a lot of criticism on many issues, but if we are talking semantics, decimate doesn't mean to rid the world of something. If he had said rid or eradicate then I would see your frustration.
Dan Arenov
6:40 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013
Hey Brian,
i have to agree with you on the semantics of Obama's use of the word 'decimated' during the run up to the election. He did not say that Al Qaeda was dead or 'eradicated'. Axelrod and his advisers are gifted when it comes to the art of wordsmithing. As somebody mentioned to me before, it's like hey..what do you expect from a bunch of lawyers?
However, my complaint is that they knew about Al Qaeda's involvement in Benghazi but spun it to be about an anti-Muslim video...and didn't the mainstream media buy that!
Rich Rostron
7:19 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013
The administration's capacity to "dodge ... criticism" is less a question of artful ability and more a question of media complicity. Regardless of the semantics, the media is inclined to hold conservatives accountable where they look away when a liberal or progressive is involved. Had the media responded consistently, we would now consider Obama and his handlers far less artful.
Dan Arenov
11:34 am on Friday, May 10, 2013
Hard to believe it took the mainstream media so long to get around to talking about this.
Hillary Clinton lied, as she stood next to the caskets of murdered Americans, keeping up the NARRATIVE that this tragedy was because of some guy's anti-Muslim video when they knew damned well that it was a premeditated terrorist attack.