Quote of the Day
Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.
Mohandas Gandhi
Obama Post-Bin Laden Death NYC Visit: Thumbs DOWN!
I'm on the record supporting President Obama for his decision to go after Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad and congratulating him for the SEALs' successful conclusion of their core mission. However, I don't think there was any need to provide "closure" by holding what I personally regard as politically-motivated, self-congratulatory "victory lap" visits to Ground Zero and/or the Pentagon. To be honest, I wasn't all that happy about the jingoistic excesses of the Sunday night celebrations. I think the death of bin Laden has strong deterrence value, but in my judgment it would have been more appropriate to wait until this September's 10th anniversary of the tragic events.
Details Continue to Dribble Out About the Bin Laden Abbottabad Event
Before going further, I have to condemn the Pakistan government for its misleading characterizations of events to which it was not a direct witness. In particular, there have been allegations that the men in the compound were unarmed; that is simply false--the weapons were confiscated (along with various other items, like bin Laden's computer, documents, etc.) and taken, with bin Laden's body, back in the helicopter. I believe in the professionalism of the SEALs; the very fact of any surviving children and wives attests to that. One must keep in mind that the SEALs were expecting a number of contingencies, including possible suicide vests. (Bin Laden would have had time to don a vest since the living facility was on the third floor, and there had been barricades and an exchange of fire with the courier after the SEALs entered the building.) The young daughter's claim that bin Laden had surrendered and was then shot makes no sense; the SEALs could have simply have shot him dead on sight. The daughter may not have noticed (from her angle) say, a slight movement on bin Laden's part, and the SEALs probably had been trained for false surrenders: there was zero margin for error.
In yesterday's post, I had a commentary segment on incompetent White House communications, noting several changes in revealed facts--a misidentified slain bin Laden son, a woman being used as a human shield (later withdrawn), a bin Laden wife killed (turned out to be a leg wound), a firefight (but later the dead men were described as unarmed), Bin Laden "participated" in the firefight but was shot unarmed, etc. There is simply no excuse for not diligently and thoroughly getting the basic facts and context straight; most people will probably subjectively view a changing story as an implausible post-hoc cover-up of what "really happened". At the same time, Attorney General Eric Holder seemed to be arguing shooting an unarmed bin Laden was unconditionally justifiable. The convoluted message coming out of the White House suggested that the same Barack Obama, with scrupulous convictions against Gitmo and waterboarding 9/11 mastermind KSM, had ordered a hit on Osama bin Laden, with no real intention of capturing him. I'm not saying the White House intended to send out that message, but it had lost control over the message. If the White House press secretary doesn't know, it's okay to say you don't know--let me find out and get back to you.
Some additional context is coming out. The SEALs encountered false doors, hidden rooms, and physical barricades on their way to bin Laden's living area. They had brought a bomb-sniffing dog (which could also check for booby traps) and were led to expect bin Laden was wearing bullet-proof clothes. They encountered one of the couriers whom shot at the SEALs and was killed in return fire. One of bin Laden's sons (Khaled), rushing from the third floor to the second floor, charged the SEALs and was taken out. Bin Laden, who did not acknowledge the demand to surrender, was within reach of two weapons, an AK-47 and a Makarov hand gun, and was shot as he started to reach for them. Some of the women attacked the approaching SEALs (possibly a diversion, buying time for Osama to arm himself?) There were 3 AK-47's (one in bin Laden's room) and 2 pistols at the mansion, confiscated along with various computers, files, etc. and brought back with bin Laden's corpse; they had intended to bring back the surviving bin Laden family members, but they lacked space when one of the helicopters malfunctioned and had to be destroyed. (The helicopters had some new radar-resistant technology that Washington didn't want Pakistan to have; that is why Pakistan didn't detect the helicopters approach Abbottabad.)
Pakistan is responding with some predictable passive-aggressive moves: it's demanding a reduction in the US presence in Pakistan (one source I heard says we have about 300 military in Pakistan, mostly for natural disaster support), it has not given the US access to the surviving bin Laden family members left behind, and it hasn't handed back the malfunctioned US helicopter (the US is concerned about Pakistan giving the Chinese, another ally, access to this US technology, particularly given China's prowess at reverse engineering).
Former Pakistan President Musharraf also said on a recent Greta Van Susteren's On the Record that high walls and barbed wire were quite common in Pakistan and thus didn't merit more attention. (The facts that there was no telecommunications, residents burned their garbage, and it was eight times the size of anything else and was surrounded active-duty and retired military, not to mention a prominent military academy within walking distance also are everyday occurrences, right? PLEASE!)
The Bin Laden Photo Kerfuffle and the Deathers:
I Support Obama's Decision Not to Release the Photo
Sunday night I was on some forum, focusing on the raid of the bin Laden compound, and multiple posts made reference to an allegedly current photo of the slain terrorist. Scanning down the posts, I found a particularly disturbing photo. After sending a copy to some relatives, I discovered an update to the forum saying the purported photo was a well-known fake that had been circulating for several months on the web. [In fact, the fake photo is available, e.g., here, with a time stamp dating April 29, 2009 which I located via a Guardian link. ] I had to admit having a certain amount of interest, because there had been speculation that his appearance had changed over the years. But to be honest, even though I was relieved to know bin Laden was dead, justice finally served by the country he had declared war on, I didn't really need to see what grotesque damage had been done to his face in the process.
For me, the issue isn't so much the provocative nature of the photos, their potentially inflammatory effect on Muslims or Islamic radicals, and I'm not worried about the shock value of the photos. I'm not concerned about the need to silence the deathers, the conspiracy theorists. I think that every human being deserves some form of dignity after he's died. This is a principle I've held in condemning the unconscionable Westboro Baptist Church protests at funerals. Whereas I abhor bin Laden's terrorist crimes against humanity, he's got family and friends, and it would be insensitive to their feelings to have his memory exploited in this manner. I respect the way that the US government buried bin Laden at sea, consistent with Muslim traditions in terms with timing, preparation of the body, prayers and other service rituals, etc. It speaks well for our country and how we celebrate religious diversity.
I understand that some doubting Thomases will never believe short of touching the fatal wounds themselves (and maybe not even then: couldn't this person be a body double?) It doesn't matter what the state of denial: the earth is flat; the Americans never landed on the moon; 9/11 was an inside job, not the result of Islamic terrorists; Barack Obama wasn't a natural born US citizen and hence constitutionally ineligible for office, etc. The nature and extent of evidence will never dissuade them.
The evidence is overwhelming: there were a number of distinguishing characteristics, everything from bin Laden's unusual height to identifiable facial characteristics to DNA (blood stains, hair samples, etc.) (DNA evidence was available from bin Laden's known sister whom died of brain cancer at a Massachusetts hospital), bin Laden's own property with fingerprints and other evidence, bin Laden's surviving, known children (and dead son) and known wives, his courier (corroborated by supplemental evidence that, in fact, ultimately led to the SEAL operation) was at the scene, a treasure trove of documents referencing detailed knowledge of past, current and future Al Qaeda plans which would be available only to a high-level Al Qaeda individual, etc. Anyone who believes this is a conspiracy has to explain facts like the eyewitness identification of bin Laden by surviving family members like his (DNA-linked) young daughter Safiyah (whose birth after 9/11 was described in an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir), earlier this week questioned by the Pakistan authorities.
Political Potpourri
According to RCP, Rasmussen has Obama's approval at 49%. Quinnipiac went from Obama 46% (net disapproval 2%) to Obama 52% (net approval 12%). This is close to the bounce I expected (I had guesstimated 51% a few days back). Note that his approval went up 6 points but he had a 14-point swing. The reason why is because the undecideds went from 6 points to 8 points. Gallup also has Obama up to 52% and net approval at 12%.
Two New Hampshire polls were out today, showing Romney leading by at least 25% over his GOP opposition, with a second-place Trump whom topped off at 11%. (I saw an earlier NH poll at the start of Trumpmania which showed Trump in the mid-20's.) Newsweek yesterday released some heads to heads, again with Huckabee and Romney within a handful of points of Obama. Bill O'Reilly posted a 3-day survey on his own site comparing Romney and Trump head to head; I was wary about the self-selecting polls because red meat populists like Palin and Trump tend to do very well, but Romney managed to nip Trump.
The GOP Presidential race in a manner of speaking gets off to a start tonight in South Carolina with a debate featuring one of my 3 favorites, Tim Pawlenty, and 4 other dark horse candidates: former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson (best known for favoring gay rights and the marijuana legalization/decriminalization), perennial libertarian gadfly Congressman Ron Paul, African American former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, and former US Senator Rick Santorum (PA). I may watch a replay of the debate but I won't report on it in this update. Given the fact of the top tier potential or likely candidates (Romney, Huckabee, Palin, Trump, and Gingrich) or probable dark horse candidates (Daniels and Bachmann) won't be there, we can expect bashing of the top tier candidates for not being there, bashing for good reason all things Barack Obama and the Federal Reserve, and competition over whom really best fits the Tea Party ideals of lower spending and limited government.
Fukushima Nuclear Incident Update
No new posts on the major blogs I follow. Presumably the reactor pressurized vessels 1 through 3 and spent fuel pools 1 through 4 are replenished with coolant on as-needed basis, temperature and pressure in the RPV's are declining/stable, and contaminated water from the reactor 2 turbine building is in process to the rad waste storage tank.
Political Humor
"Osama bin Laden was apparently shot twice in the face. It looks like Dick Cheney may have been involved." - Jay Leno
[No, Cheney does that to his friends. If Cheney was involved with bin Laden, bin Laden wouldn't be able to do anything with those 72 virgins.]
"Saddam Hussein is dead, and Osama bin Laden is dead. If you’re Moammar Gadhafi, living in exile is starting to sound really good." - Jay Leno
[I don't think Gaddafi really wants to play hide-and-go-seek with Uncle Sam...]
"In the wake of bin Laden’s death, the NBA has announced that it will use metal detectors at all playoff games to screen for weapons. Or as the players put it, “Uh oh." - Jimmy Fallon
[In the wake of bin Laden's death, the FBI has announced it will use lie detectors at all political events. Or as the President and the members of Congress put it, "Uh oh."]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
ABBA, "That's Me"
