Who gets Credit for Killing Osama Bin Laden?
Posted May 01, 2011
So the news of Bin Laden's death has just been officially announced by US President Barack Obama.
After briefly checking public comments on various news sources (from all angles) I find a curious situation. Some are trying to say that the President shouldn't get credit for this. Their reasoning seems to be 2 different things:
- This was a military action. the military should get credit.
- The action was simply a continuation of what the previous President (George Bush Jr.) had implemented.
Let's look at those separately:
First, the President of the US is the Commander in Chief of all branches of US military. Yes the military performed their job wonderfully, and all those involved should get all the due credit, medals, honors, rewards, etc. that they deserve.
However, to say the military should get the credit, but the person who is in charge of the military should not is a completely nonsensical argument.
Second, while I give former President Bush all credit for all the proper military actions that occurred during his watch, we should also give the current president proper due for what occurs during his.
Consider this carefully:
If Bin Laden would've been killed during President Bush's time, would you have given credit to him? If so, then aren't the arguments against crediting Obama a bit silly?
And just for the record, I'd like to point out a silly set of arguments involving this situation:
Some have tried to say this current economic problem in the US is the fault of the Bush administration, and Obama should be held blameless, even almost 3 years later.
If this is your argument, then you should never give credit for good economic times to any current president. Also, you have no right to try to give Obama credit for recent actions.
Yes, economic & political actions, and other important life-altering factors do fluctuate their impact across the time-lines of specific presidential administrations.
But you can't blame the past administration for all bad, while praising the current for all good. The reverse is also true.
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