President George W. Bush invaded only our enemies. President Barack Obama invades our allies. Now that's my kind of foreign policy cowboy.
Obama didn't let pesky international concepts like borders or sovereignty stand between him and a promise to kill Osama bin Laden, even if it was on Pakistani soil and even if it meant doing so without our ally's permission or knowledge. The New York Times reports that 10 days before the raid, the president ordered the bin Laden task force enlarged in case it had to fight Pakistani police or troops to get out of the country with bin Laden or his body.
In the wake of the bin Laden raid, even former Vice President Dick Cheney has been reduced to all foreign policy hat and no cattle, compared President "John Wayne" Obama.
Those who have proclaimed Obama soft on terrorism have made the mistake of judging him based on his use of conventional American might. There, he's given critics plenty of ammunition. Practically from the first day of his presidency Obama has seemed uncomfortable using military assets and less than impressed with the generals and admirals charged with exercising that power.
He agonized for months in 2009 before sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. The number was approximately half that requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal. In the same speech in which he announced the Afghan surge, Obama also disclosed a timetable for withdrawal. True to his word, The Wall Street Journal reports, the military is working on plans to pull out 5,000 troops by the end of July and 10,000 by the end of the year.
Then there was Libya. When Obama announced that U.S. air power would join a NATO assault on Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, the president made it clear that no American troops would touch Libyan soil. He said the U.S. favors Gadhafi's ouster but did not make it a goal for our military. His insistence that other nations assume command of an alliance mission of which the U.S is a player has been dubbed "leading from behind."
Given Obama's reluctance to use the military, many were surprised that he ordered the bin Laden raid. I was not among them.
This president has embraced and in fact increased the use of Predator drones against military and terrorist targets. Collateral civilian damage from drone raids is regrettable, but it's also immune from prosecution. Drone missions are conducted away from public view and knowledge. Their existence is known only when the administration wants it known, and that's usually when it decides the images from the mission are suitable for public consumption.
Thus, I wasn't surprised that Obama used the Special Forces to finally get bin Laden. This approach meant there was a high probability that bin Laden's death would be swift, discreet and without messy congressional oversight.
The ruthlessness of the bin Laden mission has sent a clear message to the rest of the world - the type that is undeliverable by a mere speech, no matter how flawlessly delivered. And Pakistan has taken notice. IBN, an Indian news agency that partners with CNN, and other Indian news outlets are reporting that Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI, is mounting a massive campaign to hunt down Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, whom many believe is hiding out in Quetta. The ISI's newfound enthusiasm for getting Omar is simple to explain. They fear if they don't kill him on Pakistani soil, Obama will order U.S. forces in to do the job.
I've strongly opposed Obama's executive order to remove enhanced interrogation techniques from the CIA's arsenal against terror. However, the order was not absolute. Obama reserved for himself the right to reinstate their use on an emergency basis. Given his use of drones and the insistence that U.S. forces be ready to fight the Pakistanis as part of the bin Laden raid, I have no doubt this president would order the use of these techniques in order to protect U.S lives.
I wouldn't expect anything less from a real cowboy.
