What’s a President Have to Do to Get a Little Respect?

It will turn out to be one of the biggest news stories of the year: A team of Navy SEALs — America’s elite fighting force — directed by our president, dropped into a secret compound in Pakistan and killed Osama Bin Laden and several of this cohorts. No Americans were injured. And, with this news, a manhunt which has lasted for nearly a decade and through parts of two presidential administrations, has finally come to an end. Nobody knows exactly what the eventual ramifications will be, but some American families will finally have some sense of closure and most Americans will feel that justice has been done.

There was celebrating in some streets and even a few conservatives were willing to give Obama and everyone else a salute and a “Job well done.”

However, you might have seen this post or something similar, submitted by one of your FaceBook friends or via e-mail:

"For those of you that believe Bin Laden is dead Let's be clear on this: OBAMA did NOT kill Bin Laden. An American soldier, who Obama just a few weeks ago was debating whether or not to PAY, did. Obama just happened to be the one in office when our soldiers finally found Osama Bin Laden and took him out. This is NOT an Obama victory, but an AMERICAN victory!! RE-POST IF YOU AGREE."

Well, I don’t agree, and anybody who does needs to have his or her meds adjusted and soon.

I’ve been critical of Obama in the past, but I do my best to stick to some semblance of reality. I am just naive enough to think that, with Osama Bin Laden dead as the result of orders given by Obama, that our current president might actually be given some credibility by the conservatives out there. I have just too much faith in the ability of others to base their opinions on the facts and on reason.

The SEALs did an amazing job at tremendous personal risk to themselves, but they didn’t do it alone, and there is more than enough credit to go around. This is an American victory, lead by Obama, and that makes it his victory as much as yours or mine or anyone's

If you are going to give the military all the credit for getting Bin Laden, are you also going to give the poor guys in Iraq all the blame for that fiasco of a war over there? Of course not. Most of us know enough and have enough sense to put the blame right where it belongs – on then President George W. Bush and a spineless Congress that voted to attack the wrong country.

Likewise, we must give at least a lion’s share of credit and thanks to Obama.

If you’re still not convinced, consider this: If the raid had gone South, in a similar manner to the failures of the Bay of Pigs invasion (Kennedy) or the Iran raid (Carter), the Teabaggers, Fox News, and most Republicans would give Obama 100 per cent of the blame for the whole operation. So, it took more than a little courage for him, as Commander in Chief, to order that attack. I rest my case.