In the wake of the successful raid on Osama bin Laden's "mansion" on the outskirts of Islamabad, under the noses of the Pakistani government and its military and security forces, many were saying that, years from now, people will remember what they were doing, where they were, when President Obama announced to the nation:
A small team of Americans carried out the operation [to capture or kill bin Laden] with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties
That,
Tonight, we give thanks to the countless intelligence and counterterrorism professionals who've worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome. The American people do not see their work, nor know their names. But tonight, they feel the satisfaction of their work and the result of their pursuit of justice.
And that,
We give thanks for the men who carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism, patriotism, and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country. And they are part of a generation that has borne the heaviest share of the burden since that September day.
Whether people will remember for years where they were or what they were doing when the president spoke these words is debatable.
Just as it is debatable whether people remember what they were doing or saying, while the president of the United States was going over the intelligence that was coming out of Pakistan indicating that Osama bin Laden might be holed up in a house just outside Islamabad, or while Obama was going over plans for a daring mission to capture or kill the mastermind of 9/11.
Or whether they remember what they were doing when President Obama gave final approval for the daring mission.
Obviously, people don't remember because the planning for the mission was done over an extended period of time and because the planning and the execution were done and carried out, respectively, under the utmost secrecy.
However, in retrospect, we can roughly tell what some public figures were doing or saying while Obama was agonizing over the risks and dangers of the mission; while he was worrying about committing our finest to a mission from which they might never return; while he was fulfilling a promise made by a former president; while he was making our nation safer.
Donald Trump, for one, was claiming that Obama might not be a real American; was yapping at the president's heels, fretting over whether Obama had a long-form birth certificate and worrying about the president's grades in school.
Dick Cheney, his daughter & Co, were continuing their attacks on Obama's national security policies suggesting that he was soft on defense; that he was failing to protect America from another major terrorist assault.
Then there was Glenn Beck, with a daily torrent of assaults on the president calling him a Socialist, Marxist, a racist who "hates whites," comparing him to Saddam Hussein, and worse.
How about Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann?
Well, Mrs. Palin -- after accusing Obama of "palling around with terrorists" even before the elections -- in January 2010 asserted that Obama's "fundamental approach to terrorism is fatally flawed," and doubled down the next month saying, "many of us have grown even more uneasy about our administration's approach to national security, the most important role ascribed to our federal government." And, "To win [the war on terrorism], we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern."
I guess one could say now that Obama has killed one of his "pals."
Mrs. Bachmann, while also nibbling around the birther issue, inappropriately invoking the Holocaust, and while mangling American history, has been blasting Obama's national security and foreign policies, too.
Then we have House Speaker Boehner who, in between crying spells, managed to accuse Obama of relying on "luck" to keep America safe.
Boehner made the claim after the successful capture of Faisal Shahzad, who attempted the May 1, 2010, Times Square car bombing, charging the Obama administration of operating "without a real, comprehensive plan to confront and defeat the terrorist threat" and while still claiming on his web site that Iraq, not Osama bin Laden's mansion that our brave Navy SEALs would soon be "visiting," was "the central front of a global war [on terror]."
And the list -- and the accusations and the smears -- go on and on, without mentioning the Limbaugh's, the Hannity's and the Ingram's who, even now, cannot and will not accept that a president named Barack Hussein Obama has accomplished a mission their idol tried but failed.
So, do you remember what you were doing, saying or writing while President Obama was -- along with our military and intelligence agencies -- planning this mission?