OBAMA KILLS OSAMA

Osama bin Laden is dead.  President Barack Obama deserves much of the credit.

Most of the credit, of course, belongs to the Navy SEALs who assaulted bin Laden’s compound; to the intelligence officers who traced him to that compound, and to the interrogators at Guantanamo Bay who extracted the first critical lead from a captured al Qaeda terrorist.

But it was President Obama who ordered the risky assault, despite the diplomatic repercussions that would have accompanied failure, and may accompany success.  He had to have been aware of what happened to Jimmy Carter — a president to whom he’s been compared a lot lately — after the botched rescue mission in Iran.

And it was President Obama who had the good sense not to inform the Pakistani government of the raid, even though the SEALs launched from a base in northwest Pakistan, and were attacking a target virtually within the shadow of the capital.

We can reasonably assume that had he had this solid a lead, former President Bush would have done the same.  But it isn’t a given that other presidents would have done so.

Shortly after al Qaeda had launched deadly attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August of 1998, the U.S. had solid intelligence that bin Laden was at an al Qaeda training camp in Khost, Afghanistan. 

President Bill Clinton rejected a military strike on the grounds it was too dangerous.  He opted instead for a cruise missile strike, which was sufficient to divert public attention from the stain on Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress, but woefully insufficient militarily.

What little hope there was of success was dashed when the Clinton administration informed Pakistan of the attack in advance.  Forewarned, Bin Laden left the camp hours before the cruise missiles struck.

In Mr. Clinton’s defense, this occurred before 9/11.  But even today, its remarkable that a liberal Democrat president would act as decisively as President Obama did.

Mr. Obama patted himself vigorously on the back, as is his custom, in the remarks he made announcing bin Laden’s death.  But he was more presidential than in other recent speeches.  He paid even more tribute to our servicemen and women than he did to himself, and he spoke highly of American exceptionalism, which he’s been disinclined to do in the past.

Osama bin Laden was the face of al Qaeda.  But he was chiefly a fund-raiser and a pr guy.  Ayman al Zawahiri, who runs things, is its brains.  So killing bin Laden is mostly a symbolic victory.  But the symbolism is very important, both for us and for our enemies.

For Americans, bin Laden’s death provides a big morale boost, at a time when we could really use one.

For our enemies, it’s a reminder that America‘s memory is long, and our reach is far.  They’ve been reminded the chief limitation on American military power is the willingness of our political leaders to use it.

The message sent by bin Laden’s death decisively contradicts the unfortunate message NATO’s floundering in Libya has been sending, so it also couldn’t come at a better time.  Mr. Zawahiri now wears al Qaeda’s crown, but I imagine he wears it uneasily.  And exile must be looking much better now to Libyan dictator Muammar Ghadafy than it did before Sunday night.

Al Qaeda is compelled to respond, to demonstrate relevance.  Let’s hope the administration is prepared for this.

An al Qaeda response should disabuse Americans of the notion bin Laden’s death marks an effective end to the war on terror.  We rejoiced when Saddam Hussein was pulled from his spider hole in December, 2003.  But the insurgency in Iraq grew worse afterwards.

The most critical fallout from the raid will be on our relations with Pakistan.  Bin Laden was living in by far the largest house in Abbottabad, a wealthy resort town less than a two hour drive from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.  The bin Laden compound is across the street from a police station, and a stone’s throw away from Pakistan’s military academy.  Bin Laden apparently had been there since 2005. 

It is inconceivable that Pakistani leaders did not know.

Pakistan is much more an enemy than a friend. We’ve been pretending otherwise for nearly a decade, for reasons which seemed to some a good idea.  The supply line for our troops in Afghanistan goes through Pakistan.  And Pakistan has nuclear weapons.

Now that it’s clear Pakistan was sheltering bin Laden, we can pretend no longer.

Al Qaeda has a nuclear bomb stashed in Europe which it will detonate if Osama bin Laden in caught or killed, a senior al Qaeda commander has claimed, according to a formerly top secret document made public by Wikileaks April 25.

If al Qaeda does have the bomb, I’ve a pretty good idea from whom they got it.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.