Osama bin Laden is dead: Three possible outcomes…

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
Font Size:

It’s still early, and it’s hard to predict the myriad of ramifications (what will this do to Donald Trump‘s chances?!) that may come from the death of Osama bin Laden. But here are a few possible important outcomes that come to mind immediately …

1. Obama finally exorcises the Jimmy Carter demons: Jimmy Carter could not free the hostages, and that plagued him and helped doom his reelection chances in 1980. It’s important to note that Carter’s problem wasn’t just his liberal policies — or the bad economy — but also the perception of his impotence. Americans love winners, and Carter was clearly a loser.

President Obama will benefit politically from the killing of bin Laden (just as he would be blamed if something had gone horribly wrong). By acting unilaterally — and succeeding — Obama has made it much tougher for his political opponents to portray him as a weak or impotent leader like Jimmy Carter.

2. Expedited Afghanistan exodus? The purpose of going to war in Afghanistan was ostensibly to dismantle al Qaeda and prevent the use of Afghanistan as a base for their future operations. With the death of bin Laden, it is reasonable to assume President Obama could use this as a rationale to declare victory and withdraw troops. I suspect there will be much written about this in the coming days…

3. George W. Bush vindicated? While Obama will clearly benefit politically, it is likely that some of the most controversial Bush-era policies made this possible. According to The Washington Post foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius, enhanced interrogation techniques helped lead to Bin Laden’s capture.  Here’s what Ignatius had to say on Monday’s “Morning Joe”:

…Let me give you a concrete example in this case. The CIA got a nickname for one of bin Laden’s couriers in interrogation of high targets — very controversial interrogation — let’s make no bones about it in 2002-2004 range. It took them about four years to figure out who that nickname might really be. they finally got the true name in 2007. And then, they had to figure out where on earth was this, literally, where on earth was this person….

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has speculated that some of the intel used to track down bin Laden may have come from GITMO.  And on Fox & Friends, Karl Rove echoed the same point, saying,

Look, there is continuity in these kind of things and the tools that President Bush put into place, GITMO, rendition, enhanced interrogation, the vast effort to collect and collate this information, put it in a usable form obviously served his successor quite well because this served the information of the courier several years ago and moved forward to this administration. I think President Obama needs to be complimented on his handling of this operation. But he did make one minor misstatement last night in that he said he gave the order to the C.I.A. to make the capture of Osama bin Laden. That was to reaffirm an order given to the C.I.A. by President Bush in the aftermath of 9-11.

There will clearly be some debate over whether or not President Bush or Obama really deserves credit for this.

Regardless, while this may sound quixotic, but in the long run, it is possible that the killing of bin Laden, along with continued success in Iraq — and the “Arab Spring” blossoming in the Middle East — may make historians take a second look at the Bush years.

This may ironically help President Obama politically — but also help rehabilitate George W. Bush’s legacy.

Matt K. Lewis

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel