BO's actual contribution to killing OBL...
1. On June 2, 2009, just over four months into his presidency, Obama signed a memo to CIA Director Leon Panetta stating “in order to ensure that we have expanded every effort, I direct you to provide me within 30 days a detailed operation plan for locating and bringing to justice” bin Laden.
2. After the compound was discovered, in what was admittedly a lucky break- Officials knew there were 22 people living in the compound. Obama wanted to avoid killing civilians unnecessarily. So he ordered officials to come up with an air-assault plan.
4. During the past seven weeks, the president chaired a number of National Security Council meetings on the topic, including ones on March 14, March 29, April 12, April 19 and April 28.
(Critics will note that this was during the time they were complaining that Obama was spending too much time playing golf)
This was in addition to countless briefings on the subject during the President’s intelligence briefings; and frequent consultations between the [White House National Security Council], CIA, Defense, and Joint Staff.
5. The president approved the air assault on April 19th. He ordered the force to fly to the region to conduct it.
6. Last Thursday, the president held another meeting in the Situation Room, and went through everyone’s final recommendations.
Obama mulled his final decision overnight.
At 8:20 a.m. on Friday, before flying down to view tornado destruction in Alabama, Obama gave the final order authorizing the operation.
(Critics will note that the President gave this order, knowing full well that mission failure would have led to inevitable comparisons to the botched raid in the Iranian desert which was ordered by Jimmy Carter.... and would probably have killed any re-election bid. He gave the order anyway)
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