The successful Navy SEAL raid which killed Osama bin Laden is becoming one of the central themes of the Obama campaign.
Almost every other sentence out of the mouth of Joe Biden (who opposed the raid) is about “bin Laden.”
We know that bin Laden was located as the result of years of work by intelligence agencies which in substantial part predated Obama. And as we now know, Obama laid the groundwork to blame the military if the raid went wrong.
But put all that aside. Obama got Osama. Fair enough.
But the killing of one person has been against the backdrop of a complete disaster for the United States throughout the Middle East and Central Asia.
North Africa is or is on the way to domination by radical Islamists. We pushed Mubarak out without any transition, and the Muslim Brotherhood and even more extreme Islamists are nearing control. The same is true in Libya and Tunisia.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban are resurgent, waiting out Obama’s timeline for withdrawal. In Iraq, the Iranians have extended their influence and the nation again is dividing along sectarian lines, with the unifying factor (except among the Kurds) being hostility to the U.S.
In Syria, where for once we could have dealt a crushing blow to Iranian influence, we have helped Bashar Assad hang onto power to the extent that both sides hate us.
Our one true ally in the region, Israel, is in its most precarious position in decades, surrounded by massive Iranian-backed missile bases in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.
There is almost nowhere in the Middle East that the United State is better off than it was four years ago.
Obama’s foreign policy has been a profound disaster, subjugating generations of women throughout the region to fundamentalist tyranny as Obama concocts a false “war on women” campaign theme against Republicans.
Yet Obama and his campaign team trot out Osama bin Laden to cure all those political ills, and as political cover for a failed presidency.
One lucky three-point shot doesn’t make you a star.
Obama got Osama, but lost the Middle East. Repeat.
Update: Fausta reminds me that our foreign policy in this hemisphere has been a disaster as well. Remember when Obama sided with the Chavez-backed Manuel Zelaya and then went to extensive lengths to isolate and bully Honduras? I sure do. Meanwhile Iran and Hezbollah are more active than ever in our own backyard.
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