A lot of Americans give George Bush some of the credit for Osama bin Laden’s killing: In a May 2 poll, “Among Republicans, 61 percent say Obama deserves at least some credit for . . . bringing bin Laden to justice after a nearly 10-year pursuit by U.S. intelligence and military forces. Republicans are more apt to give former president George W. Bush acclaim for killing bin Laden, with 81 percent saying he deserves at least some of the credit for what happened Sunday. . .35 percent of Democrats share that view,” with “4 percent giving the former president a lot of credit.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) is now thanking George W. Bush for his role in bin Laden’s destruction.
In the Washington Examiner, Michael Barone describes how Obama relied on Bush-era policies he had decried in his 2008 campaign and earlier (such as electronic eavesdropping) in order to get bin Laden. Victor Davis Hanson has a pithier and more sarcastic take here, discussing how policies such as Guantanamo produced the intelligence needed to get bin Laden.
President Obama recently invited Bush to Thursday’s Ground Zero event, which Bush declined.
The White House has now confirmed that bin Laden was unarmed at the time of his killing. Even before that was revealed, there was whining from left-wing groups like Human Rights Watch and self-styled “international law” wonks that bin Laden’s killing was somehow “unjust.” Never mind that he was at war with America, had engineered the killing of thousands of American civilians in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was resisting capture, and was accompanied by armed and dangerous underlings at the time of his death. Bin Laden was an evil man who deserved death, and was lucky to get the respectful burial he got. (I earlier discussed how left-wing “human rights” activists are attempting to get rid of not only the death penalty but also life imprisonment without parole for even the “worst” murderers).
Harsh interrogation techniques also apparently played a role in producing the intelligence needed to get bin Laden, according to Michael Barone and Victor Davis Hanson. But the use of torture is a grave mistake in the long run, however, since it makes other countries more reluctant to hand suspected terrorists over to the U.S., violates the Convention Against Torture, which the U.S. has signed, and sometimes produces inaccurate information through false confessions.
By contrast, other controversial anti-terrorism measures, such as broad use of electronic eavesdropping, do not violate any treaty the U.S. has signed, and there are other Western countries that already use it more broadly than the U.S.
