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In reply to the discussion: Do you remember a prez candidate ever openly demeaning another prez? [View all]RZM
(8,556 posts)Last edited Tue May 1, 2012, 01:14 PM - Edit history (1)
The accident happened at a staging ground within Iran itself. It was also after the mission was aborted that the plane and helicopter collided on the ground.
But it was the first thing I thought of when Mittens made his comment. I guess you technically can't say that Carter ordered the raid, because the mission was aborted before the raid commenced, but he still stuck his neck out and paid a political price for it.
That is one reason why Obama should thank his lucky stars the Bin Laden raid achieved its objectives without US casualties. Had something gone wrong, he probably would have faced a shitstorm. From a political standpoint, it was a risky call.
IMO, that's one reason that it took until 2012 to actually get Bin Laden. We had shots at him going back before 9/11, but the intelligence was never quite good enough to pull the trigger and have a reasonable chance of success. This time it was done right.