Obama, Osama, and the 'Gutsy Call'

A CIA memo reveals that Obama's famed "gutsy call" to green-light the mission that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden wasn't very gusty at all.

From Ben Shapiro, Breitbart's Big Peace:

Today, Time magazine got hold of a memo written by then-CIA head Leon Panetta after he received orders from Barack Obama’s team to greenlight the bin Laden mission. Here’s the text, which summarized the situation:

Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a decision with regard to AC1 [Abbottabad Compound 1]. The decision is to proceed with the assault.

The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am.

This, of course, was the famed “gutsy call.”

...Only the memo doesn’t show a gutsy call. It doesn’t show a president willing to take the blame for a mission gone wrong. It shows a CYA maneuver by the White House.

The memo puts all control in the hands of Admiral McRaven – the “timing, operational decision making and control” are all up to McRaven. So the notion that Obama and his team were walking through every stage of the operation is incorrect. The hero here was McRaven, not Obama. And had the mission gone wrong, McRaven surely would have been thrown under the bus.

The memo is crystal clear on that point. It says that the decision has been made based solely on the “risk profile presented to the President.” If any other risks – no matter how minute – arose, they were “to be brought back to the President for his consideration.” This is ludicrous. It is wiggle room. It was Obama’s way of carving out space for himself in case the mission went bad. If it did, he’d say that there were additional risks of which he hadn’t been informed; he’d been kept in the dark by his military leaders.

This certainly alters the previous account of Obama's "gutsy call."

The memo reads like a disclaimer meant to protect Obama if the mission failed. It's as if Obama wanted assurance he wouldn't be blamed. Frankly, the memo reveals a rather gutless leader. Were visions of Jimmy Carter's failed Iran hostage crisis rescue mission dancing in Obama's head?

True, Obama gave the order to proceed, but he made sure his ass was covered.

At least now we know who made the truly "gutsy call" -- Admiral McRaven.