Obama has grudgingly let it be known that without the groundwork laid down by President Bush, the execution of Bin Laden would not have happened. Bush allowed for Guantanamo, enhanced interrogation which produced results, "secret" rendition sites in Europe where the CIA interrogated known terrorists. All of that was put in place on Bush's watch and Obama's first actions as president were to shut down Guantanamo but here it is, two plus years later and it is still open for business.
And now, Thomas Mcardle writing at Investors Business Journal makes the case that President Regan had a lot of input as well:
Reagan Made Killing Bin Laden PossibleA lot more at the article. Interesting observation and completely true.
Much was written last week about how much thanks George W. Bush deserves in tracking down Osama bin Laden. The answer is: a great deal.
Information extracted from al-Qaida operatives under Bush's interrogation policies ultimately led us to the compound in Abbottabad. But he did more. As an IBD editorial ("'Dumb' War In Iraq Led Obama To Bin Laden") noted last week, a crucial piece of the puzzle in identifying bin Laden's courier came from an al-Qaida lieutenant who was caught only because of Bush's decision to liberate Iraq.
Someone else also belongs on the list of people to thank, along with the heroic Navy SEALs and the current commander in chief. He is the president we have to applaud for so many other things, like saving the U.S. economy from a government-induced malaise, and winning the Cold War: Ronald Reagan.
With the same visionary perseverance employed in his commitment to replace mutual assured nuclear destruction with missile defense, President Reagan executed a long-term strategy to build an array of elite, high-tech special forces units that could carry out operations like the one that snuffed out bin Laden.
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