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Subscribe to RSSA key Republican lawmaker on national security issues warned Tuesday that it would be a "huge mistake and a catastrophic blunder" to interpret the killing of Osama bin Laden as an end to the need for U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a press conference that -- despite the celebrations over the al Qaeda leader's death -- the Obama administration should "go slow when it goes to troop withdrawals" in Afghanistan.
Graham said he is confident that the president will not be prompted to accelerate troop withdrawals in July because "he understands the signal it will send." But, he added, he intends to ask CIA chief Leon Panetta whether the successful operation to eliminate bin Laden will ultimately be used by the administration as an "excuse" for a faster drawdown.
Panetta will brief members of Congress this afternoon in closed-door briefings on both sides of the Capitol.
Atop lawmakers' lists of questions for Panetta and other administration officials with knowledge of the U.S. raid on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan will be how the operation could affect already tense relations between the two nations. The Pakistani government has stated concerns about the unilateral nature of the raid on its soil in Abbottabad.
"You cannot trust them and you cannot abandon them," Graham said of Pakistan.
The South Carolina senator threw some cold water on one point that some in his party are eager to highlight: that specific enhanced interrogation techniques may have delivered information that led U.S. intelligence authorities to bin Laden's location.
While criticizing the Obama administration's ban on CIA operatives' use of such tactics, he called the claim that waterboarding was essential to bin Laden's capture "a misstatement."
"I do not believe this is a time to celebrate waterboarding," Graham said. "I believe this is a time to celebrate hard work."
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Think Progress:
The report “removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora,” but that decisions made by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his deputies, and other top administration officials allowed Bin Laden to escape.
The consequence of this missed opportunity are tremendous. As Lt. Col. Reid Sawyer, the director of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, told NPR yesterday, “if bin Laden had been killed in Afghanistan eight years ago in the caves of Tora Bora, al-Qaida might well have died with him. Now the organization is diversified enough it could weather bin Laden’s death — and hardly miss a beat.”
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"Excuse"? Is Senator Graham kidding?
I agree with Senator Graham on one point - we cannot trust Pakistan.
On top of that, our leaders did not do their job properly in finding bin Laden years ago. Instead they started another war.
It's time to come home. Our military did what was asked of them. Over and over and over.
I couldn't agree with you more Pat!
Ahhh... it was only a matter of time before the other WAR monger climbed out of his bunker to play weekend warrior! lol
I'm still waiting to hear what Lindsey's BFF, McCain has to say on the subject...
His SILENCE is DEAFENING!
Pat who are the "they" and which is the "other war."
See Pat stop pointing fingers cause both sides do it. Just a couple of weeks ago we were all a buzz about which terrorists got trials and where. Now Obama took care of that little debate - two bullets to the head. Great.
But he also got us all tangled up in Libya [or have we already forgotten?] and increased troops in Afghanistan.
They all suck, especially our "allies" Pakistan, Karzai and that idiot in Iraq. So everybody - except the CIA death squads should come on home.
Senator Graham, don't you recall that we went to Afghanistan go get Bin Laden? Now is a perfectly good time to say "Mission Accomplished", but this time for real. The aircraft carrier thing was a publicity stunt. You do know the difference between the two. Don't you Senator Graham?
This is something we have no businss spending money and spilling American blood on. You have it backwards. Staying in Afghanistan would be a catastropic blunder.
Is Senator Graham willing to vote for an increase in taxes on people earning over $250,000 per year to pay for staying in Afghanistan? How else would he propose to fund the venture?
I do think he is right that we are in a quandary with Pakistan---can't trust them yet can't turn our backs on them.
President Obama isn't likely to engage in any large-scale withdrawal from Afghanistan anytime soon.
I don't think he'll hand Afghanistan back to the same Taliban that proved to be such a gracious host to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
President Obama's views on Afghanistan have been consistent going back to the 2008 campaign.
There are a lot of other issues from the 2008 campaign that no longer fall into that category, aren't there?
Anyway...
However the President decides to proceed in Afghanistan, First Read and most First Readers have proven time and again that they'll fall into line.
At least that much is predictable, eh?
I have to agree to diagree.
If we pull out of the Afghan mission now, it would re-open the country to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Now is the time to apply pressure. When you have them by their throats why let go. They will only rise up and fight again. Iraq is a different issue and we should proceed with the draw down.
So I was just reading a very informative article in the Telegraph. It seems that this whole Bin Laden killing is directly related to enhanced interrogation done on a dude they scooped up in Iraq.
The article is entitled:Wikileaks: Bin Laden's courier....
All I can say is this whole torture argument is really going to ramp up for the next few days. And as I recall the libbies hated torture.
But then again that was before Sunday night. Looks like torture is now peachy, just as are the "CIA Death Squads", execution without trial, and killing an unarmed man.
Say Bev. what does MoveOn have on whether Osama was mirandized before he was interrogated with that M-16? Seems like Holder was very specific about the rights of terrorists being protected, right?
This rabbit hole trip is freaky. Black is white. Libbies are war hawks, and terrorists can be summarily executed, even if unarmed.
Only thing we are doing with this major war in Afghanistan is pissing the natives off. We should get out, but also continue to hunt down terrorists so that way they will fear us, and stop attacking everybody!
Also, I stopped reading after Republican lawyer, he was just going to say something unnecessarily nasty to Obama.
Gotta tell ya, Spanky-
If President Obama had really, REALLY wanted bin Laden taken alive...given the fact that, when bin Laden was confronted, he was unarmed and not in a serious position to fight to the death against two dozen U.S. Navy Seals...
And...
He STILL ended up with a bullet in the eye...
Hmmm...
Just sayin'...
Spanky: Bush's CIA director, Bush's Secretary of Defense, Obama's CIA director and others have all said that "enhanced interrogation" did NOT yield the information pertinent to finding bin Laden. They were directly involved.
Wikileaks? Seriously?
CIA Death Squads? This was a Navy SEAL operation.
Miranda rights? The operation was in Pakistan, not the United States.
oh just stop Mixed.
I loved how the libbies always questioned the time line of everything. But not here - Obama gave the order and it was followed. We even have a nice photo op showing them all glued to the monitors. You know, before it happened and all.
Looks like that Code Pink Lady - Sheehan, thinks it all a load of crap.
I'm telling you Mixed, as you know this whole little trip ends ugly for the libbies. Of course as of late then are doing their best conservative war hawk "KILL THEM ALL" impressions.
Me - much cheaper to kill than wound and capture. Now Holder does not have to do the got to lawyer him up, dance.
Almost too fun to bear. almost.
Spanky and Mixed Bag: So, you were both in the compound and in the room in Pakistan? You both know what was said and by whom? You both know if there were threats or protests?
I have to say one thing about the truth. Unless you witnessed the act your self you can not know for certain what happened. Even if you were a witness, then there should still be doubt about what actually happen. People are scammed all of the time.
fielden - I didn't write the article in the Guardian.
They just have no dog in the hunt.
fielden did you not watch Olby in 2009 - he specified Seal Team 6 as a CIA Death Squad. I could not make this crap up if I tried. And KSM was arrested in the US? Really? You know better, you just can't formulate an excuse to cover the wild spinning going on now that your boy is the war hawking executioner. Sucks, don't it?
And no one is surprised as I. Except Mixed - except he saw it coming for awhile. Me, I'm not that bright.
You all are, and always will be your own worst enemies. :)
Spanky: Guardian? Or Telegraph?
2009 SEALs? Or 2011?
Miranda-izing KSM? Or Osama bin Laden?
Do you really have a point?
fielden-
Tell me how a skinny twig like Osama bin Laden...unarmed...posed a threat to two dozen U.S.Navy Seals.
Seriously?
I've no quarrel with what happened to Osama bin Laden, whatever the circumstances.
And...
On this momentous occasion, we are both supporters of the President...I am, anyway.
What's the problem, fielden?
WHOA...... NEO CONS. this is expected. wars don''t contribute to our national debts, medicare does. as long as the middle class, the sacrificial lambs, are there.......we'll balance the budget on their back so our grand children will be debt free. another republican idea to financial health.
Pious...or, is it Pius...?
Sounds like you have issues with President Obama's expenditures in the fight against Islamic extremism.
Osama bin Laden would likely agree...regrettably, he's in no position to weigh in on the matter these days, one way or the other.
This conservative is being swayed.
Sounds like you're headed in the opposite direction.
Too bad.
Yeah don't trust Pakistan, don't trust Afghanistan either. It's time to pack it up and head home. Also, important don't trust any war The Bush admin put us into.
Ohhhhhhh Senator Lindsey Graham. You, much like Senator Harry Reid, are someone I'd love to drag across a Utah salt flat while hanging from a rope tied to the back end of a pick-up.
Fun and games aside, at least the sentiment that we cannot trust Pakistan to any degree, especially given what we know now about Osama's exact location the past few years, is a sane observation - a rare thing from most anyone in the Senate these days.
We went into Afghanastan to try to capture Osama Bin Laden, the man who gave the 911 order. We went into Afghanastan to push the Taliban out of power as they gave safe haven to Bin Laden. Those were our stated goals. We have accomplished all our stated goals BUT have no exit strategy for excising ourselves out of the war. The Afghan government does not want us there....just the billions we send them The government is as corrupt as they came and Karzaid refuses to do any thing about it. Why are we there at all...Al Queda went to Iraq and other countries to fight us. The Taliban should be taken on by Afghan troops...after 9 or 10 years, they should be able to shoulder tghe fight. We have no national interest in being there. Why can't we examine if this war is in our national interest and get out.
Mark & Domenico: A question for you guys. There is a lot of talk going on about releasing the photo of bin Laden. I don't see the point. He's gone. Why can't we just close this chapter? I don't recall any photo's of Hitler being released once the Russians found him. They just buried him. Quietly. Isn't that true?
It was enough. Why isn't it enough that bin Laden is dead? Why do people want/need to see the photo's? I remember the photo's of Hussein after he died. It was unnecessary to release them.
Pat:
I would not presume to speak for Mark or Domenico, but we are living in different times. Conspiracy theories are already appearing. OBL is not dead, or OBL has been dead for 10 years. My guess is when the radical right conspiracy theories continue like they did with Obama's birth, out will come the pictures.
Hi Ron.
Conspiracy theories. Why should we have to get down to their level? It's all nonsense. I'd like to believe that most of the responsible media will not fall for this illegitimate story like they did with the Birth Certificate.
There were stories of Hitler being alive floating around for quite a while. But it was not something the media ever paid much attention to. And they shouldn't have.
I say don't release the photographs. And let the right continue to do whatever it is they do. If it's not this, it will most assuredly be something else.
I say stop paying attention to their crap.
There you go again, thinking like a reasonable adult. The death of Bin Laden is a big deal. The conservative right is going crazy that our President did what Bush could not do. So when something happens that does not fit your belief system, you create a conspiracy theory that does fit your beliefs. Will the media stay on the sidelines? They didn't for two years and helped escalate the birther notion. In the next couple of months, look the other way when the pictures are released. They will be ugly.
Actually, there are still doubts about Hitler's death, because of the way the Soviet Union handle the corpse.
Pat, Boston, MA
I recommend strongly not to go into the subject with them. You'll end up getting, "Dumb Lib" or something, and talking circles.
You should ask how the Kool-aid tastes today. And express your regards that Glenn's show is over.
Releasing the death photo of Osama bin Laden is useful if it dissuades even one of his misguided sycophants to avoid the same fate.
Show them.
Even if they do release the photo, some people will claim it is a fake. Like the birther peoples claim about the Obama birth certificate.
Pat - Just something to try take away from the phenomenal job the Seals did in excuting their mission, and to try to yet one more time to discredit the leadership of our president. Obama releasing not one but two birth certificates, a short and a long didn't stop the naysayers, so releasing photos of Bin Laden will not silence the naysayers, they'll say the photo has been photoshopped, they'll want a long form death certificate or any other sort of madness they can conjure up.
Salt Grass-
The "birthers"...like the "truthers", engage in fantasies.
A bullet to the eye is reality.
Show them.
When is Graham & co-horts going to realize that second guessing this president WILL NOT WORK because he will surprise those who would underestimate him. He is a hardworking, in control, listening leader. Very different from his predecessor. VERY!
I remember when W came into office bragging about "I don't do detail." Well the job requires doing detail and this president gets that. Thank God!
I do agree with Graham though that this is no time to exalt bad behavior (waterbaording etc.). That will be as close to an olive branch that we'll ever see out of him toward Obama and his administration but he spoke the truth for once.
I hope it feels good for having done so, Mr. Graham. Our national dialog needs a bit of balance. More toward truth, reality and the real deal, not just sound bytes. This is one step in that direction from the side that needs to be moving.
Now let's watch him leap back from the positive and rush toward to the fearful and paranoid for political purposes as quick as a wink and a nod.
For every positive thing a GOP/TPer says about Obama they have to tell 10 lies or they get Primaried by the tpers.
It is a game to them not duty their country or fellow countrymen. Just a game of GREED. That was what the Afghan war was to them...a side show...until Obama decided that THERE was where our attention should be focused and then he went to work.
Sorry it sticks in the craw of the looney tune brigade but OBAMA GOT THE JOB DONE.
And YES it probably neans our withdrawal will go forward without delay. Not abrupt abandonment, that is not Obama's way. It will we a thoughtful, planned and appropriate withdrawal. Hopfully soon.
God bless our troops and our leader. Stand Tall America! Choose to be openminded positive and supportive of what is right for US All!
Good post, Missy. One adjustment I had to make when I became a Democrat was all the different positions people take and different wings of the party advocating sometimes opposite ideas. But at least I have never had the feeling that they say one thing in public to the base and something else in private that is their real thoughts. To me that is what seems to go on in the Republican party today. Cross the base and you are in big trouble---we'll see if it hits back at Senator Graham.
Steeler Fan-380417
Republicans get their base to vote very single-minded. "If there is an (R) then go for it!"
However, behind close doors, they tend to do "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" with the mega corporations such as the health insurance companies, HMOs, and pharmaceutical companies.
The War on Terror began, continues, and needs to end quickly in Afganistan. The Pakistan Government is corrupt economically, two-faced poltically, and dangerous in not taking a more consistent policy towards terror. The Bush Administration did not complete the mission in Afganistan, and did not think Bin Laden was a real threat. In fact. President Bush in 2003, during several Presidential Press Conferences made this very clear. He had made "Brainless" statements that are on the record. That is fact. Look it up America! The US should leave Iraq quickly, and troops must be moved quickly to Afganistan. To let up now would be a strategic blunder in Afganistan.
sorry libs -- but the president is a good little puppet when in comes to national security he takes his marching orders from the miltary via dick cheney.
he used info garnered through waterboarding and executed an unarmed bin laden. I'm thrilled === keep those drone attacks going too cowboy obama.
Time to go after pakistAN FOR HARBORING OSAMA
In other words this is the deal ...if you take the troops home and don't use the vendors i own stock in.... my retirements are screwed ...lets keep this Terror Terror Terror going as long as we can .. ".We rule by fear ...if they don't have fear ...we cant's control them ".....do you really think we are that stupid ?...For once we have a President who doesn't engage in the old Republican play books ...you sound so much like John McCain ...Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb IRAN ! War Mongers
This country is broke because if idiots like you ..giving billions a month all borrowed to people who hate us ....who cares if they hate us ! I would rather have Social Security and Medicare !
These old " koots " need to be voted out all of them !!!
why waste money in this GOD forsaken country ??? pull out American troops and use predator drones to kill al-qaeda members !!
It's a very complicated world. It wasn't so long ago that India wanted to lead the Third World as it was called then, and was not always in unison with us in our relations with the old USSR. Pakistan and India don't get along, and each have nuclear weapons. They share borders with China. We would rather have them in our sphere of influence than China's. There are more Americans dying in Mexico, but we "trust" them? That's why they call it foreign relations. They are all foreign to us, but we have to have relations with them.
I think it would have been more effective had Senator Graham shown up to the press conference dressed in caveman apparel.
You need to Google U. S. Foreign Aid Summary. It's a little hard to follow, but at the bottom it says that the majority of foreign aid doesn't reach its intended place or purpose, but disappears into some black hole of corruption. As I understand it foreign aid was intended to help developing countries, but Israel and Egypt get 1/3 of all foreign aid and they aren't developing countries, with Pakistan coming in at 743 million. I think it's about time to cut them off. If you want our troops out of Afghanistan go to: rethinkafghanistan.com and sign the petition. I just saw one of their leaders on TV. He wants to bring the troops home.
People, geez 1 day of unity out the flippin' window already???!!
Al Queda attacked the United States of America, over and over again. Do you REALLY think the swarmy little cave dwellers cared if the dead Americans were Republicans or Democrats??
No! But based on what I read here every day, day after day, they have accomplished, (or are accomplishing) their overall objective, Divide and Conquer.....
Many thanks and Kudos to all the brave men and women who defend our freedom so you all can through mud back and forth like a pack of petulant schoolchildren....Obama loves his country, Bush loves his country, Clinton, Bush 1, Reagan, Carter..etc....all loved their country
Everyone of this men walked away from a lucrative private life, to protect you and your neighbors, and the thanks they get regardless of how well it is, or isn't going is roughly 50% of the population thinks their President is an idiot!!
Yes the country is in a tough spot, but if you all really are that naive to think that one elected official, Caused or can Correct it by himself you are sadly mistaken....
Boy I can't wait until they analyze all those hard drives they took from Bin Laden's compound...a treasure trove of information that will have worldwide implications...regardless of who is President ....bet there are a lot of bad guys out there looking over there shoulders today and for years to come...
Great news for the USA, Now go ahead, blow me up, and make fun of me until your hardened hearts are contented......
The mission took many people from all walks of life and is a testament to Americans can do spirit.
Lindsey Graham is a GOP hack with limited knowledge of world relationships. A catastrophic blunder was Bush standing on a carrier in front of "Mission Accomplished"! Graham is not president and will never be president! He needs to shut his mouth and learn from a real president.
Most of you have no clue as to what is going on in Afghanistan. The only area that one could honestly say is under control is about 1 mile INSIDE of the exterior of Kabul.
The war lords are in full control else wheres, but not all them are Taliban supporters. There is considerable in fighting between all parties.
Therefore are troops are in a constant cross fire, some times when the shooters are not even firing on the troops, just at each other.