Mission successful
Americans should be united in satisfaction and relief that Abu Bakr alBaghdadi was killed in a commando raid in northwestern Syria on Sunday. They can be grateful for the valor and professionalism of the U.S. special forces who executed the mission, the role of the CIA, the support of allies and — indeed — the decision by President Trump to authorize the daring raid.
“The world is now a much safer place,” Trump declared, and that bottom line is indisputable.
After all, Baghdadi had been the target of a global manhunt since 2014 when his Islamic State claimed a portion of Iraq and Syria with designs of a caliphate. But recent history has shown that “mission successful” — as this clearly was — is not the same, ultimately, as “mission accomplished.” The jihadist movement did not go away with the American strikes that killed Abu Musab AlZarqawi in 2006 or Osama bin Laden in 2011.
Trump, ever insecure about comparisons with President Barack Obama, boasted that this mission was greater than the killing of bin Laden.
“This is the biggest there is,” Trump said, adding, “This is a man who built a whole, as he would like to call it, a country.”
Trump’s touches of hyperbole and gratuitous detail were unpresidential and wholly unnecessary. The commander in chief would have received abundant credit even if he had delivered the news in restrained dignity. But he could not help himself.
The president described Baghdadi being chased by military dogs, with three children in tow, “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way” before detonating his suicide vest. Trump said the terrorist “died like a dog” and “died like a coward.”
Trump also raised eyebrows in acknowledging that he gave a heads up to the Russians about the impending mission but did not inform top Democratic leaders in advance. His suggestion that alerting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others might put American lives at risk was flatout insulting, whether rooted in paranoia or partisanship.
“I wanted to make sure this kept secret,” he said. “I don’t want to have men lost, and women.”
He admitted, however, that he did inform two GOP senators in advance.
It was a sad commentary on the state of politics that partisanship infected what should have been a day of unmitigated appreciation of a president making a a tough call and our troops answering it with distinction.