President Obama is going to ground zero. The obvious question is why, since his presence there has absolutely no practical value as it relates to anything. The answer is equally obvious -- he is trying to milk every ounce of political benefit from the killing of Osama Bin Laden and will put on a show to do it.
So he is going to ground zero, then to Engine Co. 54, who lost 15 firefighters that day and then to meet with 911 families. Think about it. If he wanted to meet with 911 families ( and which 911 families anyway? There were 3000 people killed on 911. Obama is not going to be meeting with 6-10,000 people which would represent the approximate number of family members of those killed.)to share a moment with them he could have invited whoever he will meet with today to the White House and do it privately. Instead no doubt agreeing with his political advisors he is off to New York City to do a dog and pony show for his own benefit and to take as much credit as possible to trumpet Bin Laden's death.
Its to his own benefit because it's certainly not to anyone else's. As someone living in New York City I can tell you anyone in or around where Obama is going to be is cursing his arrival. Not because its Obama but because of what any presidential visit and the accompanying security issues does to New York City traffic.
Lower Manhattan which is the heart of the financial district still has narrow streets dating back to the Revolution. Traffic there is usually snarled on any average business day. It will come to a standstill and become a traffic nightmare with Obama's visit and I can promise you no one down there is happy about it. Especially since this isn't something like addressing the United Nations or doing something that is essential to carrying out his presidential duties. It is strictly a dog and pony show that is happening for his own political benefit.
The glory for killing Bin Laden belongs to the gallantry, heroism and ability of the Navy Seals who stormed the compound and killed him. The credit for killing Bin Laden belongs to the Seals and the hundreds of people in the military and the CIA who literally worked for years to bring about this day. For Obama to go and try and bask in the fruits of other people's labor and accomplishment is about as seamy and tasteless thing as I've seen from a president. Not only that, all of this -- Obama's presence, the congressional delegation that turned out, the pomp and cirumstance all over the killing of one man, in a perverse way inadvertantly honors Bin Laden by having such ceremony, such importance, the appearance of congressional dignataries nd the news media, all for the killing of one man. In its own way it elevates Bin Laden to a status he doesnt deserve.
Far from Bin Laden's death being justice it would have been a lot better to point out that 3000 Bin Ladens wouldnt be worth a single life of those who died on 911. It wouldnt be worth the life of one of the passengers who stormed the cockpit of Flight 93, or one of the firefighters or police officers who died trying to save people that day, or one secretary, accountant or mailroom boy who died on 911. Killing one man for everything that happened on 911 and since, wasnt justice.It might have been vegeance, and welcome vegeance and retribution, and the next best thing to justice but it wasnt justice. And neither is elevating the death of Bin Laden to the stature of a state event. It makes Bin Laden, in death, too important. And certainly not worth the trouble.
For all the catastrophe he brought on this country with his disastrous presidency, George W. Bush showed a lot of class declining Obama's invitation to bask in the limelight and join him in this "celebration" of Bin Laden's death at Ground Zero. Perhaps its because he recognizes the unseemliness of it all and politicizing of it all and doesn't want to be a part of any of it. Perhaps its because he doesn't want to recall his own massive failures which allowed the 911 attacks to succeed. Or perhaps its both.
The only thing all this pomp and circumstance over Bin Laden's killing has done is elevate Bin Laden to an even larger hero status in the eyes of Al-Qaeda than he was before. A president of the United States, the entire New York contigent of congress, dignitaries,the military, the news media, all converging on Ground Zero over the killing of one man -- Bin Laden. It must have made Al-Qaeda very proud.
What Obama should have done is publicly tell the number 2 man in Al-Qaeda, "and you're next"and then everyone should have gone on with their business.
Instead Obama will take the stage,the dignitaries will applaud, he will visit with some victims families, he will visit a firehouse that suffered immense casualites on that day, the news media will try and milk it for all its worth, they will all pontificate and Obama will probably make some speech that will start with "On a beautiful cloudless day ten years ago, with the sun shinning brightly..." and and not long after people will start looking at their watches.
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