Waving the Bloody Shirt

To hear vice president Joe Biden tell it, Barack Obama is our most courageous president since George Washington exposed himself to British fire during the Battle of Monmouth. In making the decision to send the Seals to kill Osama bin Laden, he presumably demonstrated a degree of bravery above and beyond the call of duty.

In addition, his valor in achieving this success is said to underline the courage he has exhibited during his entire presidency. After all, he was equally heroic in fighting for ObamaCare, in the initiating the stimulus package, and in defending the Tarp bailout. Moreover, so valiant has he been that it is the duty of every American to reelect him.

All of this, of course, ignores the courage shown by earlier presidents. It disregards George W. Bush’s daring in launching the Iraqi surge despite warnings it would fail; it discounts Ronald Reagan’s audacity in utilizing a recession to wring inflation out of our economy, and it overlooks John Kennedy’ steady nerves in facing down the Russians during the Cuban missile crisis.

While it is true that Obama deserves credit for taking out the man most responsible for al Qaeda, how much praise has he earned? There was indeed a chance the raid would explode and he would look as bad as Jimmy Carter did when the attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages failed. There was also that possibility he would incur the ire of the Pakistanis—with dire consequences.

Nevertheless, what were his alternatives? Rather than a commando raid, he could have ordered the bombing of Osama’s compound. In this case, there were two possibilities. Either he killed our number one enemy, or he did not. If the former, Osama would have been just as dead. If the latter, failure was always on the table.

In either scenario, the Pakistanis were liable to be dismayed by our violating their territory. Therefore this did not distinguish the two attack options. The only real difference was that the Seal operation could capture useful documents—which it did. This, it must be admitted, was of real value.

Or, alternatively, the president could have decided to do nothing. But was this a real option? Given the way government secrets leak, this decision would surely have become public knowledge. And if it did, what would have been the reaction? No doubt the man who boasted that he would follow Usama into any cave in order to get him would have looked like a world-class hypocrite.

Furthermore, the chances of failure were nowhere near as great as during the Carter fiasco. We must keep in mind that the distances were not as great and that there were no hostages to extract. This meant that the odds appearing incompetent were drastically reduced.

In any event, the Republicans were appropriately gracious in acknowledging Obama’s success. Despite this many Democrats seem determined to take advantage of their courtesy. Yet the president’s accomplishment should not be elevated to the equivalent of storming the beaches of Normandy. What the president did was sensible, but there was little else he could have done. Yes, pulling the trigger took courage, but not very much.

So why the great ballyhooing of his triumph? The answer can be found in the wake of the Civil War. For decades after the guns fell silent when Republican candidates were in trouble, they “waved the bloody shirt.” In this, they sought to remind voters of their valor in winning that conflict. They needed to be elected this time because of what they did then.

Obama’s partisans are now waving their own bloody shirt. They too want their man to be perceived as usually courageous. The trouble is there is precious little blood on the garment they are waving. Once people take a closer look at it, they may realize it is more theater than substance.

Americans have notoriously short memories. They are also easily diverted. But will they forget that ObamaCare was foisted on the nation in the dark of night. Or will they be seduced into believing the Democratic stimulus package “saved or created” three million jobs when their own pockets are empty? Or realize that the president has no proposals from saving the nation from bankruptcy?

Time will tell.

Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University