Obama deserves far more credit for his own ‘raid on Entebbe’

Nothing tests the mettle of an American president more than being forced to make the supremely consequential decision to send America’s sons and daughters into harm’s way.  

Like his recent predecessors, President Trump has been forced to confront that complicated choice in some relatively small engagements, thus far. But more perilous decision points loom ominously just around the corner.

{mosads}Should the U.S. maintain or end the U.S. presence in Syria and Iraq? And what, if anything, demands an attack order that most assuredly results in all-out war with North Korea?

As commander-in-chief, a president’s military decisions always have grave consequences. So, with this in mind, let’s revisit one such decision that ominously faced Trump’s predecessor.

In pitch-black darkness of the early morning hours on May 2, 2011, U.S. Navy SEAL commandos conducted a daring raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. During the operation, they successfully located and killed the 9/11 mastermind — the world’s most notorious terrorist — Osama bin Laden.

In the immediate aftermath of President Obama’s announcement of the raid’s success, critics immediately accused him of “spiking the football” and being a glory hog; even going so far as to disingenuously characterize the number of times he used the word “I.”

Democratic presidents often struggle to achieve popularity amongst the Military, and according to a December of 2014 Military Times poll, Obama’s favorability amongst active duty service members stood at a dismal 15 percent percent.

But does this somewhat expected harsh critique of a dovish president fairly credit the gutsy call he made in May of 2011? And after all, this is the same Obama who had no problem employing drones to deadly effect in removing terrorists from locales in the Middle East. For this, he endured withering criticism from the left.

In order to make the final call on the Abbottabad raid, Obama was given several courses of action to consider by his National Security Council (NSC). These included the raid, as well as ones involving less risky missile strikes on the compound.

Missile strikes are more sterile. They don’t involve putting “boots on the ground” on another nation’s sovereign soil, and they reduce dramatically the risk of U.S. casualties — not to mention the propaganda score inherent in capturing U.S. troops or shooting down low-flying rotary-wing aircraft like the stealth Black Hawk helicopters that transported the SEALs. But targeted strikes also leave questions as to whether the target was successfully fixed and killed. And they leave out options to collect actionable intelligence in their wakes.

So, the raid was a damn courageous call. And Obama even helped shape the tactical plan by requesting tweaks to ensure a better “fight your way out” capability. Seems much less daring and risky with 20/20 hindsight that ensures we know the outcome — one that highlights the efficiency and effectiveness of America’s special operations forces.

But there are no guarantees of success in the business of the hunting of armed men; especially when those men are secreted inside a dusty, primitive compound some 7,000 miles from the U.S. Capitol.

I recently stumbled upon an apt comparison between Obama’s courageous decision to unleash the SEALs to kill bin Laden and a similar brave decision made by former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in July of 1976.

While Americans were celebrating their bicentennial, Rabin made the call to greenlight a commando raid on German and Palestinian terrorists who were holding hijacked airliner passengers in an airport terminal just off the tarmac in Entebbe, Uganda. 102 of the 106 hostages were safely rescued.   

I revisited the story recently when my wife and I took in “7 Days in Entebbe,” a modern celluloid treatment of the iconic raid that resulted in the deaths of all seven hostage-takers, with only a single commando casualty, current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother, Yonatan, one of the team leaders.

And while stylistically-speaking I much preferred the 1976 television movie, “Raid on Entebbe,” the current version chronicling the dramatic events over seven nerve-wracking days inside of Rabin’s cabinet wonderfully illustrated the heated political and tactical resolution debates that led up to the final decision to launch. Future Prime Minister Shimon Peres served as Rabin’s Minister of Defense and was instrumental in laying out the military options available to the prime minister.

Strong leaders surround themselves with what Doris Kearns Goodwin has famously termed a “team of rivals.” And that is how she described those surrounding President Abraham Lincoln. Rabin’s robust debates with Peres are emblematic of Lincoln’s lively tête-à-têtes with his individual cabinet members.

And it’s also how President Obama carefully considered his options in Abbottabad — discussing privately with senior-level members of his NSC team and the vice president. Joe Biden has only been too happy to relate the story about how he attempted to convince the president to adopt a less risky option, but was ultimately overruled.

That’s confident and courageous leadership for you. And Barack Obama deserves far more credit for having made the ultimate decision while sitting in a position whereby being cautious and risk-averse is often the default standard.

I have been a frequent critic of the 44th president’s policies. And Obama certainly hasn’t been hurting for sympathetic cheerleaders in the mainstream press. But in this instance, I think the president deserves far more credit than he has been afforded.

Barack Obama’s decision to send counterterrorist operators into Osama bin Laden’s lair on foreign soil is every bit the equal of Rabin’s heralded decision to conduct that raid in Entebbe.

That iconic photo of Obama hunched over in the White House Situation Room, while watching the satellite feed of the actions on the ground inside the compound says it all — the nervous anticipation of the outcome, the grave consequences of failure, and the potential second-guessing of his decision to launch SEAL Team Six.

We now know he made the right call.

It’s simply time we gave the former president his due for his own “raid on Entebbe.”

James A. Gagliano is a CNN law enforcement analyst and retired FBI supervisory special agent. He also serves as an adjunct assistant professor at St. John’s University and is a leadership consultant at the Thayer Leader Development Group (TLDG) at his alma mater, the United States Military Academy at West Point. Follow him on Twitter @JamesAGagliano.