Leon Panetta crafted a memo to deflect the blame in the event the Osama bin Laden raid failed

  Using the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden as a means to show his leadership skills Barack Obama has literally traveled across the globe to let everyone who would listen know how courageous he was for making the call to kill the terrorist leader. He has not been bashful when it comes to taking credit–I ordered the attack, I acted on the intelligence, I made the tough call, I did this, I did that–but a true leader is defined by how he handles failure.

  Barack Obama doesn’t handle failure very well, hell he has blamed everything from George W Bush to earthquakes to ATM machines for his failed economic policies, but he hasn’t accepted blame for his failure on this issue–in fact he joked about shovel ready jobs nor be as shovel ready as he had expected.

  So it should come as no surprise that while Barack Obama was more than willing to take credit for Osama bin Laden’s killing he was less than enthusiastic about accepting the blame if the mission had failed, and now we have learned that Barack Obama had a memo crafted which could be used to clear him of any wrongdoing in the event that the mission went badly.

    This memo went so far as to not only shift the blame away from Dear Leader, but also lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of Navy Admiral William McRaven. It is interesting to note that Barack Obama already had his fall guy in place without knowing the details of why the mission failed; how could he possibly blame a man without knowing the circumstances behind the failure? Perhaps there would be extenuating circumstances which would have prevented the success of the mission while also exonerating Admiral McRaven, but that did not matter to Barack Obama because the only thing he was concerned with was ensuring that he wasn’t saddled with the blame.

  This is in stark contrast with  an example set by a true leader who when faced with an equally–if not more so–tough decision also drafted a letter beforehand in the event the mission he had authorized failed. Even if this mission was a success it would mean the death of thousands of Americans, but a failure would have been a catastrophe.

  In the early days of June 1944 Dwight D Eisenhower knew this and he knew that it was quite possible the mission would fail so he crafted a memo shortly before the D-Day invasion in which he stated “our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”

  Dwight D Eisenhower wrote that he made his decision based on military intelligence, the troops performed to the best of their ability, but that all responsibility for the failure rested on him alone because he is ultimately the one who made the decision. Luckily Eisenhower never had to release that memo.

  Dwight D Eisenhower did not look to shift the blame away from himself in the event that the D-Day invasion failed, he was willing to take responsibility and that alone proves that he is a true leader unlike the man currently residing in the White House.

  But there are other examples of true leadership in the midst of defeat. On July 3rd of 1863, while facing almost certain defeat, General Lee made a last ditch effort at victory when he sent General Pickett up the hill at Cemetary Ridge in an attempt to turn back the Union forces. Pickett’s Charge ended in the almost total slaughter of General Pickett’s division, but General Lee did not lay the blame for the failure at General Pickett but instead took full responsiblity for the battle plan and for the defeat at Gettysburg.

  Those are two examples of leadership which are in direct contrast to Barack Obama’s idea of leadership, because while he is willing to take credit he is not willing to take the blame for his decisions, while Eisenhower and Lee were willing to accept blame.

  Barack Obama was more concerned about his image in the event of failure than getting to the truth behind the failure, perhaps this is the reason why it took Barack Obama almost a full year to go after Osama bin Laden after his location was known, he wanted to make sure he had his bases covered in the event of a mistake.

  That is not leadership.