Classic example of media putting the cart before the horse, Mark Halperin is dead wrong

Imagine my surprise when I saw this article and begin to read it.  Surprised because of two important facts.  Fact one was that it was written by someone whom I had very high regards for and one of the best in the business, Mark Halperin, who not only got the entire event wrong but was way off on his implication that his reporting cast no shadow on those who accomplished this feat.

I speak of Mr. Halperin’s take in his article titled Time Five Mistakes the Obama Administration Has Made in the Aftermath of Bin Laden Killing for Time.  At this time I would like to challenge Mr. Halperin on his points made in the article to include why I think he and others like him are completely off-base.  Mr. Halperin states that “no one can question the heroism of the US military, the doggedness of the intelligence community, or the cajones of the President in making the call.”   But when you micro-manage decisions made or past events you do nothing more than question those who participated.  You can not have critical questions about past events and not be implicit in questioning those behind it.  This decision had nothing to do with politics and more to do with the task assumed by those serving in these offices and the military.  Their primary and most important job is to do everything that they can to keep Americans safe including Mr. Halperin who appears to want so bad another top seller than presentation of the facts surrounding the actions.

Mr. Halperin’s number one concern was “not getting its story straight.”  While I do not doubt Mr. Halperin’s sincerity, I have to question anyone who says that the story is not straight.  Anyone who has ever been involved in a stressful and life or death battle can tell you that sometimes the story is not straight in their own minds so how are they supposed to recall the exact events in chronological order to satisfy the media.  Police officers will tell you that many times victims of a crime may not remember details until well after the event is over but I guess for Mr. Halperin and others like him that is not fast enough to meet his deadline.

His second concern was “not giving George W. Bush enough credit for helping bring bin Laden to justice.”  Maybe it was just me and maybe I was only hearing what I wanted to hear but I believe that Mr. Halperin is dead wrong here.  I believe that I heard this president mention George W. Bush and it is even more acute by the offer to travel to ground zero together.

His third was “letting the photo debate get out of control.”  Maybe Mr. Halperin should have been consulted on all these decision so as to insure that the White House get them perfect or maybe Mr. Halperin and all of the rest should just wait and not allow themselves to be controlled by a 24 hour news cycle.  The beltway media’s hunger for the photo does not outweigh the safety and protection of the public and Americans both here and abroad. 

His fourth was “letting the debate about the war in Afghanistan get out of control.”  On this I think that he may have something but because I am not privy to all of the conditions that made up the decision, I shall refrain from speculating. 

And finally his fifth concern was “letting the debate about Pakistan get out of control.”  I am not sure just how much control they have over the media that would have facilitated this desire of Mr. Halperin.  Adults spoke for themselves and media took it from there.  If memory serves, the president did mention how Pakistan had helped in the killing of bin Laden but that would probably not sold as many copies as the media would have like.  I mean this is a business right and the purpose of business is to make a profit.  There may have not been much of a profit in saying that Pakistan decided to vote present instead of going all in.