May 1, 2011: U.S. Navy SEALs conduct a raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan that kills Osama bin Laden, the leader of terrorist organization al-Qaeda.
It had been 9 years, 7 months and 21 days since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, destroying the World Trade Center in New York, and attacking the Pentagon outside Washington, killing nearly 3,000 people.
President George W. Bush promised to get justice for the victims. But he took his eyes off the prize, and turned them toward his invasion of Iraq.
When Senator Barack Obama ran for President in 2008, he made finding and killing bin Laden a priority. He won the election. It took another 2 1/2 years for America's national security apparatus to find bin Laden. It did.
Usama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden -- as close as the English alphabet comes to correctly translating his Arabic name -- was born on March 10, 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to a family heavily engaged in construction on the Arabian peninsula. From 1984 until 1990, the U.S. government, concerned with the encroachment of the Soviet Union on the Muslim world, considered bin Laden and his groups -- first the Maktab al-Khidamat, the Afghan Services Bureau; then al-Qaeda, "The Foundation" -- to be allies.
That changed in 1990, when President George H.W. Bush put U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia in preparation for the Persian Gulf War. bin Laden didn't want "unbelievers" on "holy soil," which he considered the entire Arabian Peninsula to be. By 1996, his supporters were carrying out attacks on American interests on his orders. On September 11, 2001, they carried out his most audacious plan yet.
On December 14, 2001, the President of the United States promised that bin Laden would be taken, "dead or alive, no matter how long it takes." On March 13, 2002, the President said, "I truly am not that concerned about him."
On October 7, 2008, during a Presidential debate with Senator John McCain, who had already told a campaign rally, "I know how to get bin Laden," Senator Barack Obama said, "We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al-Qaida. That has to be our biggest national security priority." On May 1, 2011, the President of the United States kept his promise.
President Obama was given the details of a plan that would kill bin Laden. He knew that if it failed, and any of the SEALs were killed, it would feel like the 1980 "Desert One" operation that not only failed to rescue the American citizens held hostage in Iran, but led to the accidental deaths of 8 American soldiers. It pretty much ended President Jimmy Carter's chances of re-election.
Obama knew that his re-election in 2012 could very well hang on the result of his decision. If the mission failed, he would get blamed. If he said don't do it, and word reached the public that there was such an idea and he turned it down, it would be a public relations nightmare.
Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- each of whom had run for the Presidency before, and would again -- said he should go for it. He went for it. It worked. bin Laden was dead, and every American who participated got out alive.
The raid happened at about 1:00 AM, local time, on May 2. But Obama announced it to America at 11:35 PM, U.S. Eastern Time, on May 1, so I'm using May 1 as the date.
Earlier, during the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, word filtered through social media to reach the crowd at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and the fans began to chant, "U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!"
There's both a prologue and an epilogue to this story. In the world of the TV show The West Wing, bin Laden and al-Qaeda were mentioned by name. But instead of al-Qaeda successfully destroying the World Trade Center, the fictional nation of Qumar had its Defense Minister, the brother of the ruling Sultan, plan to destroy the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
This plan was thwarted, but the Minister was recorded as saying he was going to try something else, as yet undetermined. So the President, Josiah "Jed" Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) approved a plan to have the Minister assassinated.
On the night of a debate in his re-election campaign, Bartlet's White House Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry (John Spencer), one of the few people who knows the truth, meets with Ali Nassir (Tony Amendola), the Qumari Ambassador to the United States, who has accused Israel of carrying out the assassination, and so Qumar has threatened Israel. He knows that the only way to clear Israel is for the President to admit the truth, and he tells Leo that the President is afraid to do so, because it might cost him the election.
Leo laughs at this, and says, "To sweep all 50 States, the President would only have to do two things: Blow the Sultan's brains out in the middle of Times Square, and then walk across the street to Nathan's and buy a hot dog!" In other words, the hot dog would be unnecessary. Qumar dropped its threat, the assassination remained a secret, and Bartlet won in a landslide. It did not remain a secret for much longer, with serious personal consequences for Bartlet.
Obama killed bin Laden about a year and a half before he had to face the voters. And when Election Day came, the country's casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan had slowed to a trickle, the economy was doing well, and he had no scandal. And yet, Obama won just 26 States. Of the 24 States he lost, only 1 (North Carolina) was close; in the rest, he got an average of less than 39 percent.
Some States just wouldn't vote for a Democrat, especially a black one, no matter what he'd done. Even if he had personally pulled the trigger and killed bin Laden, they wouldn't have voted for him. So The West Wing's creator, Aaron Sorkin, and his co-writer for the episode, Paul Redford, were wrong.
*
May 1, 2011 was, as I said, a Sunday. There was a full slate of MLB games that day:
* In that ESPN Sunday night game, the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1. Ronny Paulino won it with an RBI double in the top of the 14th inning.
* The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-2 at the new Yankee Stadium. Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson hit home runs, and Iván Nova was the winning pitcher.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-2 at Fenway Park In Boston.
* The Washington Nationals beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-2 at Nationals Park in Washington.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5 at Turner Field in Atlanta.
* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 6-5 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-4 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
* The Florida Marlins beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-5 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-4 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 10-3 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
* The Houston Astros beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-0 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Colorado Rockies, 8-4 at Coors Field in Denver.
* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Chase Field in Phoenix.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 7-2 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Overstock Coliseum).
There were 2 NBA Playoff games played on that day:
* The Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics, 99-90 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Dwyane Wade scored 38 points.
* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 114-101 at what's now named the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. Zach Randolph scored 34 for Memphis, Kevin Durant 33 for OKC.
There were 2 Stanley Cup Playoff games played on that day:
* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Washington Capitals, 3-2 at what's now named the Capital One Arena in Washington. Vincent Lecavalier scores the winning goal, 6:19 into overtime.
* The San Jose Sharks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at what's now named the SAP Center in San Jose.
Also, Arsenal beat Manchester United, 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium in North London, on a 56th minute goal by Aaron Ramsey. This was part of a pattern: When Ramsey scored, famous people died within a day or two. Some could be explained by already being sick, as with Ted Kennedy, Stephen Hawking, Steve Jobs, David Bowie and Roger Moore. But that didn't cover Whitney Houston, Paul Walker and Robin Williams.
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