The Least Presidential Thing I Do

All this celebration over the death of Osama Bin Laden has really got me thinking. Is this event something we should celebrate. No doubt, it’s an important event in the history of our nation. It’s a turning point in the war on terror, but is it something to celebrate? I don’t think so. Regardless of who is the Commander in Chief when an order to kill is given, it is, in the words on President Andrew Shepard in the movie the American President, “The least Presidential thing [a President can] do.”

The background story is that an defensive weapons system had recently been installed in Israel. It had been sitting there for a while, but the Libyan Intelligence Service struck it only after the American personnel arrived to train the Israelis. After ordering a retaliatory strike on the Libyan Intelligence Headquarters, the President, who is in the middle of a fierce election campaign, is told by one of his advisors that ordering the strike was “very Presidential.” President Shepard responds as follows:

“Somewhere in Libya right now a janitor is working the night shift at Libyan Intelligence Headquarters and he’s going about doing his job because he has no idea that in about an hour he’s going to die in a massive explosion. He just going about his job because he has no idea that about an hour ago, I gave an order to have him killed. You’ve just seen me do the least Presidential thing I do.”

He’s right. The death of another human being shouldn’t bring feelings of joy to others, it should be met with sadness and solemnity. Yes, Osama Bin Laden was a horrible man whose actions lead to the deaths of thousands of people the world over, but we should not be celebrating his death. We should be celebrating, in the words of @carsonskinner, “…the fact that this man cannot harm anyone else.”