Killing bin Laden: What would Mitt Romney have done?

Romney is hitting back at President Obama, saying even Jimmy Carter would have ordered the deadly raid on the terrorist mastermind. But what about Romney?

"Of course" I would have ordered the deadly raid on Osama bin Laden, Mitt Romney said this week. "Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order."
(Image credit: Christy Bowe/Corbis)

After days of President Obama's re-election campaign questioning whether Mitt Romney would have ordered the daring Navy SEAL raid inside Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden a year ago, Romney finally gave his answer: "Of course," he told a reporter in New Hampshire. "Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order." Of course, Obama's allies aren't exactly persuaded, pointing to statements from 2007-08 in which Romney disagreed with Obama's pledge to strike high-value terrorist targets inside Pakistan, saying it's "not worth moving heaven and earth" to capture bin Laden. If Romney were in charge last year, would he have taken out bin Laden?

Any president would have sent in the SEALs: We know for a fact that Jimmy Carter did order a similar raid, sending Marines to rescue hostages in Iran, says Allahpundit at Hot Air. And Carter, Romney, or any other president would have made the same call Obama did with bin Laden. In counterterrorism, "it's easier for a president to err on the side of aggression than passivity." If Obama had punted and the press found out, he would have been toast. And as for Romney's past statements: In 2007, Pakistan was an ally; in 2011, not so much.

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