With Obama and without Osama

Barack Obama went all in. If the operation to capture and kill Osama bin Laden had gone badly, today his presidency would be hanging by a thread. But in politics — and life — there are no what ifs, and Obama, without Osama, is recovering his popularity.

The world waited nearly a decade for the news that bin Laden was dead. This is what we have learned:

— Presidential popularity: With bin Laden dead, the president can once again display the magic touch that characterized him during the presidential campaign.

— Obama did in two years what George W. Bush could not do in eight. No one will be able to criticize him for being weak on national security matters.

— Successes and failures of the communication media: Obama’s televised speech to the nation to announce bin Laden’s death, broadcast near midnight Saturday May 1, was seen by some 56 million people. It turned out to be the most widely seen presidential speech in a decade.

Ironically, bin Laden’s death, a very important event for the news media, ended up also sounding the death knell of the print media. A Pakistani Twitterer, Sohaib Athar, was the first to announce the U.S. raid against the leader of al-Qaida to the world, and the news spread from there on. The traditional newspapers did not react with sufficient speed. Inexcusably, the editions of the New York Times and El País (from Spain) that I received Monday did not include anything about bin Laden’s death. They could not correct their issues within six hours. This is why the dailies are disappearing.

As for legality: Killing bin Laden was an act that only had symbolic value, although this value was tremendous.

The mission was not in strict accordance with the law. In December 2001, I was in the mountains of Tora Bora, in Afghanistan, when U.S. troops had bin Laden surrounded. But somehow he was able to escape and many years passed before the U.S. military was once again able to track him down. It is very likely that the information regarding bin Laden’s courier (who unintentionally led the U.S. to the compound in Abottabad where he was hidden) was obtained through torture. We know that since 9/11, various prisoners held by the U.S. Army were subjected to an “interrogation technique” called water-boarding. This method, authorized by the Bush administration, but classified as torture by Obama after being elected president in 2008, perhaps revealed the first signs of bin Laden’s whereabouts.

Legal or not, the information obtained was used.

The clandestine raid to kill or capture bin Laden — 79 North American soldiers from Navy Seal Team 6 — was initiated without the knowledge of the Pakistani government. There is a precedent for this. During Operation “Fast and Furious” — carried out by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in 2009 — federal agents permitted the entry of nearly 2,000 illegal firearms into Mexico from the United States with the intention of later following their trail to the drug lords — without notifying the administration of Felipe Calderon.

Conclusion: When the United States believes its national security is at stake, it will not ask permission to leap borders and jurisdictions.

Immigration reform: Beyond the deaths in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, bin Laden changed all of our lives, and most of all, those of immigrants to the United States.

Days before the 9/11 attacks, presidents Bush and Vicente Fox committed to negotiating an immigration agreement between the United States and Mexico. But the tragedy of that day brought an abrupt end to the commitment and made life impossible for immigrants. The actions of 19 foreign terrorists changed the direction of the immigration debate, engendered a sentiment of rejection towards the recently arrived, and to this day have prevented the legalization of 11 million undocumented immigrants. Fear of another terrorist attack has been unjustly converted into wide suspicion of immigrants in general.

There is a long way to go to rebuild and recover. But Barack Obama, with a bold and lucky decision, has restored the United States to that almost infantile certainty that justice, sooner or later, will be done.

Obama was right when he said at ground zero in New York, “When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say.”