I’ve been reading a lot of right-wing reactions to Osama bin Laden’s death, and most of them make sure to mention that this wasn’t solely Obama’s victory. “Bush helped too!” is the common refrain.

I don’t want to downplay former President Bush’s desire to capture OBL, which I’m sure was insatiable, but you have to remember what a huge waste of time Iraq was. Thankfully, The Guardian helps us out:

The American effort faced other problems too. Crucial assets such as surveillance drones and personnel – some of whom had spent 18 months learning the ground – had been diverted to Iraq. “By April, May 2002, we began losing people to the groups that were preparing for the Iraq war,” said Scheuer, who after heading the CIA’s Bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999 was its chief adviser from 2001 to 2004. “We were losing Arabic speakers. Very experienced people.”

The US military’s elite commando unit, Delta Force, had been transferred out of Afghanistan. So too had the 5th Special Forces Group, which included the best linguists, and was replaced in Afghanistan by a unit largely composed of Spanish speakers with mostly Latin American experience. The CIA case officers with tribal contacts were rotated out. The result was that “we ended up with the best and the brightest chasing the wrong man in the wrong desert,” said former senior CIA officer Riedel

This was Bush’s prominent role. Starting a misguided, wasteful, and distracting war. All it took was a realignment of priorities, better intelligence cooperation, and some diligent field work to finally bring OBL down. And that’s what Obama brought.