Liberals often claim that one of Obama’s great foreign policy achievements, as mentioned yet again by Slate’s Fred Kaplan, is that he “ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden.”

To analyze this claim properly, however, it’s necessary to think of the world “but-for” Obama (that is, the world in which John McCain is president), and ask what McCain would have done. The most likely answer is that McCain also would have ordered the killing of bin Laden. If bin Laden would have been killed whether or not Obama was president, then Obama can hardly take credit for bin Laden’s death. Doing what would have happened anyway is not an accomplishment, although liberals fail to comprehend this.

Kaplan also claims that Obama’s foreign policy has been “quite successful,” but Kaplan conveniently ignores a number of Obama’s failures. For example, the “reset” policy (aka appeasement) with Russia has accomplished nothing, Iran continues to develop nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them, Iraq has been abandoned, and Afghanistan most likely will be abandoned to the misogynists who will continue to oppress and enslave women. Not a peep from Kaplan about any of these other issues.