In a dramatic midnight appearance on television, he revealed that shortly after taking office, he told CIA Director Leon Panetta “to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.

“Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan. And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.”

His sobriety set the tone for the civilized way that, by and large, the American people responded to words they had waited for almost a decade to hear. Osama bin Laden had been brought to justice.

This patient man followed up with another wise decision. He refused to authorize the release of photographs and video showing  bin Laden dead with a shattered skull. in a pool of blood. I still remember, vividly and with horror, the atrocious photographs of the bullet-riddled bodies of Saddam Hussein’s sons. They gave the impression that the United States was exulting. In sharp contrast Obama said, “That’s not who we are. You know, we don’t trot out this stuff as trophies.”

Another announcement, this time from the Argentine Foreign Ministry, was particularly heartening to me. Few countries have suffered so much as Argentina from terrorism. Thousands of Argentines have lost their lives to guerrilla terrorists, state terrorists and international terrorists. Terrorism is a curse we know all too well. I once wrote that in the years leading up to and including the 1976-84 military dictatorship Argentina was a laboratory of terrorism, never imagining that the country’s Jewish community would be targeted by terrorists from the Middle East and hundreds of Argentines, Jews and none’s , would be murdered and thousands more would be wounded, physically and mentally.

The official communiqué made Argentina’s stand refreshingly clear. Télam the national news agency reported that bin Laden’s death “places international terrorism as a central issue in our society” and stressed Argentina’s “profound rejection of those who use politics or religion to perpetrate criminal actions.

“The military operation that led to the death of (the individual) responsible for so much innocent grief happens when the Arab world is seeking democratic reforms that may allow its people to live in freedom. Argentina desires that the events of the last hours do not deviate the Middle East nations from the road towards peaceful changes.

“Our society has been the victim of two attacks perpetrated by international terrorism. We reassert our unswerving decision to keep denouncing international terrorism in all forums and in all possible circumstances. We shall pursue the road of justice until all those responsible for those attacks are prosecuted with all the severity and the guarantees of law.

“The criminal actions perpetrated by Osama bin Laden are repudiated by all people who believe sincerely and profoundly in the dignity of the human condition. Once more, we express our solidarity to the victims of those actions.”

I have quoted the communiqué in full because I believe that these words can and should bridge the divide that has separated Argentina from the United States because of the needless and often baffling conflicts that arose during the presidency of George W. Bush and have, surprisingly, continued and deepened since President Obama’s inauguration, which was warmly welcomed by the Argentine people and their government.

There was a second significant action on the part of Obama almost immediately after as he took office in January 2009. He banned the use of torture by the CIA, which had been rendered verbally harmless by calling “water boarding” and other forms of torment “enhanced interrogation.” The decision was made after consultation with Panetta and Gen. David Petraeus, who was then commanding the forces in Afghanistan. Petraeus has been named to take over as head of the CIA when Panetta takes over from Robert Gates as defence secretary.

The decision to go after Bin Laden and end the use of torture sent a clear signal that Obama was adopting a new policy, which was welcomed by Petraeus, who said publicly that banning torture ‘‘sends an important message to the world, as does the commitment of the United States to observe the Geneva Convention when it comes to the treatment of detainees.”

In an article published a year after Obama took office, counterintelligence adviser John Brennan, who played a key role in the patient tracking of Osama bin Laden, was quoted in The New York Times as saying that Obama had rejected the phrase “war on terror” because the United States “is at war with al Qaeda, but not with terrorism, which, as he understands it, is a tactic, not an enemy.”

According to the Times’ report, “This president recognizes that there’s still a very serious terrorist threat that we face from organizations like al Qaeda. But at the same time, what we have to do is make sure that we’re not pouring fuel on the flames by the things that we do.”

The Times’ article noted “perhaps the biggest change Obama has made is what one former adviser calls the ‘music’ — choice of language, outreach to Muslims, rhetorical fidelity to the rule of law and a shift in tone from the all-or-nothing days of the Bush administration. He is committed to taking aggressive actions to disrupt terrorist cells, aides said, but he also considers his speech in Cairo to the Islamic world in June central to his efforts to combat terrorism.”

The success of the strike against bin Laden advances a policy that seeks and deserves allies. Argentina, with its shared history of suffering from terrorism that in terms of the number of victims has been on an even greater scale than 9/11, has a strong central reason to right a relationship that has gone amiss.

The resignation of Arturo Valenzuela may help pave the way to a better understanding between the two nations. Valenzuela, who became Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs in November 2009 following a battle over his nomination in May of that year, collided with the Kirchner administration almost from the moment took office.

Postscript: For what I believe is the most likely explanation for bin Laden’s undisturbed residence in tranquil Abbotabad use this link: