Crisis Communication: After bin Laden's Death, a Missed Opportunity? An Opinion Piece by Jason Recher & Doug McMarlin

What follows is an opinion piece from APB speakers Jason Recher & Doug McMarlin, conservative political strategists and former White House Aides to President George W. Bush, explaining their reaction to the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden.

The capture and death of Osama bin Laden provided President Obama with a bullhorn moment. However, it resulted in a missed opportunity to pull the nation together. There were too many entities having too little information and speculating on aspects of the operation about which they were not accurately informed. The end result was a muddied stream of information that continues to raise questions and speculation.

The communication strategy lacked a concise and unified thread that connected to the larger Global War on Terror and, most importantly, the individual aspects that spoke to the personal chapters that have played out in our lives for over a decade. The strategy ignored the thousands of brave individuals who were murdered by the despicable actions of an individual and his organization and focused too closely on the decisions of a single person that accomplished what our country has for so long needed to achieve. The critical failure in the message was the inability to form the larger picture and tie it to the national recollection.

The result of the military action was an unmitigated success and achieved an unfinished and required goal. It justified those that gave their lives so that America would remain free of terror, but fell flat conveying to the world the anguish and personal hardship that created the lost American generation.

The connection to brave souls like flight attendant Betty Ong, whose steady voice in the last minutes of her life brought a nation firsthand to the final minutes of our innocence, began the story that will never be finished. She gave us, in those final words, the ability to avenge the tragedy that befell a nation. The death of bin Laden closes one chapter, but in no means ends the story of that tragic day.

The opportunity to connect was squandered by the failure to specifically encapsulate the enormity of what had occurred and tap into the national psyche and lead, not only through strength, but through the emotional patriotism that binds us all. These feelings have lived though the initial destruction, ongoing wars, and will always continue. The rare opportunity to place a period at the end of a tragic story on a clear September morning was missed through a lack of crisis and communication management.

The thousands murdered and the millions affected were owed more than what was put forth as a military operation. Our nation's leadership and military accomplished an extraordinary feat ten years in the making. Preempting news television, re-staging remarks, and failing to grasp the full spectrum of impact demonstrated a lack of national communication that must be present with issues of this magnitude.

Do you agree with Recher and McMarlin's analysis about a "lack of communication" post Osama's death? We welcome your comments below. To learn more about Recher & McMarlin, visit their speaker page.