News | Dec 11, 2020 06:00 AM EST

Barack Obama Reveals Toughest Decision He Made as US President

By Alexandria Kim

Former U.S. President Barack Obama opened up about one of the toughest decisions he made during his presidency.

From 2009 to 2017, Obama served the country as the 44th president of the United States. During his stint, he faced one of the most challenging problems in the U.S. and had trouble deciding.

In his recent lengthy blog post on Medium, he recalled how he dealt with hard-hitting decisions in his life.

According to the first African-American president, everyone's choice display and determine who they are.

Obama then followed it with a series of recollections, from his signing of the Affordable Care Act into law to meeting the Emperor of Japan.

While he already made difficult choices during the earliest years of his public service, the hardest one came when he decided on something related to Osama bin Laden.

"Everything I learned about making impossible decisions during the first two years of my presidency culminated in one of the toughest choices I had to make: whether to authorize the raid to take out Osama bin Laden," he penned.

Per Obama, the operation was full of risks that could put his team's lives on the line. Because of this, creating a decision caused him to study the process even more.

In the end, the former POTUS trusted the team and accepted all the helpful suggestions in his office.

Although the outcome was blurry at that time, he finally managed to make a confident decision when he gave himself space to think carefully.

Bin Laden was the infamous leader of the Islamist militant group, al-Qaeda. Obama ordered a top-secret operation called Operation Neptune Spear that led to his killing on May 2, 2011.

Barack Obama on Facing Difficult Situations

After opening up about his team's journey in taking down Bin Laden, Obama went on to think how several complex situations he went through seemed to be remarkable.

He added that these complexities he needed to take on when he was in the Oval Office were part of his job as the U.S. president.

Despite going through the toughest battle, he said that he understood that he needed to do it.

Meanwhile, he also applauded Americans who have been making countless decisions on a daily basis, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're constantly assessing how to act and what to do, carefully weighing the safety of each choice. It can be exhausting," he continued.

In the end, he left an inspiring note on how finding a framework is the ideal way that can help people think carefully about their choices.

Elsewhere on his post, Obama thanked his mother for her contribution in every decision he makes.

Supporters Applaud Obama's Milestone as then-POTUS

On December 9, Obama shared the link of his blog post on his Twitter account.

As of press time, it has over 25,000 likes and 2,500 retweets. At the same time, people took their time to let him know that he did a great job as then-president in approaching things.

One supporter said, "One of the most human presidents ever..A childfriendly president can only be like this..Even able to influence and to sooth my inner child from a very far for so many years already."

"Thanks for sharing this. Remarkable how a descision process of a world leader is so vulnerable: dependent on facts, expert advice, multiple sources, but ultimately very personal," another one said.