The Death of Osama Bin Laden Changes Nothing

[SF-TX]

I wish he were wrong, but agree with his assessment. Time will tell.

It is undoubtedly significant. Osama bin Laden was wildly popular in the Islamic world. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks Osama t-shirts, hats, and even dolls and action figures sold briskly in many Muslim countries, belying the mainstream media myth that 9/11 was the action of a tiny minority of extremists that had twisted and hijacked Islam, and were duly despised by the vast majority of Muslims. Polls all over the Islamic world always showed a healthy amount of support for bin Laden and, above all, respect for him as a pious mujahid.

But in reality, while the death of bin Laden is fine news, and is certainly a psychological blow to the jihadis and a confidence-booster for Americans, it really won't change anything.

Link

[Callsign]

I like to think most people understand the symbolic victory and look at is as achieving a goal we set out years ago.

[Pete]

....... but I feel pretty good this morning.

And I'm sure there are a few around the world that are a bit bummed out this morning - which makes me feel even better.

[tonyz]

For the next bad guy on our list - the pucker factor just increased a hundred fold - mistakes are made under pressure - and some very, very talented assets are redirecting attention and fire.

[Dusty]

Now's when they'll start poppin' dirty bombs, though.

The AQ boyz have gotta be ultra-pissed.

[dr. mabuse]

*

[jbour13]

Originally Posted by dr. mabuse

MOO, it does change things.

UBL had resources that many others don't and we still got him.

And hopefully this will stir up the hornets nest so we can bag some more.

Maybe the message is out now that even with Obama in charge, we'll still get you if you're in our cross hairs.

Good hunting.

Bear in mind that the same thing that brought him to prominence, restricted him even more as he grew bigger. Ayman Al-Zawahiri is the brains IMHO, UBL had been the financier and link to the money for quite some time. This is represented by the complete lack of audio tapes from Zawahiri at the beginning and the increase over time in his releases of media. I think that there was a difference of opinion, and they have gone their separate ways to pursue other endeavors. Of course, UBL's is now nullified.

His own courier was his undoing. If he had to resort to a physical means to have and pass information, how effective was he? I think the donors have noticed for some time that UBL was too risky to interact with, and saw it more fitting to find and support people that were more to their liking.

September 11th didn't just change things for us, it changed things for the entire AQ structure. Look at the name itself, The Base. It's an amalgamation of separate groups that are seeking a franchising opportunity, not unlike someone wanting the banner of McD's, but not being full on bought into it. You can get too big and you can lose popular support.

I do agree that this will send a message, but without proper execution of follow-up operations on successors and supporters, this will be forgotten quickly and the initiative will once again slip away.

The message should be clearly stated, they used a woman as a human shield, they were killed in a mansion, not a cave, and that they were met on our terms.

I am a bit happier this morning, but also realize there is much to be done. I hope that my brothers down range are safe and that there will be a cascading effect to this occasion.

Stay vigilant

[Stras]

The UW approach..

The best course of action is for the WH to mention that we had "insider information" as to the location of OBJ. Prior to this announcement, large sums of money are transferred to the bank accounts of #'s 4,6,10 and 21 on the AlQaida listing, and then sit back with some microwave popcorn and watch the fireworks. You don't think AQ isn't in the midst of an internal investigation to see who sold out the Boss?

The numbers above are just random numbers that I picked. probably won't improve my Lottery chances either.

So, it being almost Summer...... Where is this big dreaded Spring Offensive? gonna happen at the same time the Serbs Counter Attack in Bosnia??

Originally Posted by Stras

Prior to this announcement, large sums of money are transferred to the bank accounts of #'s 4,6,10 and 21 on the AlQaida listing, and then sit back with some microwave popcorn and watch the fireworks. You don't think AQ isn't in the midst of an internal investigation to see who sold out the Boss?

The numbers above are just random numbers that I picked. probably won't improve my Lottery chances either.

If you want to win the lottery, you've got to use the same numbers used on the show "LOST".

[akv]

Balian: What is Jerusalem worth?

Saladin: Nothing......Everything

-Kingdom of Heaven

IMO this analogy is equally applicable to ending UBL. The world remains a dangerous place, and we still have Islamist wolves to hunt down, but besides justice, ending UBL, and the circumstances involved resonate on many different levels. Folks might claim he was merely a symbol at this point, how effectively could he lead AQ isolated in a compound with only couriers for contact with the world? However he was their symbol, face of the Islamists, and AQ, and his extended survival was pitched as evidence of the limits of American power. A myth forcefully shattered by our military the other night.

America's enemies all fall into the same trap, they see our relative affluence and view us us a nation of fickle merchants who lack the resolve for armed conflict. Hitler, Tojo, Saddam, UBL, none of them thought the Americans would fight, or if they did it would be with political restrictions as endured by our troops in Korea, Vietnam, Somalia etc. Perhaps our enemies confused recent events with the lessons of history, something the Japanese learned at Tarawa, succinctly put by Marine E.B. Sledge, " There is nothing in the world as savage as an 18 year old American boy."

Included in the fallout are also the shattered myths of UBL as some hardcore, evil, genius. He was certainly evil, but he might still be alive if he was hard enough to stay in a remote cave somewhere guarded by his zealots. His choices reinforce notions he was more of an affluent financier and organizer. The compound location makes sense, with the military academy a block away and a large Pakistani military presence in the city, UBL could have got around for so long travelling in jeeps with his guards in Pakistani uniforms. But what genius would build a massive comfortable house 8 times larger than anything else around if you were the most hunted man in the world? Either way it reflects poorly on the Pakistani ISI, either they knew or they are truly that inept. UBL lived long enough to see the Jasmine revolution in the Islamic world, futher proof his ideology was anachronistic, and in the end he went out knowing America got him, ironically given the value Islamists afford women, he hid behind his wife. This was UBL, an evil, murderous, coward.

There is also Obama, the weakest President in US History, a leader our allies and enemies both mock. Yet to be fair, politics aside, if the base story is sound, he should be commended on a gutsy call. He didn't just order a drone strike, he ordered men across a sovereign border in a high risk operation. Imagine if our troops were ambushed, and both the domestic and international ramifications of failure here. Ironically, Carter who Obama is often compared too, also ordered a daring operation, also with helicopter failures, though unsuccessfully.

The culmination of these events is a message broadcast both loud and clear to the world. The American Century has just begun. We are free, powerful, and determined. If it takes regime change in Iraq, so be it, if we have to fight in the hills of Afghanistan, or order a high risk mission to bring UBL to justice for his crimes against our people nearly a decade after the fact, we are resolved to do so. This was the message demonstrated to both friend and foe, by the circumstances of ending UBL.

[ES 96]

Originally Posted by Stras

The best course of action is for the WH to mention that we had "insider information" as to the location of OBJ. Prior to this announcement, large sums of money are transferred to the bank accounts of #'s 4,6,10 and 21 on the AlQaida listing, and then sit back with some microwave popcorn and watch the fireworks. You don't think AQ isn't in the midst of an internal investigation to see who sold out the Boss?

The numbers above are just random numbers that I picked. probably won't improve my Lottery chances either.

Originally Posted by wet dog

If you want to win the lottery, you've got to use the same numbers used on the show "LOST".

I was thinking the same thing...

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, & 42

[Richard]

The world consistently fails to understand the American psyche, that we're a nation of free people and not to be trifled with, and that although we may have an incredibly long fuse...that there's a BIG bomb attached to the end of it.

OBLs death is a psychological boost for America'a resolve and sense of justice, but it has little to no real impact on the dark, fetid fen of ME politics.

Richard

[Ret10Echo]

Seems there was never really any way to "franchise" his jihad... I agree that it appeared he was out of the loop. Heck, the guy had his own prison built to house him.

Osama's death 'a good career move'?

Al-Qaeda's leader might appear to have died with a bang, but he had long since died with a whimper.

Robert Grenier

For Osama bin Laden, violent death must have come as a blessing. It has given him, at least fleetingly, a seeming prominence that in fact had long since ebbed away, not only in the Muslim world, but even within al-Qaeda itself.

Consider, then, what it must have been like for such an ego to fade into functional obscurity. As he was reduced to issuing occasional audio tapes of increasing irrelevance, even the core of the organisation he founded learned to live without him. And the scattered little groups around the globe which had appropriated the al-Qaeda name in fact had little connection to bin Laden's organisation, and still less to bin Laden himself.

Link here

[incarcerated]

Originally Posted by akv

" There is nothing in the world as savage as an 18 year old American boy."

Except, sometimes, his sister…

The Death of Osama Bin Laden Changes Nothing

It promoted Ayman al-Zawahiri to the first chair in AQ.
Had we been able to track the curriers through other parts of the organization, map it, and take down elements of the first two or three tiers of the pyramid, financiers, or other high value components, we could have had an impact well beyond the one man, as gratifying as that small score has been. Let’s hope that the hard drives and discs recovered from Abbottabad aren’t just OBL’s porn collection.
Stras, you have an evil mind.

[TruePatriotVii]

I just love how we always put it out on the news the "KEY" to what our operation was. Courier received phone call. Awesome thanks for putting that out there. Sure they may know we have the capability to do it, but don't blab that shit all over the news like Americans are the only ones going to watch it. I really can't stand the media and when stuff like this gets put out over and over again it just puts more strain on those of us that are attempting to piece together the puzzles.