Indeed, I've already seen talking heads opining that "We've done all we can in Afghanistan and we should immediately withdraw forces." One such "expert" suggested that POTUS's very next action should be to announce the withdrawal of US troops. Seriously, where do the news orgs find the people?

I'd be extremely wary of any videos purporting to show the op in progress. Maybe I'm idealistic, but I would expect that the video would be closely held for some period of time. If released, wouldn't it be done over mainstream media? Of course it will take almost superhuman will power on my part to overcome the urge to watch it.

I don't know, it makes some sense to me. We (America) take the high moral ground by showing (undue) respect for our enemy while simultaneously robbing his supporters of the opportunity to visit his grave. It also solves the logistical problem of determining where to bury his body.

Well said, Reaper. Getting Bin Laden was a phenomenal success, but in the grand scheme of things, at this point his elimination is more symbolic. Al Queda and other Islamists are still active. I'm troubled by those already suggesting that this is a death blow to Islamic terrorists.

DG--

Nice post!:lifter

With respect, I do differ with you on your comment that killing Bin Laden is "more symbolic" for the following reason.

IMO, in the early years of GWOT, the United States made a handful of painful strategic miscues. One of these mistakes was identifying the capture or killing of Bin Laden as a strategic objective. As long as he remained on the prowl, the entire world could argue that America was failing to achieve its goals. Now, with Bin Laden dead, that argument is off the table.

My $0.02.

Yer killin' me!:D:D:D

Kinda scratchin' my head at some of this.
The whole event is potentially politically convenient for both the US and Pakistan...should forces be withdrawn.

The US gets to declare victory.
Pakistan gets "street cred" for their hospitality towards UBL.

This leaves Pakistan better able to withstand internal political challenges.
Kinda important for a nuclear-armed nation.

<shrug>
Probably just conspiracy theory fodder.

The Brenner news conference put forth the idea that this was a kill (but capture if that somehow works out) kind of mission; as opposed to a capture (but kill if you have to) kind of mission. Brenner stated that this was done to lessen the danger of the assault team, whichs makes sense. Is this a real distinction made in the goals of missions? Or are these things just too fast and confusing to realistically attempt the latter type of objective.

Try it and find out. End of discussion. Richard

Many thanks to all service members for this achievement, we're one step closer.


The news was just talking about starting a withdraw process from Afghanistan, is it a good time or no? I dont feel like we are close to being done to be honest.

And I think it was probably snapped just a couple seconds after they all put ther bowls of Orville Redenbacher under the table, out of view! :D

Thanks Sigaba, and I absolutely agree with you. I meant "symbolic" only as it applies to halting terrorism (similar, I suppose, the killing of Pablo Escobar, while an important event in the war on drugs, was symbolic in that the drug trade continues). Symbolism aside, the fact that we killed Bin Laden (and I might add, in Hollywood-like fashion) sends a strong message to our enemies.

I'm not buying any of the "political" theories for the simple reason that they all imply that we've known along where Bin Laden was and we could get him at any time, but the Administration simply waited for maximum political gain.

God knows I'm no supporter of the President, but credit must be given where due. Selecting a spec ops raid over bombing, and giving the go ahead showed leadership, and more importantly showed that Obama is very capable of making tough military decisions. Ugh. I feel so dirty saying that, I have to take a very long shower with Lava soap.

True. From the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/wo....html?emc=eta1

The President and others were apparently linked to Leon Panetta who was giving them real-time info. It appears that they were not watching the action, let alone that they had any hand in conducting the actual raid.

Then again, he might have done it to try and save his ass in the polls. A la the birth certificate.

Don't get all teary-eyed about this shit, dude. It ain't like he pulled the fucking trigger any more than he did on those three pirates.

You're talking about the guy who promised to close Gitmo as a tenet for election. If it weren't for Gitmo, he wouldn't have even got a chance to go all High Noon on bin Laden.

And, that's providing the incident wasn't staged...:munchin

Liberal Obama-worshipper say shit like that all the time.