UPDATE- Bin Laden is Dead-President spoke

[Melanie]

Here's a thought. How about a still shot from the helmet cams of him right before the was shot? I mean it wouldn't prove that he was shot and killed - but it would prove it was him. We all know how the story ended so why do we have to see his face all shot up? They have video of that entire raid and I'm sure there would be some way to get a screen shot of him without identifying anyone else - I mean we've already seen the room he was shot in and the compound is known worldwide now - so what would be the big deal? I think that would do more to prove it was him than some gruesome pic of him afterward.

Nice idea. And with all the horror movies I've glanced at, I think I'm capable of handling it. It wouldn't be pleasant, but nothing most of us haven't seen before.

Hugs,

Mel

 

[Trino]

Sorta like the "President" living in the white house while many of our citizens live in ghettos, public housing, or in homes in suburbia being foreclosed?

Like all other Presidents, Obama lives in the White House, which, of course, is a mansion. However, our Presidents are doing it in a public manner. I assume Queen Elizabeth (and relatives) are living a much more extravant lifestyle.

 

[Trident]

And thanks to our military - we got the man behind much of the fear.

Quite frankly I was never afraid of Osama bin laden. I am more afraid of our own government and some of our allies than I am about the terrorist threats from the middle east.

But, that's just me who reads and studies a lot - one of my favorite books is, "My Pet Goat".

 

[Trident]

Like all other Presidents, Obama lives in the White House, which, of course, is a mansion. However, our Presidents are doing it in a public manner. I assume Queen Elizabeth (and relatives) are living a much more extravant lifestyle.

First off, what is the "public manner" you are referring to? Do you mean we, the taxpayers, are SUPPORTING his lifestyle, which costs more for a dinner than most of us make in a year, with our tax dollars?

As for Queen Elizabeth and sundry relatives, what do THEY have to do with it? From what I've read, way back when, the best fighters won the land, declared themselves kings by the will of God and lived off the backs of the less fortunate forever more - How was SH or Osama's manner of living any better or worse?

Always remember, and never forget, history is writ by the winners.

My opinion only

 

[Kimberlyd125]

Um, okay. It only took nearly 10 YEARS to kill the "mastermind" of 9/11. How is that progress?

LOOK at how what happened on 9/11 changed our lives forever.

And we have been much safer since.
You think OBL's death is the only progress we have made?

We learned a lot on 9/11.

We are making progress.

 

[Linda7NJ]

Why are we always so friggin' special we can't even stop and consider the views of the international community?

After all, other countries have been the targets of far more Al Quaeda attacks than we have; and, between terrorist attacks and "collateral damage" from our counterterrorism efforts, have lost hundreds of times as many people killed as we have.

Isn't it possible somebody out there has a little perspective from which we might learn something?

exceptional post, thanks just wasn't enough

 

[Wise Old Owl]

New update:

Per FOX National and Jennifer Griffin - Pentagon reporter

Bin Laden was found fully clothed. He had 500 Euros (approx. $1,000. USD) sewn into his clothes and also 2 phone numbers.

CIA believes he was ready to run in the face of a raid


Interesting - those 2 phone numbers........... Also, I think this clearly shows he had contacts on the outside that would definitely warn him if we were coming.

 

[mankato64]

http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/5lio

 

[Boytwnmom]

I find that highly offensive. Some people can never stop hating this guy. The crowds were primarily young people who grew up in the shadow of war and terrorism beginning when 9/11 interrupted their school day. OBL was their dragon, their demon, he was named the one responsible and now he had been slain. Human emotion not shills.

The celebration in the streets was distasteful to me because it reminded me of similar street celebrations in the Gaza strip and elsewhere in the middle east where they chant things like 'down with the USA', burn our flag and such. Just seemed we could be glad that the man was taken out, but act in a more restrained manner.

Also, my cynical side wondered if these celebrations indeed erupted spontaneously or where, perhaps, helped along by shills from the Obama White House.

 

[Boytwnmom]

I don't see the whole nation celebrating wildly. Most people I saw interviewed said they felt relief, were glad but didn't feel right celebrating a death etc. The celebrants I saw were mostly young people who were assaulted by 9/11 in the midst of their school day and who grew up with OBL as some larger than life demon responsible for terror and war and death and fear. These kids were indulging in normal human emotion and I cut them a lot of slack. I'm glad I was an adult when 9/11 happened and I can address all this soberly and seriously. But I can't demand a complete Dukakis from everyone. I also find a lot of false equivalence here equating Palestinians celebrating after 9/11 with the US celebrating the death of OBL. One group was celebrating the death of innocents and one the death of a mass murderer-to me not at all the same. OBL choose a life of violence and death and our gutsy President and brave SEALS ended his reign of terror.

I also see the long term benefits of the death of this one man. Obama now has more room to maneuver to end the current wars. The Arab spring is choosing democracy over radical Islam. All things may work to reduce deaths overall.

While the killing of Osama bin Laden is being enthusiastically celebrated throughout America and parts of the world, to say that such merriment is out of order will surely be considered heresy. Nonetheless, I'm saying it -- because it needs to be said. What I am tempted to say is this: Get a grip, celebrators. Have you so little decency?

I do understand how those who have suffered from the events of 9/11 may feel relieved, even happy, to have "closure" after 10 years of waiting for "justice to be done" -- and I don't quarrel with such feelings. Closure is a natural yearning and can certainly help people move on from serious trauma. And feelings are feelings. If you feel joyful, you feel joyful.

But celebration is not in order, no matter what your feelings of elation. Here's why...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-gerloff/the-psychology-of-revenge_b_856184.html

 

[Boytwnmom]

to make it through the two buildings and several floors. I believe OBL was on the third floor of the second building. They had to methodically move through and clear floor by floor. They hardly knew how many people would be there. In fact, they didn't even know if it really was OBL's mansion at that time-they just hoped and believed it was but it was not a sure thing.

I'm watching Shep on FOX - he just had a Pentagon reporter (Jane something or other) and there are new details about the raid.

There were at least 10 people in the room when the Seals shot OBL. Some of those were small children. OBL was not armed - it seems he was reaching for a weapon when they shot him.

Now - here's something "unusual". She said there were only 4 adult males in the compound when this raid went down - the two brothers (couriers) OBL's son, and OBL. Ok - so he didn't have any guards. BUT, then she said the firefight lasted approx 20 minutes. HUH? Wait - back up. We had 24 Navy Seals on the ground and there were only 4 adult males in the compound - so how in the world could a firefight have lasted 20 minutes? That - at least to me - is "unusual" - wouldn't ya say?

 

[Boytwnmom]

to offend? Do we desecrate the bodies of people we execute? No. Once the guy is dead we accomplished what we needed to do. What would we gain by being callous afterwards? I think that would be stupid. We made sure we took the body and placed it where there could be no shrine. We acted coolly and responsibly. Just like we treat war prisoners with decency after we capture them even though they were trying to kill us. I'm glad the President is a grown-up and doesn't need to be gratuitously base.

It sounds like this photo is especially gruesome, with most of the left side of his head blown off. It isn't just gunshot wounds. It would probably have to be a black and white photo at the very least to be published anywhere.

But I also agree with those who say the President is afraid of offending Muslims. He went out of his way to bury Osama according to their traditions, after all. (Most of them likely could have cared less what we did with OBL.)

 

[Nova]

Indeed. But I would never put you down for your position, call you ignorant, or anything like that.

If others, of any nationality, do not wish to express relief at the elimination of a monster like Osama then I will not denigrate them for their feelings.

I see no reason for them to denigrate me, or those who feel as I do, for our feelings. But they do.

I'm not sure whom you mean by "they" in this case. Personally, I think the general sense of relief is entirely appropriate.

I even find the urge to celebrate perfectly understandable; I just think it's one of those urges we should try to resist.

 

[Nova]

Not really. We're not even the biggest....

Thanks, adnoid. I confused money spent with size.

Of course, size of armed forces doesn't mean much anymore since we now use hired contractors to perform all sorts of functions that were previously performed by soldiers and sailors.

And numbers of men and women in uniform doesn't mean much in an era when wars are increasingly fought with high tech weaponry rather than boots on the ground.

So money spent may actually be a better indicator of military power than troop strength.

 

[Nova]

Hi Nova, It is appalling to me we give any money to Pakistan and I wonder when it started and why? I know we give allot of money to Israel as well.

I always thought it was decided to give these monies to help insure that a democratic political system would be nurtured in those countries. If the leader of Pakistan is less than honorable, do you know why we continue to assist them like this? Do you know which president started sending money to Pakistan? Clinton?

Ta

I'm not sure. It certainly goes back to before Clinton, because Jimmy Carter used Pakistan to get weapons and supplies to the mujahadeen fighting the Russians in Afghanistan.

Per this Newsweek link, we started sending money with a 1954 security agreement intended to shore up Pakistan against Communism:

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/10/21/about-those-billions.html



(Context: Pakistan wasn't a country until 1947, so we started supporting it just a few years after its inception.)

 

[vjlaw]

The celebrations seen by college kids after UBL was killed is a far cry from the behavior of my generation of college kids during the Vietnam War. That behavior is what should have been restrained. I haven't heard of any injuries or property damage done by these celebration.

 

[Nova]

It sounds like this photo is especially gruesome, with most of the left side of his head blown off. It isn't just gunshot wounds. It would probably have to be a black and white photo at the very least to be published anywhere.

But I also agree with those who say the President is afraid of offending Muslims. He went out of his way to bury Osama according to their traditions, after all. (Most of them likely could have cared less what we did with OBL.)

I've heard numerous talking heads say Islamic tradition has little precedent for burial at sea. So it's not true that the President bent over backwards to appease Muslims. He just chose a solution that cheated Bin Laden supporters of a place to build a shrine.

 

[Nova]

BBM. I have to respectfully disagree. I do not believe our president is afraid of showing photo's. In fact, by not showing photo's of a half blown off head we are demonstrating some sense of respect and acting in a more dignified manner by not stooping to the level some of the extremists/terrorist have excersized.

rotten.com has enough of those kind of nasty pictures for those interested in that kind of stuff.

JMO

Thank you. If the President were afraid, he could have simply left OBL at his compound and pretended his location was unknown.

 

[Nova]

I found that curious that in the mideast, in a country with accusations of harboring terrorists leveled against you, and with fighting going on in many of the countries around you that there wouldn't be heightened awareness and that no one even got curious about armored cars and sheilded windows and isolated households.

When Saddam's palace was captured I found it interesting the contrasts of how SH was living and how the majority of his citizens lived.

I still find it interesting. Many of obl's followers, esp the bottom levels live in tents and caves. Even the more mid level are reportedly not over funded. And obl lived in a mansion, with maids, with men reportedly shopping for his household. While his life style was not such a marked contrast as with SH, there is certainly is a contrast there.

In the one interview with a neighbor that I saw on the BBC, the neighbor readily admitted they knew somebody special lived behind those walls, but claimed they were never told who it was.

Pakistan is basically a military dictatorship. Perhaps that puts a damper on neighborhood gossip.

What is impossible to believe is that those walls went up without an investigation from local officials. I think it's generally accepted that some of them must have known, and the question is how far up the chain of command did the info travel?

 

[Nova]

Which society has lasted without using force to protect themselves?

Which society has lasted that DID use force to protect itself? Only those now in existence, just a few of which existed 300 years ago.