CNN Reporting Bin Laden is dead

[CityLife]

The compound was built in 2005. It wasn't discovered by us until August 2010. There is no doubt that we could have found Bin Laden and the compound earlier if we had put our full efforts towards Afghanistan/Pakistan, but I think Stephen may be using a little hyperbole there.

Im pretty sure that the search was for Osama, rather than the compound that he built four years after the fact, and two years after we declared war on Afghanistan.

No hyperbole at all.  But finding Osama and bringing him to justice should have been the main focus of our policy from the beginning.  Shouldnt have waited until there was a President who would be serious about it.

But Obama is all our President, not just a few.  Just as Bush was.  

And now the person who actually attacked our country is dead.  Thank the good Lord.

I fully agree that we should have directed our efforts at Bin Laden and Al Queda the entire time.

You said that if Obama had been President he would have killed him in 2003. As if catching Osama happened entirely because of efforts that happened during Obama's 2 year term. It was the result of an ongoing effort from the CIA that they've been working on for some time.

If the compound wasn't even built until 2005, it is hard to say that he would have been killed prior to that if Obama was President. He was likely hiding in the Tribal Areas and in caves prior to the compound.

So yea I agree that we would have killed him much sooner had we directed all our efforts to finding him, but to suggest it would have happened in 2003 is hyperbole.

[Coolyfett]

This Topic is HOT!! everysite is talking about it....Whats up with dumping him in the water? Lame.

[finehoe]

Where do you come up with this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PGmnz5Ow-o&feature=player_embedded

[fsujax]

I love how I am reading he was given the proper burial...who cares. I am sure he was dumped out of the side of a helicopter circling around 140 mph or so! good riddence.

[CityLife]

Reporter on CNN just said that the attack team found quite a bit of intel within the compound and also took that back with them.

I read somewhere that there were 24 members of the team. I bet a few of them were designated to specifically look for that info once the building was secure.

[Coolyfett]

Looks like the Navy SEALS got him...

Sea, Air, or Land...

Wonder if any of those Seals were based in Jax?? How cool would that be??

[CityLife]

Also know that many key details from the events will either never be reported or falsely reported.

My Dad worked for the Department of Defense for 37 years and traveled to just about every military base in the US and Europe in his time. He has always told me that the government never releases accurate or detailed info about National Security issues. Also told me that the public would freak out if they knew how many terror threats we have dealt with since 9/11. Not that these are surprises or anything.

[CityLife]

Looks like the Navy SEALS got him...

Sea, Air, or Land...

Wonder if any of those Seals were based in Jax?? How cool would that be??

Nope it was Seal Team 6. They are based in Virginia.

Also, like I said earlier, I guarantee you that the CIA's Special Activities Division was also there with Seal Team 6. They are what our military leaders call the "sharp end of the stick". They are comprised of elite CIA Operatives and the best of the best from the Seals, Delta Force, etc.

They are "black ops" and we never even hear when they are killed or what they typically do. If they were part of the attack (which they likely were), the government would never release that info. They like the group to fly under the radar. You can find a lot of interesting info about the group on the internet, but I'm sure we'll never know all they do.

[Overstreet]

stop with the partisanship BT.

Not a conservative or liberal issue

[ben says]

Wow! Bin Laden is one expensive guy! Or ex guy.....

1.3 trillion dollars....trillion!!!

http://www.salon.com/news/osama_bin_laden/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/05/02/cost_of_bin_laden_wars

[buckethead]

Meh.  I think normally I would agree with you, ben says.

But this is just a case of killing the bad guy.

He lost the right to have the simple morality of a private murder brought into consideration when he decided to transcend  the life of a mere man and become a symbol and to engage in symbolic murders.

He had no care for the lives of the men about the US Cole, nor the diplomats working in Africa, and certainly none for the people who were killed directly in the Twin Towers, the fallen flight 93 or related deaths from the air around ground zero.

He judged rightly that their deaths would be symbolic instead of personal as he waged a symbolic war against the US, in hopes that his symbolic war would lead to the defeat and downfall of our country. 

And now, the symbolic circle completes.  His death is a symbol, not of the individual, but of the symbol for what he attempted to accomplish.

The Americans cheering in the streets are overjoyed because one man has been murdered, because he transcended to role of being a mere man.  They are cheering for the symbolic.

People do not have the right to conduct a campaign of random death against civilians for their political purposes.

The bullet through Osamas eye socket was the answer to that idea, and people everywhere feel that emotion.  It is a life affirming, not a death affirming jubilation.

We have the right not to be killed for someone else's politics.

There is no shame in celebrating this basic principle of self preservation.

It is a rite as old as language.  You have to see the body swinging before the sociological ritual is complete.

A simpler way of putting it, despite your code of Hammurabi reference:

This is Justice.

Well put. This sums up my feelings fairly well. Not that another person is dead, or even that Osama Bin Laden is dead... Not even that a mass murderer is dead. I'm happy that we sent the message to the world that your politics aren't allowed to kill me.

Obama deserves kudos to the same degree any sitting Commander in Chief would.

Congratulations to lovers of liberty.

[danno]

On of my co workers told me this and I had to look it up to see if it was true.  Though if you read the whole thing Limbaugh later retracted his statement.  Also I knew there was more to it than that.

From:  http://www.politicususa.com/en/rush-limbaugh-bin-laden
snip

The death of Osama Bin Laden has turned the political world on its ear. On his radio show today, even Rush Limbaugh praised Obama. Limbaugh said, “President Obama single-handedly came up with the technique in order to pull this off.”

snip

Limbaugh opened his show with, “We need to open the program today by congratulating President Obama. President Obama has done something extremely effective, and when he does, this needs to be pointed out. President Obama has continued the Bush policies of keeping a military presence in the Middle East. He did not scrub the mission to get Bin Laden.”

[KenFSU]

People do not have the right to conduct a campaign of random death against civilians for their political purposes.

We have the right not to be killed for someone else's politics.

There is no shame in celebrating this basic principle of self preservation.

This is Justice.

I normally agree with you Stephen, but surely you can appreciate the irony in the above statement. Take out the context, and the above statement could just as easily be used to justify the assassination of our Commander in Chief. It's an unpopular opinion, but regardless of intent, we have a hell of a lot more civilian blood on our hands as a result of 9/11 than Bin Laden. It's not conjecture, but rather documented fact. That's why his death is so bittersweet to me. A celebration of his killing seems a de facto celebration of our methods. As previously stated, that's something I just don't feel comfortable lauding.

And perhaps I'm still jaded from the capture of Saddam Hussein. From those celebrations in the street. From the partying, and cheering, and chants of USA! USA! And still, here we are, years upon years upon years later, still reading the death tolls in the daily paper, still hearing excuses from Bush, and then Obama, and then whoever else, as to why deadlines for withdrawal are repeatedly ignored or pushed back while billions upon billions upon billions of dollars drains from our nation's coffers each month.

[iluvolives]

Personally I like the Vatican's statement on the issue:

"In the face of a man's death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred,"

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1101730.htm

[danno]

Personally I like the Vatican's statement on the issue:

"In the face of a man's death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred,"

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1101730.htm

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