Bin Laden, SEAL's and bombs
It's been bugging me the past few days.
If reports are correct we knew he was there for some time. Drone's have probably been surveiling the area for that time also, not to mention keyhole satellites and ground penetrating radar, etc.
There was a brief report that Obama considered bombing the compound a while back, but didn't want any question to be raised about whether Bin Laden had been killed.
So, instead of a JDAM strike - he sent in dozens of American soldiers to risk death - to score a point, to get a photo.
It's not like we haven't bombed HUNDREDS of "suspected terrorists" locations in Pakistan already, that barrier had already been breached - there would have been little political fallout.
let's also consider that they had the time and resources to strip his lair of intelligence assets. Given the loiter time they've admitted to having, how lawful is an order to "kill him"? Capturing him would certainly have been an option. Reports are that he did not have a weapon in or near his hand when he was killed. Just because we hate him so much, do we now execute criminals without benefit of ANY trial? If they can do it to Bin Laden, they can do it to any one of us -
Ooops, they already have -
Anybody remember Mrs. Randy Weaver holding her baby when she was drilled by Lon Hoiriuchi? Yeah he was evil, etc... That's not my point, many of you wont get my point - so be it.
If the whole idea was to kill him, then a bomb would have done it without any risk to any soldier. If more than one helicopter had crashed, we'd have a bigger toll for this "op". I'm guessing they had spares in orbit, but don't know for sure, at some point arabic television should release someone doing video of the operation.
The point is that I do not care enough about being "sure" Bin laden was dead to risk a single american soldier's life. We don't/won't know about ANY casualties from this op simply because they never ever report casualties that occur during these things.
If they'd landed and NOT found Bin Laden, then we wouldnt' have heard a DAMN thing about this operation. I'm wondering how many other similar operations have been performed, with negative results, that we haven't heard about.
I can't help but think that this is a political move for Obama's re-election campaign, moreso than it was about getting Bin Laden. He's a politician and politicians in general think VERY little of a soldier's life, as long as they get some political juice out of it.
The spin being put on his "leadership talents" concerning this are sickening me.
That being said, i'm 100 percent certain that each and every soldier in on this op would have volunteered to do it - but that's beside the point. We could have done it without risking a single life.
Arabic TV and media sources are already saying it was a hoax, and the politicians knew that nothing we did or showed could convince them he was dead. This was PURELY for the western press.
I think that if we'd brought his corpse back to the USA and put it on display, that they could have raised BILLIONS in revenue from the $100 bucks they could have charged to look at him. I know I'd have paid it.
I'm hoping nobody got more than a scratch, Bin Laden wasn't worth a single drop of a soldier's blood. yeah, yeah, I know - it's what soldiers sign up for, etc... that's not what's buggin me though.
Thoughts?
