GET SOME!

[gridlore]

So we took down Osama. In person. JSOC troops put lead downrange and blew that waste of carbon away. I said long ago that my fondest wish was that the last thing bin Laden saw in this world was a grinning US solider. Sometimes dreams come true.

Best part? We've got the body. Early reports are it will de disposed of secretly, to keep his burial site from becoming a rallying point. Which means he's not getting the traditional Islamic burial rituals done.

What's really interesting is the news that he was living in a mansion in Pakistan's capital. Time for us to really lean on that nation and their dodgy intelligence service. Hard.

This is like us killing Yamamoto during WWII. It didn't end the war, but it deprived the enemy of a master strategist and a powerful symbol. This does the same thing.

The absolutely best part about today? Watching the wingnuts tear themselves to shreds trying to attack Obama over this.

Comments

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

Yup, good news indeed. I wonder whether we'll ever find out the details of how they got the bastard?

Pity the burial is likely to be more decent than just reworking the skull into a urinal at the 9/11 memorial...

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

I haven't been watching Fox yet so I'm not sure what the spin will be...but it will be interesting to see how they somehow turn this into a negative against Obama.

and yeah, I caught that too... living not just in Pakistan but the capital... in style...???

YEAH, that definitely sounds like a man who is trying to "lay low" from the local government... *ahem*

[johno.livejournal.com]

And so much for his "giving up the rich lifestyle to be one of the poor" vibe he was always trying to project.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

I wonder if his being a "master strategist" was at all relevant anymore, though? He was a high value target for capture as well, so I figure that if the bad guys had any brains at all they didn't have him directly involved with any ongoing operations. Of course depriving them of his symbolic value was good. I hope bits of his incinerated corpse are sprinkled in every land-fill in the US. Dumping him in swine farms would probably be needlessly insulting, but is a lovely mental image all the same.

[kengr]

If it wasn't that it'd turn him into more of a martyr, I'd consider treating him the way they treated some Moros a century ago.

*Publicly* sew him into a pigskin before sending him off to his secret burial.

And feeding his corpse to dogs, would get the animal rights folks all over us. Rightly.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

I'd inter him in a pig trough here in America. Let those who would worship him as a martyr do so at an American pig farm.

How we handle his body is symbolic. I'd show it as much disrespect as possible, to show the esteem with which I hold his ideals.

Unfortunately, they are going to show his body respect in accordance with Islamic custom.

I don't know how to express this properly but I think treating him as a Muslim enshrines his hatred for us rather than reconciling our supposed belief it was his extremism that was wrong, not his faith.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

We have to be better than he would be or we fail in victory. Full stop. You speak of reveling in the cesspit he lived in. You are dishonoring your uniform, airman.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

"We have to be better than he would be or we fail in victory."

*nod*

My personal feelings are hard to separate from my professional perspective sometimes. I would not knowingly dishonor my uniform nor those who have served. When I used that icon I chose a symbol that represents more than myself. Thank you for calling me on it.

[jursamaj.livejournal.com]

Damn, JSOC already has credit posted on their Wiki page...

[fangorn.livejournal.com]

"Best part? We've got the body."

Which addresses the issue I was personally most angry at Bush about: the bombing campaign at Tora Bora, which, to my mind at least, demonstrated that Bush was not interested in being able to prove that Bin Laden was dead.

[freetrav.livejournal.com]

The anti-Obama spin will center around the fact that the SOB was living in luxury in the capital, and "nobody knew it - and if we DID, why did it take until now to take him down?".

And if we DON'T lean VERY hard on Pakistan - and not just the so-called "intelligence" services - THAT will be used against him as well, especially given that the Pakistani government has more than once proclaimed themselves our allies in the fight against Islamist terrorism.

And then gave said Islamist terrorists a free pass in the 'tribal areas' of the country adjacent to Afghanistan.

[capplor.livejournal.com]

It's a bit more complicated than that. It seems that the Pakistani government has only a tenuous control over Waziristan, & the other adjacent tribal areas. But the rest of your statement seems to hold water, even if it leaks a bit.

[capplor.livejournal.com]

He was in a wealthy town about 10 hours outside of the capital. & he's going to be buried in accordance with Islamic custom, the better to ruin his chances of becoming a great martyr to be emulated. & the better to show Islam that we are not a horde of heartless heathens.

Personally, I'm going to pray for his soul & hope that he finds the peace he denied so many others.

& I'm going to pray that some of the CINO's (Christian in name only) in this country notice what Hazrat Jesus (pbuh) said about how to treat one's enemies &/or those who harm you.

[capplor.livejournal.com]

BTW: When I first heard the news I turned on Al Jazeera. http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/2007829161423657345.html They had some very interesting insights & questions.

[caerbannogbunny.livejournal.com]

Umm...

Grinning sailor...

...which is slightly funnier, in a way, than soldier.

[claidheamhmor]

I've been enjoying reading all the details. Good idea for burial at sea; the basic Muslim forms have been followed (apart from being at sea), so it can't annoy the majority of Muslims, but he has no burial spot to form a shrine. Smartly done.