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Osama Bin Laden is dead. It's about damn time!
Re: NOSAMA
I really don't think this changes anything.
I'm torn - I am glad that he's gone and unable to plan any attacks against the US or anyone else. However, I find it highly unlikely that he's been the person in charge of al Qaeda for years. He might be the face, the image of AQ, but he hasn't been calling the shots. His death, while an emotional blow for AQ, doesn't change the logistical operations of AQ.
In addition - because GW brought us into 2 wars with AQ/OBL/terrorism as the reason - we can't just leave as soon as we brought OBL down. In my opinion, we never should have gone into full blown war - it should have been a manhunt for OBL all along. Of course, it wasn't just a hunt for OBL, it was so much more than that, and because of this, our involvement isn't clear cut and it's not simple for us to leave.
While it was a fantastic military victory, I feel gross about the people celebrating in the streets. As evil as a man that he was - I can't find much reason to celebrate. It doesn't change anything.
I do have to say - way to go President Obama. I like how he took credit for the strike, and shared as much as he could with us regarding the circumstances. His speech was great, and I appreciate that he reaffirmed that we are not at war with Islam - because I fear that the anti-Islam sentiments are still too strong in the US.
ETA: Also - I fear this will only complicate our relationship with Pakistan. There has been so much drama between the CIA and the ISI, Secretary of State Clinton has said many times, sometimes politely and sometimes more blunt, that Pakistan wasn't appearing to fully cooperate with the US. Pakistan has expressed that they aren't happy about the US not sharing all of their intelligence and the US has said the same about Pakistan. The fact that OBL was hiding in a large city, so close to the Pakistani capital, isn't a great endorsement of the ISI or the Pakistani government.
jack | born 9.13.12 at 40w4d | 9 lbs 12 oz | 23 in
my puppy loves - chloe & jenson
pregnancy blog | chart
I totally agree with this. It's really kind of sick. There is nothing to celebrate. We can be glad that a man responsible for horrible, evil acts can no longer hurt anyone, but it's so barbaric to openly cheer and parade the streets. I'm not saying that I don't want him dead - I do/did, but I just feel more solemn about the whole situation.
We're kind of going out.
I saw this earlier today:
Pretty much sums it up.
It's nice to finally have closure in that he was the person responsible in large part for 9/11 but other then that I really couldn't care less. He hasn't been in charge for years, and I always knew that he was hiding in Pakistan and that the Pakistani government knew it and wasn't going to do anything about it. All this is going to do is raise tensions between the US and Pakistan, and we really can't afford to be in every Middle Eastern country right now.
Oh well if people need to dance in the streets and celebrate then I say to each their own...but I watched very little coverage of this after the story broke, and I'm at work doing my job this morning and my life has moved on.
I have to agree with this. Celebrating doesn't really change anything about terrorism, other than one terrorist is dead.
Anita: I'd be curious to read more on this. I actually find it high unlikely that he is just a "face."
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I agree with just about all of you that this doesn't put an immediate stop to anything, but that doesn't mean it isn't a huge victory.
Also, gathering and singing the national anthem outside the White House after the death of someone who can only be described as pure evil =/= the dancing in the streets and the burning American flags that followed the murder of thousands of innoncent people. I see where you're trying to go with that, but it doesn't work. They're really just not at all comparable. This was a highly emotional event for a lot of people and people are going to react in different ways; if some of them want to celebrate, I'm not going to judge. FTR, I'm elated, and while I'm not a "celebrator" myself, I really enjoyed watching the crowd cheer and sing outside the White House.
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i'm sorry but the way you worded this is hilarious. you KNEW? are you clairvoyant or do you just have some inside intelligence you should have been sharing with the military. lord, we could have gotten him sooner if janell had just told us what she knew! lol...
some idiot analyst last night said "this ends the war on terror." um, really? i don't think so buddy. osama wasn't the be all, end all terrorist. you don't execute the kind of horrors this guy has alone. he has an ARMY and i'm sure he's prepared them for something like this. he knew he wasn't going to live forever.
also, as much as i love obama, the speech last night just made me feel icky like it was all political posturing. as the end of his term approaches (okay, it's not for a while but still...) i felt like he wanted to be able to stand on the fact that he was responsible for OBL's demise. it was just weird. you made it your #1 priority when you entered office? is that like saying it wasn't Bush's priority? because i'd venture to guess that Bush wanted him dead too.
i dunno. i think i'm becoming cynical in my 30s.
I heard an analyst on MPR this morning say that OBL has been virtually cut-off from the planning aspect of AQ for a while now and those duties have beent taken over by others.. He has been so paranoid of being monitored or tracked via electronic communications that he really hasn't been involved in any long-distance AQ strategic planning. He is just the face/figurehead of the movement. In fact, I guess his lack of electronic communication is what tipped the US off to his location - - - he was in a massive compound that had absolutely no phone or internet connectivity - -and that struck US intelligence as very odd and clued them in to the possiblity that OBL could be hiding there.
As for the celebrating in the streets, I find it very disturbing and I'm sure it does nothing to improve our image abroad. Yes, he was an evil evil man, but celebrating his death in such a crude way seems to undermine our efforts to win the trust and respect of Islamic moderates. I fear that our extreme exhibitions of "joy" will be met with an equally extreme response anger and that can never be good.
My first reaction to hearing the news was "oh god, what does this mean for our future" - followed quickly by "Thank god, Chris flew home today and not tomorrow!". Sad that my first reaction was not one of relief but one of increased fear.
I'd argue that just because he wasn't involved in daily communications doesn't mean that he's been completely uninvolved. Given who he was, just a few messages here and there could still be very influential.
But, that's just my opinion. You can read a million different news sources and get a million different view points. Either way, I'm glad he's gone.
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Yes, Yes and Yes Anita. Thank you for typing it so I don't have to. Ive been struggling with this whole thing since the news broke.
Yes I knew, as did a great number of people I am sure, why else would he have been killed in Pakistan??? When he initially ran from Afgahanistan it was a logical place for him to go. They're pretty neutral to his country but wouldn't let the US Military come in looking for him so he was safe there. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this sort of thing out. Plus he'd never go far from where his work was, because as a "great" leader of a terrorist organization you kind of lose your credibility if you're hiding out at the Ritz Carlton in Bejing China or something.
I'm sorry if I came off as humorous or pompus but its what I believe, and I think it took this long to find him because well, if you're not supposed to be in the country to begin with, its hard to look in every cave with out drawing some suspicion.
This makes it even funnier. It took them 10 years to figure it out, and I'm pretty sure they used their highest levels of military intelligence to figure it out.
Just think: All along they just needed to ask the MN Nest board!
We're kind of going out.
I'm thinking "suspected" or "speculated" would be a better choice of words here.
Otherwise, Melinda is right - a simple post on TN and viola! They could have found him in no time. lol.
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Yeah I have to agree. The black ops/SEAL division that found and killed Osama is pretty underground that they aren't even officially considered part of the military, in case they are captured. The public is almost never made aware of what their missions are, excpet in this particular case.
OBL may have the overall 'vision' for AQ - (vision = death to americans, down with democracy, down with the western ideals) - but I still believe the various analysts that say he wasn't running the logistics of AQ. Plus, it seems that the threats have been mostly distributed to the different divisions/regions of AQ. AQ in the Arabian Peninsula is one that is always been credited with various threats.
I do believe that Pakistan knows more than they are letting on. There have been a constant number of divisions between the US Government, the CIA, and the Pakistani Government and the ISI (Pakistan's version of the CIA.) Hillary Clinton has public chided Pakistan for not sharing ISI information with us, and the ISI has chided her right back. It "makes sense" to assume that OBL was in Pakistan for much of this time, but it's not as simple as saying we knew he was there. One could guess that he was there - but the network he has built around him does such a fantastic job of protecting him. I did find it amusing (not sure if that's the right word to use) that the million dollar compound he was hiding out in didn't have phone lines or internet lines - of course that would be a tip off! Who has a house of that value in Pakistan and isn't connected at all to the outside world except via human messenger?
I'm proud of what our President, our troops, our intelligence, the entire administration was able to do to find him. I think a singing of the national anthem would be fine and appropriate. A moment of silence for all killed would be even better. Beach balls being tossed in the crowds while people sing "We are the Champions!" seems gross to me. There are ways to show gratitude to our troops for eliminating the threat that doesn't glorify someone who wants to be glorified as a martyr for what he did. Not saying that people are intending to glorify him, but I think in the eyes of our 'enemies' the celebrations will look like that.
jack | born 9.13.12 at 40w4d | 9 lbs 12 oz | 23 in
my puppy loves - chloe & jenson
pregnancy blog | chart
I completely agree with this. Watching it last night, when people were standing and quietly singing the National Anthem, I got chills. It was a 'proud to be an American' moment. However, the 'celebrating' I keep seeing (on the news and on facebook, sadly) doesn't sit well with me. I couldn't really place my finger on the difference, but I think you helped explain it.
Eat.Drink.BeMarried. Blog.
I think its funny how people are sticking on that one word I said, when I believe wholeheartedly that the US military knew where he was (maybe not the whole time) but knew he was in Pakistan, just had to figure out where, and how to accomplish it with out raising tensions with Pakistan.
Its not like we can just run in guns blazing and turn over every rock to find him, I'm sure it took a lot of time, and energy to be secretive about it and to get the information they needed to actually act on it.
I stand by my previous statement because it's my own personal opinion and you can take from it what you will.
Right, I don't think anyone is arguing that the military knew where he was. They have since August (at least).
Their (our) point is that YOU didn't know. You could have speculated, susptected, assumed, etc, but you didn't "know". Or, let's say you did know. In that case, why didn't you relay this knowledge to the appropriate officials?
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I did. And what I took was hilarious.
We're kind of going out.
I must have missed the beach ball antics. That's getting a little carried away.
I haven't been watching anything today, but I was (and still am) perfectly fine with the coverage I was watching on CNN last night. People gathering together, singing the national anthem, shouting "USA!" I think are all perfectly fine reactions. People are happy and relieved and some have chosen to show those emotions in a more public way than others.
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I agree with much of what Anita said. I am honestly appalled at the direction some of the "celebrating" has gone. Especially on Facebook. Ick. And I also agree that this isn't really going to change things. If people think that this is the end of the "war on terrorism" they are crazy.
Also, I am sure I will get flamed for this, but the "God Bless the USA" stuff is kinda irritating me. First of all, there were many many allied forces involved in this war throughout the past 10 years. How about God bless them, and the sacrifices they made too? Our general attitude regarding our superiority on the world stage doesn't do much for international relations. So God bless the innocent civilian lives lost in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and America, and bless the lives of the soldiers from all over the world that sacrificed for this cause. What happened on 9/11 and post 9/11 regarding terrorist attacks in the US, Spain, England, etc. were all tragic, and justice was done when Bin Laden was taken down. But I wish we could all begin to pursue peace. That is my Miss America answer, and I'm sticking to it.
2.3.11: Started TTC
2.8.12:Initial b/w - Normal
3.7.12:HSG - Normal
3.8.12:S/A - Normal
Cycle #12/Month #15 - 50mg.Clomid CD5-CD9 - BFN
4.24.12: RE appointment - DX Unexplained IF
7.12 - 9.12: TTA
10.12 - 1.13: TTC Naturally
February 2013 - IUI #1 w/100 mg Clomid - 5 mil.post-wash: BFFN
March 2013 - IUI #2 w/100 mg Clomid & Trigger - ?? MY BLOG
i won't flame you. i agree. but then again, i don't believe in god so it suits me.
Same.
related/unrelated - but flag pins feel like phoney patriotism to me.
jack | born 9.13.12 at 40w4d | 9 lbs 12 oz | 23 in
my puppy loves - chloe & jenson
pregnancy blog | chart
also, if obama (or any politician) quit mentioning god, it would be political suicide. too many believers in this country for that to fly.
I also agree with this...
jack | born 9.13.12 at 40w4d | 9 lbs 12 oz | 23 in
my puppy loves - chloe & jenson
pregnancy blog | chart