Bravo Zulu a job well done.
Amen to that Popeye. And though I am not at all a fan of Obama and think he is very bad for the US, I will give him credit for making this call and giving the go order. It was a gutsy call sending those two teams into Pakistan so far. So much could have gone very bad and they would have been out there on their own with very little of any support. But those soldiers did their job, the intel did their job, and they got this man...and they deserve the most credit, of course.
It sends the appropriate message. If you come and attack our nation and kill our citizens like that, no matter how long, no matter how far, no matter who your friends are or where you hide...we will get you, even if it takes ten years.
That's the appropriate message and I am glad it was sent. The apparatus (including Gitmo) that GW put in place made it possible too...but Obama worked with the teams in planning it and then gave the order and he deserves credit for that for sure.
what is a terrorist anyways? before you answer that question, let's agree that whoever fits the definition would be qualify, regardless of your feelings? fair?
my definition is: people who deliberately kill innocent civilians to make a point.
Ok,
how many civilians died in Bomber Harris's fire bombing of Dresden.
Or LeMay's firebombing of Tokyo.
They were trying to make a point you know. the whole premise of strategic bombing was based on killing civilians to make a point.
so how many lives... opps I should use the euphemism of "collateral damage".... does it one qualifies for that definition? in this age of precision strikes weapons and Blackwater security shot up cars full of family and kids?
how many? care to give me a number?
some body gotta ask these question, might as well be me.
The US fought total war in World War II. It was to rid the world of regimes that endangered the entire free world and tens of millions of people in it and was a fight for survival against not just armies, but against ideologies and the people who supported them right down to the civilians.
In that case, the US (with her allies) prosecuted that war and won it and the results of that victory are obvious, particularly compared to what was likely to have happened had either the Nazis or the Imperial Japanese (or both) won. Most of the German people and most of the Japanese people wholly supported their leaders in that war...so the question of innocence becomes somewhat more blurred if you want to try and define it that way. Bottom line was, the ideologies were irreconcilable and one or the other was going to abjectly destroy the other.
I am glad the US and her allies prevailed.
We are not fighting that kind of war now. There are those who believe we should in order to really win it for the long term. But there is clearly not a large enough majority to make that happen...however, one successful nuclear or bio attack that kills hundreds of thousands would probably change all of that.
But, all of that aside, Osama bin Laden openly stated his aims of killing Americans, soldiers, women, children, it did not matter, and then he went about doing it. After 911 America really woke up to him and Al Quida and vowed to take him down and made a mission of it. Well, now...MISSION ACCOMPLISHED as far as Osama Bin Laden is concerned and I believe we are all better for it. But the fight is far from over.
