First off: This is definitely fantastic news! The goat fucker deserved to die and that it comes at the hands of US forces, bullet to the head form, is a great thing. Kudos to President Obama for having the balls to authorize the operation, for this must have been a delicate operation, deep inside Pakistan, not a drone strike near the border.
However, as everyone notes: this won't end the war on terror. It may be a temporary body blow to the terrorists, but, that's it. It'll be interesting to hear in the next few days, to what extent bin Laden was still involved in Al Qaeda operations. I've said many times that, living or dead, he's been irrelevent to the war for many years, offering no moral support to the people that would look to him for inspiration. I don't think he ever was too involved at the tactical level. Hopefully we'll learn soon to what extent he was still involved with things.
But, there are some things that make you say "hmmm":
- A covert operation deep inside Pakistan, close to the capital. This is where Osama's been hiding? How did the ISI not know about his whereabouts all this time? Is it remotely conceivable that they didn't know?
- Assuming they did know where he was, did they just recently give up the whereabouts to US intelligence, or is this something US intelligence figured out themselves?
- Obama authorized what, on the surface, would be a very risky mission. He just doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would do that.
And maybe it's time? What does the RTP&GG community think?
It'll be interesting what we learn in the near future about what really went down. What if the Pakistanis didn't know anything or didn't give him up? Then I've got to say that Obama and our Special Forces really kicked ass. And what about Pakistan?
