Osama Bin Laden Dead

Originally Posted by josh9mille

I kinda wish we could have captured him alive, death is too easy of a punishment for a POS like him. It would have been great if we could have tortured the hell out of him, but make sure he doesnt die just so we could torture him over and over again untill he finally dies of natural causes.

I am going to sound like a complete sicko here but I don't really care. I would love to have gone at his skin with a vegetable peeler and watch the bastard squirm to his slow and agonizing death. Sh!t, he would do a lot worse to me if he ever had the chance and sure he has done a lot worse to others. I know two wrongs don't make it right but he got out way too easy. They said he copped a bullet in his head. I hope the bastard didn't off him self.

Originally Posted by PBO

Considering that a reasonable person might ask "is the trophy killing of OBL worth what may follow?"

Not sure if it's worth it or not but I don't think that a scumbag like him deserves to die of old age. I for one am happy that he is dead. He took way too many lives just because they didn't believe what he did. There will be retaliations mark my word but there also would have been more acts of terror dished out by him if he had lived too. Problem is he is just one man (evil one at that) but the idea is what is going to be a lot harder to kill. Us against them. Christianity and Islam will never exist in peace together unless they recognize (don't have to believe) and respect each others religions. FAT chance of that happening any time soon or even in my lifetime. That is why it's either us or them and will stay like that till one side wipes the other out.

Originally Posted by josh9mille

I just heard that we were handling his body in accordance with Islamic tradition and already burried his body at sea. Why in the hell were we even concerned about how his body was treated?

You know why mate? Because we are better then them. They would have strung our bodies up in the street to rot. At least we have the decency to respect their beliefs. Don't be angry about it.

[PBO]

Originally Posted by BIG-block

Not sure if it's worth it or not but I don't think that a scumbag like him deserves to die of old age

In many respects OBL was given what he wanted; he was supposed to die mid-Jihad, from an infidel bullet. He probably wished & hoped to be martyred...he will arguably be more powerful now

In many respects taking him through a legal process would have taken years but it would have also hobbled his persona & it would have deprived him of the glory he was given

The reports he was using human shields makes no sense in the context of his belief system & it really does look more & more like a grubby PR stunt by Obama to remain in office for another term. Obama, given his background would understand only to well that justice hasn't been served - but Obama has been!

[Finnster]

Originally Posted by PBO

In many respects OBL was given what he wanted; he was supposed to die mid-Jihad, from an infidel bullet. He probably wished & hoped to be martyred...he will arguably be more powerful now

In many respects taking him through a legal process would have taken years but it would have also hobbled his persona & it would have deprived him of the glory he was given

The reports he was using human shields makes no sense in the context of his belief system & it really does look more & more like a grubby PR stunt by Obama to remain in office for another term. Obama, given his background would understand only to well that justice hasn't been served - but Obama has been!

I'm sorry, but I think this is a terrible misreading of American politics.

As far as a trial is concerned, there has been quite a bit of debate what to do here with all these captured people we have rotting in Gitmo. Obama had wanted to bring them back for trials and prison and shut Gitmo down. That didn't happen after lots of push back, as well as a lot of fear from people in cities hosting the trials that they would be terrorist targets. That was more 2-bit detainees like drivers and messengers, let alone the fear holding Bin Laden would inspire. We already got to watch the circus Saddam's trial and exectution was, and that was Iraq where they don't have endless appeal processes that go on for 20 yrs.

So what else? Hold some mock military trial in a secret location? Don't see how much more credible that was.
Not to mention, the considerable effort by his critics to paint Obama as weak and sympathizing to terrorists (the whole "read them their [arrest] rights while on the battlefield" bit.) Why take all this risk in capture then to incite a circus @ home?

On that theme, that this was a PR stunt just meant to boost poll #'s... there is a line between cynicism and absurdity, and this goes right over. Why now, why not in Oct right before his party got killed in the polls and lost considerable control in the Legislature and changed the polit. agenda going on? Why not wait closer to the Pres elections in 2012? This will be an old story by then, and no canidates have even officially declared.

Despite what sense you may get listening to the noise on the internet made form a very vocal minority, Obama still has considerable support @ home, despite all the messes we've been thru. All the potential canidates from the opposition are weak to the point of laughter, and have not been able to develop a coherent criticism of him other than to resort to half-baked conspiracy theories that he's some anti-white, kooky-Christian black supremecist, secret muslim facist, communist, socialist from Kendonesia rasied in madrassas in Indonesia steeped in anti-western colonial fervor of the Mau Mau Revolution on a secret mission hatched 50 years ago to usher in a Musilm Caliphate across Europe and America so he could have tea with terrorists.
IOW, one of these nutcases actually has to beat him.

Meanwhile, the political capital the opposition has gained in the last election is being spent passing insanely unpopular budget proposals (and little else) based on fantasy numbers and unrealistic assumptions that would do little to actually reduce our immense budget decifits or motivate job creation, but would strip the future* elderly of medical care (*those 55 and under) by privatising one of the most popular govt programs to give more tax cuts to the already unpopular wealthy. The opposition ran & won in 2010 slamming Obama for tampering and cutting Medicare, and the elderly are the most active voters...

IE... he doesn't need this.
However, most of the political risk was to the downside. Members of the President's democratic party have been succesfully blasted since 1980 and Jimmy Carter (Dem) for being being weak on Defense after the failed Iranian Hostage Rescue in 1979. Most Dems since have had to over-compensate on Defense to counter, else go down in flaming electoral defeat. (See Dukakis in '88, and Kerry in '04, and to an extent Gore in '00. (all 3 served in the military too fyi) ) Particular aggressive attempts have been made to compare Obama to Carter. Had this mission got fraked up, in a million ways it could have, Obama would have solidified this narritive and put his re-election in serious doubt, as well as burdened every other Democrat with this failure for several more decades to come.

Say what you will about the silly U-S-A chants and the wisdom of "martyring" of Osama (like he wasn't already), but the arguement it was a clever short-term popularity stunt can't be made by serious people.