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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Let's not forget that under the Bush Administration the DevGru boyz (Team 6) were referred to as "Cheney's Assassination Squad" by all the usual lefties.
My, how a different party designation changes things.
Whatever. As long as the job is getting done, I don't really give a crap.
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bookworm
Social climber
Falls Church, VA
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interesting perspective from vdh:
"The world must now realize that the domestic antiwar movement is dead, kaput; it cares not a whit whether we assassinate bin Laden or a son of Qaddafi or go into Libya. Everything is on the table now and there are no self-restraints, no snickers on The Daily Show, no quirky insider winks on Letterman, no Barbara Streisand crazy faxes. A Nobel peace laureate is now the Left’s totem and he can send quite deadly Americans on quite deadly missions as he sees fit — and without worry about a New York Times op-ed barrage or an ACLU lawsuit. That gives the U.S. newfound advantages, a veritable blank check, from keeping Guantanamo open indefinitely to using a Cheney “assassination” team and valuable water-boarded intelligence wherever it wishes to. A Harold Koh is not going to be filing any more lawsuits against his government — he is the government."
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rectorsquid
climber
Lake Tahoe
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It is hard to imagine even the wife of a SEAL freely discussing what her husband does.
Reminds me of "The Unit". If someone tells you that they are a logistics clerk then they might be a member of Seal Team Six.
Dave
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Yeah and I wonder it I'm the only one who is a little uncomfortable about the constant lionization of US special forces.
Seems like the adult version of my-dad-could-beat-up-your dad.
It's the male version of the Royal Wedding.
Practically speaking, the whole transformation of the Middle East via protests is a much more important phenomena. The world hasn't really known if Bin Laden were alive or dead for many years and it's doubtful he has had much affect on Al Queda from his hideout.
The fallout from this event could swing a number of ways that we don't control. Time will tell, but It's a good sign that peaceful but courageous protest is evidenced as a means to change in the MidEast which repudiates both Bin Laden's Methods and those of the US War machine.
Peace
karl
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dirtbag
climber
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The world hasn't really known if Bin Laden were alive or dead for many years and it's doubtful he has had much affect on Al Queda from his hideout.
Intelligence folks might get a better idea of that in the coming weeks after pouring over his hard drives.
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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Karl,
Yes, World Revolution by Wikileaks.
Who could have known that telling the truth and exposing the government lies would have such a profound effect on the whole World? (sarcasm)
Wow, look what telling the truth can do.
I'm all for Sunshine. It is the best disinfectant.
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John Moosie
climber
Beautiful California
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"The world must now realize that the domestic antiwar movement is dead, kaput; it cares not a whit whether we assassinate bin Laden or a son of Qaddafi or go into Libya. Everything is on the table now and there are no self-restraints, no snickers on The Daily Show, no quirky insider winks on Letterman, no Barbara Streisand crazy faxes. A Nobel peace laureate is now the Left’s totem and he can send quite deadly Americans on quite deadly missions as he sees fit — and without worry about a New York Times op-ed barrage or an ACLU lawsuit. That gives the U.S. newfound advantages, a veritable blank check, from keeping Guantanamo open indefinitely to using a Cheney “assassination” team and valuable water-boarded intelligence wherever it wishes to. A Harold Koh is not going to be filing any more lawsuits against his government — he is the government."
This highlights the poor understanding that some people have of war protesters. They use too much black and white thinking. They think that we would never fight. But then they would be wrong, as evidenced by how many elected democrats have actually served during war time, versus elected republicans.
I'm a liberal who is against most wars, but I would have signed up for WW2.
Some war protesters would never fight, but I believe that most would, given the proper motivation.
Two wars that I would NOT have fought in come specifically to mind, Vietnam and Iraq. And I think it was a mistake to stay in Afghanistan. We should have gone in and blasted the taliban strong holds, and then left, because Russia proved that Afghanistan is a quagmire. We are bankrupting ourselves going into quagmires.
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jstan
climber
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How Bin Laden met his end
Targeting the Al Qaeda leader with a missile strike wasn't enough. President Obama needed proof he was dead — and a much bolder plan.
By Bob Drogin, Christi Parsons and Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times
May 3, 2011
Reporting from Washington— The nail-biting moment, the period when absolute disaster loomed, came at the very start.
About two dozen Navy SEALs and other U.S. commandos were supposed to rope down into a Pakistani residential compound from a pair of specially modified Black Hawk helicopters in the predawn hours Monday, race into two buildings, and capture or kill Osama bin Laden. One chopper stalled as it hovered between the compound's high walls, unable to sustain its lift, and thudded into the dirt.
Half a world away in the White House Situation Room, the president and his war council crowded around a table covered with briefing papers and keyboards and watched nervously as video feeds streamed in. The special forces team needed a rescue chopper. Gunfire was blazing around them. No one wanted another "Black Hawk Down" debacle.
"A lot of people were holding their breath," recalled John Brennan, the president's counter-terrorism advisor.
The extraordinary drama surrounding the killing of Bin Laden encompassed the White House, the CIA and other arms of America's vast national security apparatus. The tale is part detective story, part spy thriller. But the decade-old manhunt for the Al Qaeda leader ultimately came down to a three-story building on a dirt road in the Pakistani army town of Abbottabad, north of Islamabad.
If the raid went wrong, President Obama would bear the blame. He had vetoed a plan to obliterate the compound with an airstrike. Obama wanted to be certain he had Bin Laden, and there was no guarantee that a smoking crater would yield proof. He had asked for a bolder plan, one that would allow the U.S. to take custody of Bin Laden or his body. It posed far more risk………….
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bin-laden-raid-20110503,0,7245803.story
END QUOTE
Other stories in the LA Times details that bin Laden was actively involved in his own defence. I think speculations here as to anyone’s courage by persons out of uniform with no personal knowledge – reflect very poorly upon us.
Yesterday I speculated(mentally) that capture alive had to have been an important objective. Referrence is made to this in the above link.
Yesterday I also speculated that DNA would be needed from two or three family members. See further from the link below.
http://www.the33tv.com/news/la-heb-osama-bin-laden-dna-testing-20110502,0,7457296.story
How we as a people react to this important event can speak very directly to our quality as a culture. Make no mistake.
We are being carefully observed.
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dirtbag
climber
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I guess Pakistan is upset that the mission invaded its air space.
Too bad!
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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The only question about Hanson is how much in federal and state subsidies does he reel in for his "farm" - other than that he's just another shuck 'n jive neocon trying to rationalize just why it is the neocon strategy to restore US superpower dominance went off the rails so badly.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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If we had to pay for wars in real time with increased taxes, there would be a whole new crowd of war protesters on the streets and golf links!
Peace
Karl
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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What happened to Bin Laden's money? Wasn't he worth like a billion at one point? Did he spend it all? Are there any billionaire radical muslims wanting to jump into his shoes? With out the money I don't think he could have done any of the things he did.
Will anyone with the resourses see it as a good investment to bankroll them?
If not I say we won and it time to bring some people home.
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dirtbag
climber
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If we had to pay for wars in real time with increased taxes, there would be a whole new crowd of war protesters on the streets and golf links!
Peace
Karl
You mean, you didn't think Bush tax cuts were the way to go? ;-)
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dirtbag
climber
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Great, our SEALS shot an unarmed man.
I don't care.
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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fattrad is just another neocon flip-flopper.
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monolith
climber
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Knowing he was unarmed after the fact doesn't tell the whole story. Did the SEALS know he was unarmed when confronted? Did they know he was Bin Laden from a distance? Were there other threats nearby?
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Gene
climber
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Let's see if I got this right...
Cragman steps away from Supertopo for a spell.
Osama bin Laden gets whacked.
Coincidence?
Hmmmm..
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Hawkeye
climber
State of Mine
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Great, our SEALS shot an unarmed man. Nice mission but I am going to have to second guess them.
you shoot your mouth off at us all day long, and comparatively speaking, we are totally unarmed against your baseless, spineless idiotic blather....
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Great, our SEALS shot an unarmed man.
I don't give a f*#k! (If true...)
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