Great news. His unceremonious end is exactly what should have befallen so many others in al Qaeda after their intelligence value was exhausted. Kudos to our military assets and also to President Obama for having the willingness to follow this through. One wonders why if this site was known for years it took so long to do something. It probably has something to do with its proximity to high level Pakistani government assets. It’s not in the lawless NWFP but a hop, skip, and a jump from Pakistan’s capital.
Hopefully this allows a face-saving exit from Afghanistan in accord with the mini-surge of last year (scheduled to wind down in July 2011).
Osama’s demise also seesms to vindicate the unorthodox interrogation strategies in Guantanamo Bay that appear to have led to couriers and others that led, eventually, to OBL himself.
But the elephant in the room really is bin Laden’s erstwhile location. He was literally a few hundred meters from the Pakistani equivalent of West Point. Pakistan gets billions of dollars a year from the US. They had to know! One wonders if the timeline of this raid has something to do with high level negotiations for the Pakistanis to admit their knowledge of or to give up bin Laden, whom at least some members of their military establishment must have known about.
Perhaps the meltdown of US Pakistani relations in the last few months have something to do with this intelligence and the timing of this raid. Literally, Osama was blocks from their friggin’ military academy. Look below:
Osama’s little compound was not that little, nor inconspicuous. In fact, it appears it was one of the biggest mansions in town. Pakistan has nukes, so our options are limited. But could we at least treat them like the non-allied, rogue state that they are and cut off the gravy train once and for all.
All the same, I’m glad this POS is off this earth and getting his just desserts in Hades right now. Let’s not forget Dante’s description:
But on my ears there smote a wailing, whereat forward intent I
open wide my eye. And the good Master said, “Now, son, the city
draws near that is named Dis, with its heavy citizens, with its
great throng.” And I, “Master, already in the valley therewithin
I clearly discern its mosques vermilion, as if issuing from
fire.” And he said to me, “The eternal fire that blazes within
them displays them red as thou seest in this nether Hell.”
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As (I am told) a U.S. Army Chaplain told troops headed for Afghanistan just after 9/11
” It’s not your place to judge the soul of Osama bin Ladin. Only God can do this. It’s your job to arrange the meeting between the two”
Meeting successfully arranged. Misson Accomplished.
Looking at Google Earth, there are actually military facilities in two different directions from the compound (south and west). Most of the buildings in the area seem to be one to two stories, but there are 3-4 story buildings in the military facilities, both only about a 1/2 mile away. What this means is that someone, literally, could have watched bin Laden from the upper floors of these buildings.
That is friggin insane.