Bin Laden Found Dead?

[Pekkerhead]

some kind soul has already pinned the location of the compound in Google Earth.

[Freetrader]

some kind soul has already pinned the location of the compound in Google Earth.

If he had done that a few years ago, it would've saved everyone a lot of trouble...

[Pekkerhead]

would've been even funnier if they'd caught him on streetview (face obscured of course).

[Loz_2]

I guess there'll be a Hollywood movie out soon about the showdown at Abbatobad staring Arnold Schwarzeneger.

[Mat]

"Come out with your hands up Osama and no tricky stuff"

Worth a try I suppose.

He would not have been the first (and last) war combatant captured....
But my understanding is more - in linewith the brit here - that the US didn't want to deal with this issue alive and anyway he was wanted Dead or Alive, so I guess they did not hesitate (apparently he didn't either)..
This won't change anything anyway but after 10 years of "searching" and millions (billions?) of dollars spent they finally got him. Better late than never.

[Raccon]

OSAMA buried at sea? Why?

Cheaper than shooting him to the moon.

[gilleshk]

There are a myriad of possibilities and we'll likely never know the truth. It's quite possible the man would have never accepted to be captured alive. The US did capture Saddam Hussein and let him be paraded through a trial... I can't imagine though that anyone would want to take great risks to get the man, it would have tarred the operation a bit if american lives were lost in the process of capturing him.

[Raccon]

I don't think it's appropriate to celebrate someone's death in public even if it's a mass murderer. Many people feel the same and there are always vigil's being held when prisoner's are being put to death in the US.

But there are usually also those that celebrate when a mass murderer is put to death. So what's your point?

There are always people on both sides and while you won't find me on the streets celebrating I sympathize more with them than with those that pay their last respect to a mass murderer.

[TheBrit]

Very naive if you think the US wanted the hassle of dealing with him alive. I suspect he was shot on sight.

Well I just read this, confirming the (to me) fairly obvious dynamic in play

13.29 The US special forces team that hunted down Osama bin Laden was under orders to kill the al Qaeda mastermind, not capture him, a US national security official has told Reuters.

Osama bin Laden killed: live - Telegraph

"This was a kill operation," the official said, making clear there was no desire to try to capture bin Laden alive in Pakistan.

[gilleshk]

But there are usually also those that celebrate when a mass murderer is put to death. So what's your point?

There are always people on both sides and while you won't find me on the streets celebrating I sympathize more with them than with those that pay their last respect to a mass murderer.

The point which is pretty obvious and I made before but will repeat again since you seem to be slow in comprehending is that this kind of celebration is based on hatred and it only fans the flame instead of accomplishing anything. It sparked outrage with good reasons when muslims did it on attacks on America and I imagine that if I notice the disrespect of those americans, it will resonate even more in other quarters.

Clearly the president understood what you didn't because he appeared very solemn and did not dwell or rejoice that Bin Laden was dead but focused instead on other points.