We got bin Laden!

[Robspierre]

You've probably have seen the news, but the report is we got bin Ladin and have his body.

HELL YEAH!

Rob

[Ampoliros]

I'm sure they'll find a way to blame Obama for this.

[A Thing of Eternity]

This is a joke right? I'll head to google right now, but they actually got the fucker? Nice symbolic victory if so! But of course, now he's a martyr... oh well, couldn't really avoid that.

[Robspierre]

I'm sure they'll find a way to blame Obama for this.

See what that affirmative action shit has done? The black man has taken the white mans job away form him, now look who's takin' all George Bush's credit! The black, muslim, usurper who isn't a citizen!

Rob

[Robspierre]

This is a joke right? I'll head to google right now, but they actually got the fucker? Nice symbolic victory if so! But of course, now he's a martyr... oh well, couldn't really avoid that.

No joke, they got him, got his body, and Republicans everywhere are shitting themselves

Rob

[A Thing of Eternity]

But him and Obama were buddies right? Why would he kill poor Osama? Listen to how similar their names sound, they must be buddies?

[SandRider]

who's that "we", Rob ?
you & the mouse in your pocket in the C.I.A. now ?



okay, so all that must mean the "War on Terror" or "Operations for Freedom"
or whatever are over, right? all the kids can come home and the Congress
is going to repeal TPA I&II in the morning ?

[Spicelon]

1,200 American soldiers, 9,000 Afghan citizens and about 3 billion dollars later, we got the fucker.

I'm glad he's dead, the dude had to go, but I sure wish people had a little more perspective on this. Call me cynical but other than this being a political event I don't really see anything changing too much. I'm assuming the al-Qaida machine was prepared for this eventuality. Best scenario would be a fractal situation within al-Qaida as the leadership jockeys for position. Maybe a funding crisis. Just seems more like a relief thing than a celebration thing.

[SandChigger]

I just got back from running around downtown and saw all the hoopla on CNN.

Um... Bin Laden dead does not mean al-Qa'ida is dead. Remember the Hydra.

Obviously our government is smarter than all the people out in the middle of the night cheering and hooping and getting drunk: they've put everything on high alert and issued advisories for Americans traveling and living abroad.

This is far from over.

[Kojiro]

I'm pretty sure he's been dead for a decade already. Bush was just keeping him "alive" because he needed a bogeyman and Obama "killed" him because he needed to look like he was accomplishing something. Different jerks, but still self-serving all the way.

[Robspierre]

I knew two people who died at the Pentagon, while bin Laden's death is largely symbolic, for the families of those I knew, they now have closure.

My girlfriend is from New York, she worked at the Borders just down from the WTC on Wall Street. Closure.

The rest of the bullshit, security theatre, war on terror never ending like the war on drugs, the continued existence of threats, all will go on.

Rob

[A Thing of Eternity]

I'm pretty sure he's been dead for a decade already. Bush was just keeping him "alive" because he needed a bogeyman and Obama "killed" him because he needed to look like he was accomplishing something. Different jerks, but still self-serving all the way.

Har har.

This really accomplishes nothing other than a symbolic victory for the West (and I'll concede, some small closure for anyone legitimately traumatized by 911) and a new cry to arms for the extremists.

[D Pope]

Did the media ever show any proof of his involvment in 9-11?
I don't want to search all the bull on the internet, I just want to know if there was anything other than being told he did it.

[Kojiro]

No.

Well, unless you count that supposed video with muffled audio with dubious translation and a "bin Laden" that had a fat nose and cheeks and gold wedding band. Protip to Intelligence officers, if you're going to impersonate a Muslim in a propaganda piece, the least you could do is research why Islam doesn't allow gold wedding bands.

[E. LeGuille]

Wish I had a spoiler tag for this, since it is NSFW.




This is the picture of him floating around at the moment.

[Ampoliros]

I know I'm Mr Cynical, but I have to agree with the boogeyman hypothesis. Alive or dead, OBL was worth 10x his weight (as an actual terrorist mastermind) in being a media boogeyman and political football.

Bush needed him 'out there', Obama needed him 'gone'. CIA was done with him. BLAM.

Now of course the downside is how much of the political fallout for this has already been handled. I'm talking about the Saud's reaction. I'm talking about Pakistan's reaction. He was found on a compound near Pakistan's military training academy in an urban area. Who was in on it and who sold him out?

I'm also filing his burial at sea as under yet another 'benevolent coincidence'.

[Freakzilla]

...who sold him out?

I heard it was info gathered from Gitmo on the nickname of OBLs courier.

I'm also filing his burial at sea as under yet another 'benevolent coincidence'.

To deny them a shrine, plus Muslim tradition is to bury the dead within 24hrs, or something.

[A Thing of Eternity]

I'll agree for sure that Bush would have wanted him alive and Obama would have wanted him dead - but that really only puts any blame on Bush for not properly trying to get the guy (if we're buying into the idea that Bush actively backed off searching for him in order to keep the boogey man out there), not Obama. Unless we're buying into the more crackpot theory that he's been dead the whole time and both Bush and Obama have exploited this as is best for themselves.

[Hunchback Jack]

Call me naive, but I'd have thought being able to produce Bin Laden's body during the run-up to the 2004 or 2008 elections would have been more politically useful than keeping him alive to prolong the war. I personally do not believe either government has been holding out on this. Not everything's a politically-motivated conspiracy.

HBJ

[A Thing of Eternity]

I'm not convinced either way on this one, could easily enough have been on purpose that Bush never caught him, but then again Bush could have been dedicating just as much resources to that as Obama has and Obama just had better timing as to when the right intel lined up with being president. Both are entirely possible and neither particularly far fetched.

In the absence of actual evidence stating otherwise I have to side with the benefit of the doubt, Bush tried his best, Obama tried his best, happened to happen during Obama's time. To assume otherwise without real evidence is a bit silly.

I will say that I don't think that catching Osama would have done anything good for Bush during his second term, probably was in fact to his advantage to have him out there being scary - but that doesn't mean he slacked off on trying to catch the guy necessarily. Plus this whole pros/cons thing as far as whether it was better for Bush to catch him or for him to be out there is realistically a lot more complicated than we're talking about here.

[Hunchback Jack]

In the absence of actual evidence stating otherwise I have to side with the benefit of the doubt, Bush tried his best, Obama tried his best, happened to happen during Obama's time. To assume otherwise without real evidence is a bit silly.

That's more or less my take as well.

HBJ

[lotek]

they got Obama Ben La..



http://bit.ly/kYUyw9" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[A Thing of Eternity]

They're going to say that was just a typo too, rather than an attempt to subliminally make people think bad things when they read/hear Obama's name!

[Omphalos]

Fox 40 is our local Fox affiliate here in Sacramento. That's not those lying bastards over at the cable Fox News, but I'm wondering if it was a mistake or not.

[Robspierre]

Also, May 1 was the 8th Anniversary of Bush in his flight suit declaring Mission Accomplished.

Rob