Sorry in advance Bob.
Gag me. I can't imagine the pressure-packed hours that must have been spent debating over whether to put people in harms way to kill OBL - oh wait, that's right, that's the same decision that Obama ALREADY made when he sent even more troops (magnitudes larger than one Seal team) into Afghanistan. The same decision that Bush made to invade Afghanistan almost a decade ago. I would suggest that it would have taken far more courage for him NOT to order the attack - talk about the political suicide that would have ensued if he (to quote a popular Republican barb) wussed out like a typical liberal. Deciding to carpet bomb the entire town to get one guy - that would have been a difficult decision. Sending a small, heavily armed and highly trained team into a single building to shoot up a few bad guys? News flash, we do that every single day over there WITHOUT the President's direct involvement, and somehow missions still succeed.Originally Posted by JoFotoz
Obama did nothing exceptional in this situation - he made the obvious choice that almost anyone else would have made based upon the well-assembled, actionable intelligence put in front of him. The adulation should be focused on the military and intelligence community, both the specific group that supported this operation, as well as the larger body that supports and executes these lethal missions every single day. Attributing (to whatever degree) the success of a single tactical operation to the President of the United States is a bit like saying that you or I killed OBL by paying the taxes that funded the training and bullets. It's technically true but mostly self-deluding.
I hear you guys, but I think you choose to see what you want to see (me included). Were those angry hate-mongerers outside the White House and at Ground Zero, or were they Americans who have had nothing but discouragement since 9/11 (seemingly never-ending war in Iraq and Afghanistan, an economy and job market in the toilet, etc.) celebrating that their country had finally achieved the main objective of the "War on Terror"? We've been looking for this guy for a LONG time, and have spent trillions trying to kill him - are we not entitled to breathe a sigh of relief and show a little excitement? I'll agree that the obsession over how he died, seeing pictures, wishing his death was incredibly painful, etc. is over the top. I just don't think it's fair to characterize these groups of celebrators as somehow equivalent to Islamic Jihadists firing AK-47's into the air.x2...unfortunately, this sort of behavior is inherent in our nature as human beings. Our first thought does not turn to compassion and lamentations, but to the pleasure elicited by fulfilled revenge. Definitely not saying I wanted that guy alive myself...though I just wish all the senseless misery and death could stop altogether. It's just a shame that corruption, greed, envy and hatred will always exist, and thus it will never stop...sorry if I'm starting to sound like a hippie.
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