Posted on 05/03/2011 5:23:30 AM PDT by Kaslin
"Ding dong the witch is dead!"
As crowds gathered outside the White House, at the site of Ground Zero, and in other public places to cheer news of the death of Osama bin Laden, President Obama said in a late Sunday night address from the White House, "Justice has been done." To one man justice has been done, but not to the terrorist movement itself, which is bigger than any one man and whose franchise headquarters appears to have moved now to Yemen.
At the end, bin Laden died a coward, hiding in a fortified mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan. This was no Hitler-in-his-bunker moment in which the Nazi dictator expired by his own hand. Adolf Hitler's death came as Allied troops swept into Berlin and by then the German war machine had been crushed.
While Nazism was based on the flawed premise of racial superiority, al-Qaidaism is based on the equally flawed notion of the superiority of a particularly radical form of Islam and the innate inferiority of all other religious beliefs.
Media reports in the aftermath of the president's announcement said the key for the American forces hunting bin Laden was one of his most trusted couriers, identified by men captured shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. If this is true, and if those captured were taken to Guantanamo and gave up information after "enhanced" interrogation techniques, denounced by then-Senator Obama and his Democratic colleagues, this would be a vindication for the policies of Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush.
The political implications of this successful operation are already being debated. President Obama will probably get a bump in his sagging poll numbers, which is fine, after all bin Laden was killed on his watch. But this operation was a team effort fanned out over three administrations. The war isn't over, though, as President Obama said.
Since Osama bin Laden dropped out of sight, with only the occasional message filtered through al-Jazeera, his effectiveness in planning new terror attacks has always been problematic. Surely he trained and inspired a new generation of terrorists who will now take up his mantle and seek to use whatever "martyrdom" they can sell to new recruits to encourage others to join the war against the "Great Satan."
It is good that bin Laden was killed in Pakistan and not captured and brought to America to stand trial, where Attorney General Eric Holder has suggested he would receive full constitutional rights. Imagine the circus that would have been with lawyers using the American system of justice to try to free him, citing supposed violations of his constitutional "rights."
The killing of bin Laden might have erased a symbol, but it doesn't end the conflict. The president made his obligatory statement, also made by his two predecessors, that the U.S. "is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam." But it cannot be denied that a particularly virulent strain of religious disease has invaded virtually all of those who have killed or wounded so many Americans, including those of the Muslim faith.
If our policy is to hunt down these terrorists and exact justice, it is a good policy that should be pursued with the rest of the al-Qaida leadership wherever we find them. Let's celebrate this American victory -- it's needed in this ongoing war -- but then let's keep the pressure on and not give these terrorists a moment's rest.
There is plenty more that can be done, not only in Europe, but also in this country where too many terrorists reside, plotting to kill even more innocent men, women and children.
Osama Bin Laden is Dead: The credit goes to the US Intel Community - no matter who’s the POTUS/CIC - the Intel Community continues to track and assess - and Osama is dead because of intelligence personnel ....Obama may have given the okay to kill the SOB -but considering his rating and what Clinton didn’t do - he had no choice in the matter...
160th from Fort Campbell piloted mission to attack bin Laden
I also hope this is a sign that our intelligence has improved since it was a disastrous failure of intelligence that allowed 9/11 in the first place.
Reagan had our intelligence community in pretty good shape. But in the 90’s, the liberals under Clinton so badly screwed things up that among other things, the FBI and the CIA weren’t communicating with each other allowing the fatal deterioration of our intelligence which was THE reason they successfully pulled off 9/11.
***Reagan had our intelligence community in pretty good shape. But in the 90’s, the liberals under Clinton so badly screwed things up that among other things, the FBI and the CIA weren’t communicating with each other allowing the fatal deterioration of our intelligence which was THE reason they successfully pulled off 9/11.***
You’re correct. It was called the Gorelick Plan which forbid the CIA and FBI to exchange information. When Pres. Bush was in my city he introduced one of the members of those two organizations who said that if a member of the CIA or FBI had information which absolutely should have been shared with each other, and they ran into each other in a hallway, COULD NOT say anything but, “Good morning,” or some other inanity. Thanks to Bush, this law was changed.
However, yesterday, somewhere on FR I read that the Gorelick Plan had been revived under Obama and is still operating. Does anyone know if this is possible?
If it's stupid, under the leftists, it's likely.
Is it true? Don't know.
Without Intel - those pilots and Seals would still be on station waiting to roll. Having served with Special Ops in Iraq - they will tell you - that everything I did intel wise that saved them from ambush to mitigating threats is foremost important. So I will adhear to my original statement that it was the diligence of the Intel Community (IC) that located UBL - even though it was an operator that was sent in to pull the trigger. It started and it will end with intelligence...apparently everyone misses that crucial piece.
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