[Noamie]

“The only part that seems odd to me is that there weren’t any provisions at all to take Osama bin Laden prisoner.”

Says who?

I recommend a re-read of the book. That they didn’t take any chances with him isn’t surprising. OBL got shot in the head in a dark hallway before he was positively ID’d.

I’m surprised by all of the comments claiming to “know” that the senior DEVGRU members were keen on a straight-up assassination mission of the most valuable intel target in the world.

OBL got shot because he was a coward. He just wasn’t a big enough coward to keep himself alive.

[Chainmail]

Maybe you should re-read that part... He is very specific that they knew that by the time they got to the third floor, that was the last place in the compound and the CIA analysis said that this was his residence. The team had very good NVGs and the building was in complete darkness. Their opponent had only the door opening to shoot from - if he'd had a weapon available - while the attackers had a better field of fire down that hall.

The "nails in the coffin" were the bursts of fire into bin Laden's chest even though he was alread well head-shot. Nobody does that if there were any orders to try to take him alive. You'll also note that there wasn't any mention in their preparation of restraints/hoods/cuffs or anyone with real arabic language skills. If you were going to capture a high-profile target like bin Laden, a self-taught member of the SEAL team is not adequate.

It was an assasination mission - which is fine if that's the best thing for our country - but we deserve the truth, not some fairy story from our leaders.