Wednesday, May 11, 2011

bin Laden boo hoo

Turns out Osama's son Omar isn't happy with the way his father was "arbitrarily" assassinated and buried at sea.  One wonders if he was as concerned for his father's victims.

I don't quite understand the fuss over whether or not bin Laden was armed.  People asking questions like that clearly have absolutely no idea what it is that SEALs do, particularly in an instance where there aren't hostages involved.  Here's a general idea: Dynamic entry is made, flash-bangs fly, and anyone still standing is a target.  They're not supposed to wait for people to shoot at them.  The idea is to crush resistance before it has a chance to start.  That's why DEVGRU doesn't get sent to every situation, because that kind of unlimited force obviously isn't always appropriate.

In this case, however, that sort of force may sound brutal, but given that the alternative was to level the compound (and surrounding area) with 30+ JDAM smart bombs - vaporizing everyone inside and causing massive amounts of collateral damage - it's actually downright surgical by comparison.

I also love the fact that his son wanted him to be arrested and face trial "like Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein."  First, Saddam's trial was clearly a show trial, and even those of us who think he got what he deserved when he ended up hanging from a rope (I may have been extremely skeptical of the war in Iraq, but that doesn't stop me from supporting genocidal madmen getting their just deserts) knew that from the start.  Second, Slobo is a bad example because he died awaiting trial in the Hague because of the enormous problems entailed by international law.  Third, would taking bin Laden alive really have been a great idea?  How long would it have taken al-Queda to take hostages somewhere and proclaim that they would execute one hostage every hour until bin Laden was released?  I, for one, am glad we didn't have to find out.

The man was a legitimate target of military action based upon his committing multiple acts of war on the United States and other countries.  The SEALs and their Army pilots performed brilliantly.  The attack limited collateral damage as much as was possible.  End of story.

2 comments:

  1. On the other hand, this son was very vocal about disagreeing with his father's methods. I, too, have no problem with bin Laden's death, but I can understand a son's grief.

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  2. Fair point about grief, although if Omar bin Laden wants to know why we'd shoot an unarmed man instead of arresting him, perhaps he ought to ask why his dad was in hiding in the first place.

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