Hatta wrote:I think the Birthers just need a new conspiracy theory. Isn't it just too convenient that this happens less than a week after the long form got released. Hey, where's Osama's death certificate?!
I agree, I find them just as bad as the "Bush did 9/11" argument.
From what I've been reading, this is the result of a long operation that has been running since 2007, in which a private courier in the Al Queda network was identified and slowly tracked down until being located in 2009 in Pakistan. From there he was traced to the compound in question in 2010, and the intelligence community slowly pieced together who was in the compound based on related intelligence until they decided that the target was either a high level Al Queda member, likely even Bin Laden. So President Obama weighed the options, had his chosen Seal team plan and execute several training operations in preparation, and then sent them in with orders to resolve the situation.
Ladies and gentlemen, this should show you something important: an operation like this takes time to research and follow through. Our nation's intelligence analysts have been following ever lead they could for a decade to locate Bin Laden, but this process is slow and painstaking. It has to be, otherwise mistakes are made. The Intel community in the US has been reeling for years after heavy criticism for rushing us into Iraq with the "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction" stint. So they take their time in working out his location, while double-checking to make sure they're not wrong. When they feel sure enough of themselves to act, the President gives the ok, and things get done.
Intelligence assessment is not and has never been an exact science. The United States government is not omnipotent, its security, intel, and defense organs are heavily constrained by the size of its budget, which is constantly being scrutinized by a public that doesn't understand anything about how that money might be used and constantly hounds for it to be lessened.
While the announcement of this may strike some of you as politically timed, I've already pointed out that this was an operation which took years to execute. President Obama may have gotten lucky in the timing (and he might not have, as the election is still more than a year and a half away), but this was not a political power card to keep him in office. If there is anything that strikes me about this as politically timed, it would be Leon Panetta's likely promotion from Director of the Central Intelligence Agency to Secretary of Defense in the wake of current Secretary Robert Gates' impending retirement, and I only say that because it may be a way of Obama expressing his opinion that Panetta did a good job.
As for jfrost's concern that civilians possibly being killed, I've heard several combatants were killed in the raid, along with two women. Last night the BBC said those women had been used by the combatants as human shields, but I haven't read any further reports about it. The US government lost a helicopter in the raid due to mechanical failure, but none of the special forces personnel were injured.
Some of you have expressed concern over Bin Laden's organization carrying on without him, and it will. Bin Laden hadn't been releasing information since 2007, so it's likely he had little to do in Al Queda's regular operation anymore. But with the recent waves of protest and government toppling in many predominantly Muslim nations, along with the ongoing US withdrawal from Iraq, Al Queda's relevance to the modern Muslim world is likely fading. Yes, some militancy will continue, but many nations are looking to their own problems and deciding how they will change or develop their own governments and national identities. With Bin Laden dead and the Afghan Taliban supposedly urging peace and cooperation, it's possible the US will soon be drawing down its forces in Afghanistan as well. Libya...well, Libya's another matter that I feel very unsure of, but we'll see how that goes.
Oh, and President Bush's Mission Accomplished speech was related to the fall of Saddam Hussein and the defeat of his Iraqi military forces. In terms of conventional warfare in Iraq the speech was accurate, though the Iraqi Insurgency soon followed, prolonging the US combat mission in the nation almost indefinitely. Both former Presidents Bush and Clinton have released statements about the death of Bin Laden and congratulating President Obama.
Yeah...