US kills carefree son of a Saudi billionaire

[Fade]

That would be Osama Bin Laden

That should get the royalty off your TV!

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

That should get the royalty off your TV!

Ha! That's precisely why I figured they announced it now (as I speculated to a friend). Just had to one up the British.

Well, Obama is now starting his address. Wonder how the Republicans will react. (I am surprised that this wasn't saved until closer to the elections).

So, does this mean the war on terror is over? Will our testicles be free of molestation at the airports?

Probably not.

 

[metalman]

So, does this mean the war on terror is over?

al-Zawahiri

 

[Robert]

"... body has already been buried at sea...."

Hmmmmm......

 

[redrumloa]

Wonder how the Republicans will react.

That is an odd statement. You would be hard pressed to find an american of any kind not happy about Osama's death. I thought Obama's speech was fairly good.

 

[Glaucus]

So, does this mean the war on terror is over?

al-Zawahiri

Unfortunately true. al-Qaeda has never been described as a centralized, hierarchical organization, so killing one leader doesn't mean much. It's really the multi headed hydra, chop one head off, one or more grow in to take it's place. To defeat al-Qaeda it'll require more then just killing terrorists.

One must also wonder if al-Qaeda itself had grown tired of Osama and leaked his whereabouts to the US just to get rid of him.

But overall it seems to be a good thing as Osama was rather popular and charismatic, always drawing people to the cause. The bad news is that the idiots he already radicalized may see this is a queue to do something real nasty.

 

[metalman]

So, does this mean the war on terror is over?

al-Zawahiri

Unfortunately true. al-Qaeda has never been described as a centralized, hierarchical organization, so killing one leader doesn't mean much. It's really the multi headed hydra, chop one head off, one or more grow in to take it's place. To defeat al-Qaeda it'll require more then just killing terrorists..

After a while even those Emir for life positions have no takers .... seems when the Emir for life position lasts for 30 day or less, the positions start going vacant

The haul of computer and documents from the compound is now being sorted through. There will be a long list of new predator targets

and more vacancies in Emir for life positions

 

[ilwrath]

I hear that much like Tupac, Osama has another video coming out soon......

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Wonder how the Republicans will react.

That is an odd statement. You would be hard pressed to find an american of any kind not happy about Osama's death. I thought Obama's speech was fairly good.

I said "the" Republicans, not regular folk who self identify as republican philosophically. I was talking about how the party will handle this politically. Can they really go slapping Obama on the back saying "well done"? Can they still call Obama a Muslim or soft on terror or not American? They lose a lot of their favourite attack issues - it's rather devastating.

So they'll have to stick with social issues but who cares, he killed Osama.

And if it turns out that this is theatre and they didn't actually kill Osama but someone who looks like him or perhaps they didn't even kill anyone ... is a whole political party going to come forward and say so and get labeled "conspiracy theorists". Then they'll end up looking like the "looney" Tea Party.

Unless they had moles and got the information early it's going to take them a while to come up with their direction on this but it's a tricky one. Perhaps best to just ignore it - or just point out that there is still a long way to go.

 

[Robert]

And if it turns out that this is theatre and they didn't actually kill Osama but someone who looks like him or perhaps they didn't even kill anyone ... is a whole political party going to come forward and say so and get labeled "conspiracy theorists". Then they'll end up looking like the "looney" Tea Party.

If it's any consolation to them, I'm going to need a teency bit more convincing too;

USA creates monster
USA slays said monster
Round of applause for USA!

So, let's see this self-inflicted-monster's dead body....
.... oh, you've buried it at sea already?
Round of applause for USA!

 

[redrumloa]

And if it turns out that this is theatre and they didn't actually kill Osama but someone who looks like him or perhaps they didn't even kill anyone ... is a whole political party going to come forward and say so and get labeled "conspiracy theorists". Then they'll end up looking like the "looney" Tea Party.

If it's any consolation to them, I'm going to need a teency bit more convincing too;

USA creates monster
USA slays said monster
Round of applause for USA!

So, let's see this self-inflicted-monster's dead body....
.... oh, you've buried it at sea already?
Round of applause for USA!

Meh, shouldn't you be kissing someone's ring or something :?:

 

[metalman]

Wonder how the Republicans will react.

That is an odd statement. You would be hard pressed to find an american of any kind not happy about Osama's death. I thought Obama's speech was fairly good.

I said "the" Republicans, not regular folk who self identify as republican philosophically. I was talking about how the party will handle this politically. Can they really go slapping Obama on the back saying "well done"? Can they still call Obama a Muslim or soft on terror or not American? They lose a lot of their favourite attack issues - it's rather devastating.

Actually Obama has left in place key members of the Bush Defense Department team and all the Bush policies on Iraq & Afghanistan, and the Predator strikes inside Pakistan have intensified under Obama. The Republican criticism Obama has been receiving on Military matters is about Libya, and trying to close Gitmo.

Obama actually kept the operation secret from the Pakistani government, taking unilateral military action in Pakistan. A decision that increased the odds of success of the mission, and came right out of the George Bush playbook.

Osama was in a house in Abbottabad, which also has a large Pakistani military base, and the military academy of the Pakistani army. Osama was living in a house eight times larger than its neighbors, security measures included 12 to 18 foot (3.6m to 5.5m) outer walls topped with barbed wire and internal walls that sectioned off different parts of the compound. Two security gates restricted access, and the residents burned their trash, rather than leaving it for collection as did their neighbors. The house had no phone or internet service, had high windows and few points of access.

yet the Pakistani's never noticed anything unusual :roll:

So Obama gets my congratulations for a military job well done.

and it turns out the information leading to Osama, was obtained from the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at Gitmo.


The election and Republican criticism of Obama will be over domestic policies. Obama has reversed his election promise to shut down Gitmo, and shifted of the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed back to a military tribunal, changing his position to agree with Republicans on these issues now.

 

[Robert]

Meh, shouldn't you be kissing someone's ring or something :?:

I thought it was you God-fearing types that kissed rings?

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

So Obama gets my congratulations for a military job well done.

The election and Republican criticism of Obama will be over domestic policies. Obama has reversed his election promise to shut down Gitmo, and shifted of the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed back to a military tribunal, changing his position to agree with Republicans on these issues now.

That's exactly what I was talking about. Now the Republicans have to say : Congrats (for continuing the Bush policies ergo Obama isn't bad on foreign policy) and fight him on domestic policy for doing what the Republicans would have done. It's lose-lose for the GOP. Obama took their political territory and he's waving their flag - they can only criticize him for being too much like a Republican. If they want to criticize him on domestic policy they either have to move to the fringes on the right or double back and go left of Obama. Either direction will shrink their base.

 

[redrumloa]

That's exactly what I was talking about. Now the Republicans have to say : Congrats (for continuing the Bush policies ergo Obama isn't bad on foreign policy) and fight him on domestic policy for doing what the Republicans would have done. It's lose-lose for the GOP. Obama took their political territory and he's waving their flag - they can only criticize him for being too much like a Republican. If they want to criticize him on domestic policy they either have to move to the fringes on the right or double back and go left of Obama. Either direction will shrink their base.

BTW I find it funny who is trying to politicize Osama's killing. Something needed to be done and it was done under Obama's watch. Obama did not get in the way and was presidential in his speech. I'll give credit where credit is due, something a lot of you guys can't do.

 

[Robert]

So you are saying Democrat voters are shallow and have no conviction? Democrats will see Obama break every promise and yet they will still worship him?

Interesting.

Fluffy might not be saying that but I will; there's an element of blind following of the team on both sides.

 

[redrumloa]

So you are saying Democrat voters are shallow and have no conviction? Democrats will see Obama break every promise and yet they will still worship him?

Interesting.

Fluffy might not be saying that but I will; there's an element of blind following of the team on both sides.

You caught my post before the edit. You were very ninja-like.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

BTW I find it funny who is trying to politicize Osama's killing.

It IS political. There was a political calculation made before this was carried out and how to capitalize on it. How this would play politically was looked at before Obama gave his authorization.

 

[Robert]

So you are saying Democrat voters are shallow and have no conviction? Democrats will see Obama break every promise and yet they will still worship him?

Interesting.

Fluffy might not be saying that but I will; there's an element of blind following of the team on both sides.

You caught my post before the edit. You were very ninja-like.

Sorry, Jim; I know it's annoying when that happens.
Would you like me to delete or edit it?

 

[redrumloa]

Sorry, Jim; I know it's annoying when that happens.
Would you like me to delete or edit it?

Nah not at all. Thanks for the concern