Various news organizations are reporting that Osama Bin Laden is dead. President Obama is expected to announce the news. Bin Laden was reportedly killed in Pakistan by an operation involving Navy Seals but the story is still unfolding. YahooReports indicate that he was shot in the head after he and his bodyboards resisted an attack by the elite unit.
The fact that he reportedly went down fighting will likely add to his image as a martyr — though people who follow him need little encouragement or reason.
Bin Laden was a murderous fanatic who used religion to spread hate. His passing from this Earth would be welcomed news and, even for the most agnostic or atheist among us, there is a lingering wish that there is place for the damned to greet men like Bin Laden after the untold harm that he caused not just to his country but to many countries. Hundreds of thousands of dead can be credited to his dark legacy and beliefs.
While liberals and conservatives differed on the means used to fight Bin Laden, there was never any division on the commitment to fight terrorism or the shared loss from his crimes. On September 11th, the plane that hit the Pentagon struck just after I passed the building on my way to work. I made it about a mile away after blowing my tire on the curb and changing the tire as huge columns of smoke filled the air.
In the end, Bin Laden remained the authentic symbol of radical Islam — an extremist filled with hate living with fellow troglodytes in caves and crevices.
Bin Laden’s death will force some accounting of what has been gained and what has been lost since his infamous wave of terror began. Too much of the damage of 9-11 proved to be self-inflicted, including our use of torture and the launching of two wars that have cost thousands of more American lives and hundreds of billions as the nation sinks into debt and economic distress.
There is no indication that our continued loss of money or personnel in Afghanistan will decrease in any way as a result of the news. While the Afghanistan war seemed personality driven with Bin Laden as the face of evil, it has taken on a type perpetual war due to a lack of political courage to end it.
The world is far better without the likes of Osama Bin Laden. However, he left an ample legacy (and legions) to guarantee that religious hate will continue to shape the future of that region and the world at large.
HenMan,
I withdraw my statement and question. Apparently you are the world’s only flying gallus gallus domesticus. Happy Crime Fighting!
Blouise,
Surely HenMan’s secret identity is something other than Clark Kent. I’m not suggesting he’s not a superhero because clearly he is, but I ask you this . . .
If they could leap tall buildings in a single bound, don’t you think hens would be running about freely instead of hemmed in by chicken wire fences?
Blouise-
Up! Up! and Away!
“But you call ME nuts?? LOL”
“THESE are the people you trust???”
“YOU are the one in need of medication buddy!”
Larry,
You need to re-read my comment. Where is there anything written about your being “nuts?”. Where to is there anything in it that states that I trust, or have ever trusted any government? Where in my comments did you see any hint that I felt you needed medication? Indeed as a post graduate Institute Trained mental health professional, I don’t have faith in the efficacy of most psychotropic medication.
Rather than absorbing the meaning of my comment, you are projecting on me things that are seemingly responses from your own thought processes. This was what I was in effect warning you about and that is making false suppositions based on your
pre-judgments, rather than dealing with the apparent facts at hand and living in the present.
“The intelligence that finally nailed Osama Bin Laden came from multiple sources, including Bill Ayers, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, secret operatives from ACORN, and information from the three members of the New Black Panther Party who stole the 2008 election.” (HenMan)
Clark Kent … I knew you when
Bdaman and Larry-
The intelligence that finally nailed Osama Bin Laden came from multiple sources, including Bill Ayers, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, secret operatives from ACORN, and information from the three members of the New Black Panther Party who stole the 2008 election.
And, may I be the first to demand the release of Osama Bin Laden’s Death Certificate. No, not that one! The REAL one!
Larry,
People might take you more seriously if you dropped the “everything is a conspiracy” angle. It makes you seem often irrational but especially when you rely upon weak or non-existent evidence. The bouts of shouting don’t aid in allaying that impression either. I’m not saying there are not actual conspiracies in the world, but a surprising amount of things in this world fall into the category of “shit happens” and “rightly or wrongly, somebody exploiting shit happening”. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean people aren’t out to get you, but that doesn’t change that you’re paranoid.
Larry,
Thanks for the clarification.
“When you say “this government”–do you mean the Obama Administration?”
ANY administration. They are all liars because they protect the ones who are REALLY in charge: bankers and corporations.
Larry,
“Believing anything this government tells me is just about the nuttiest thing someone could do.”
When you say “this government”–do you mean the Obama Administration?
Larry,
They’re playing your song . . .
Obama can now freely attack ANY other country he wants [with the full support of the American people]—why you ask??? Because he’s the one that “got Bin Laden”, that’s why! LOL
“As more details come out on how the intelligence community found Osama bin Laden, several conservatives have suggested the Obama administration should admit that waterboarding is at least partly to thank for the victory.
But Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he has no reason to believe advanced interrogation techniques should be credited for the information.
‘I don’t have any basis to believe that this…was produced by illegal activity,’ said Levin, who is, like President Barack Obama, a critic of waterboarding.
The Obama administration has released little information on how it was tipped off to the courier who led United States forces to the bin Laden compound. But some suggest the intel came partially from interrogations with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Faraj al Libbi, both of whom were held in the Guantanamo Bay detention center and subjected to waterboarding.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) suggested as much in a Monday morning tweet: ‘Wonder what President Obama thinks of water boarding now?’
Levin, though, said he believes evidence that waterboarding is ineffective and likely to produce ‘misinformation, not good information.'”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-dead-inside-raid-that-killed-him_n_856158.html
Let the games to rationalize torture begin . . .
Mike said:
“You have my deepest sympathies. It is difficult when the object of your ones succeeds well in something and thus gives lie to some of your deepest beliefs and pre-judgments.”
Was the English?
Mike—are you telling me that Benazir Bhutto did NOT say Bin Laden was murdered in that clip above from 2007??? Hmmmmm? Almost a dozen others have claimed he’s been dead as well. And I’m not talking about authors or conspiracy theorists. I’m talking about people in the FBI and CIA. Want the proof??? Let me guess….nahhhh, you don’t want the proof because that would prevent you from calling me a kook, wouldn’t it? Did you click the link I posted above of the site that posted that FAKE picture LAST NOVEMBER of Osama dead—the very SAME one that is being posted on TV now, and the SAME one that OS posted in his link????
But you call ME nuts?? LOL
Believing anything this government tells me is just about the nuttiest thing someone could do. This is the SAME government that told us a bearded man in a cave outsmarted ALL of our intelligence agencies and military. The same government that shits on our Constitution and TORTURES people. The SAME government that economically terrorizes its citizens by raping us at the gas pump, steals our money so that CEO’s of banks get 4 million dollar bonuses every year, while we have record unemployment. The SAME government that allows General Electric to pay ZERO taxes on millions in profit, but would come after you and me if we owed them $1,000 in taxes.
THESE are the people you trust???
YOU are the one in need of medication buddy!
Got to go, but I alluded to this the other day. Things that make some of you go hummmm
Bdaman 1, April 29, 2011 at 11:24 pm
Bdaman 1, April 29, 2011 at 11:25 pm
Bdaman-
Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
Is’it? inquiring minds want to know.
Bda,
Mother’s go with “mother’s intuition” when their children are young … nothing wrong with son’s trusting “son’s intuition” when their mothers are older.
I knew what my mom wanted during the last six months of her life and it required some small sacrifice on my part. My brother thought I was being too permissive and lectured me all the time about it. I stuck with what I thought was best and don’t regret a minute of it.
Correction to the above.
“object of your ones succeeds…….”
object of your derision succeeds…….
“Larry you are correct. This is why the Pakistani’s demanded proof.
As should the American people. What are we gonna do now that the boogie man is gone.”
Wow, good question! Who will be our next “former CIA operative/once our friend-now our puppet” boogieman who is responsible for all evils in the world? Maybe our next choice should be anyone with the power to prosecute and imprison Wall Street execs—–they seem to be impossible to find too!
Larry,
You have my deepest sympathies. It is difficult when the object of your ones succeeds well in something and thus gives lie to some of your deepest beliefs and pre-judgments. I know that this news caught you at a bad time and so you flail about for some rationale that would hold your memes together. Please let me urge you to learn the habit of constant re-examination of your beliefs in order to avoid the trap of becoming rigid of thought and therefore unable to respond in reality to your environment.