Would reactions have been different, had Bin Laden been killed

[joe_sixpack]

by an air strike, such as was attempted on Qaddafi?
There's much discussion on the fact that he was unarmed, which would have been just as true if a bomb or missile lit up his world. I don't remember seeing quite the same heated discussion when NATO forces attempted to end the Libyan leader's life, even though more innocents were apparently at risk in that operation, then were in the Pakistan mission. It's my opinion that deaths by bombing from above have a more sterile, and less messy quality than when the act is performed by a human at close range that pulls the trigger. That's interesting because the end results are the same.

[1620rock]

1. Good point.

[wtmusic]

2. Bombing is only more sterile when viewed from 6,000 ft.

On the ground it's even messier.

[joe_sixpack]

3. I would agree it's messier on the ground

but it's tidier from the point of view that it wraps things up so cleanly and there's no visual of one man pointing a gun at another. I feel very confident that we wouldn't be having half the discussions we're now having, had he been killed via air strikes. Mind you I do think Special Forces were the better option myself.

[wtmusic]

4. When we lose the fact that war is about blood and guts

is when we lose all hesitation about waging it.

Bravo Obama. :patriot:

[still_one]

5. I have no issue with how they took him out. There was no other way to do it. Technically, we did

an illegal operation.

If you remember after 9/11 we asked the Taliban either to turn over bin laden or let us go after them. Not only did they refuse, but they actively provided him santuary.

Pakistan is even more complicated. You have a weak central government, a strong military, and a demographic which has a large minority who sympathize with bin laden

He may have been unarmed, however, how were they to know? Could the place have been rigged with explosives?

We can speculate and second guess what should or should not have been done, but the fact is that the evidence was more than sufficent of his involvement, including his confession, and though he was denied a formal trial, I consider this the more than justified

[provis99]

6. If they want to do it to Qadaffi too, its fine.

I just don't like how we seemed to have been killing other Libyans in an attempt to intimidate Qadaffi, rather than doing something about the troublemaker himself.

And NATO has denied trying to assassinate Qadaffi so far, so I don't buy one of your assumptions.