If our SEALs can take out the Pirates like they did - why not take out OBL that way?

[Taverner]

No big crazy war in Afghanistan or Pakistan...no carpet bombings...just a bunch of SEALs (or Greet Berets, Special Forces, etc) go in in the middle of the night, fill OBL and his bunk mates full of lead, take a picture, and get the hell out?

[Webster Green]

1. Because he's been dead since 2002?

Just a guess. :shrug:

[Kitty Herder]

36. Ding, ding, ding!

I think we have a winner.

[Cynical Guy]

2. A few reasons.

1. Gotta know where he is.
2. These pirates weren't exactly well funded or trained or armed...
3. If OBL is indeed where we think he is, he's inside another country's borders and we're not willing to cross them without permission.

I have a feeling at this point that we know where he is, and that he is not a threat. If we go in there now, it would upset relations with a very unstable Pakistan, and it would also generate sympathy among other terrorist organizations.

So, I think we're just waiting for him to do something stupid like show up at the local Wal-Mart in Karachi so we can round him up quietly.

[arcadian]

4. Ummm... across which country's borders?

If your referring to Pakistan, then you don't keep up on current affairs, we have no problem violating their sovereignty.

[Cynical Guy]

11. No need to be testy.

But anyway, I have been busy, so I might have missed the news about us sending troops across the border and bombing sites within Pakistan. All I've heard about are drone attacks, which are still totally out of line, but are not going to get the job done.

[ddeclue]

3. A lot of reasons:

1) This was a sea battle where we had total firepower supremacy and controlled everything around for miles.

2) The sea is flat and hard to hide in when you don't have a submarine.

3) These guys aren't in OBL's league.

4) OBL is hiding out in the mountains of Pakistan where access is very very difficult and hiding places are many.

Doug D.

[arcadian]

5. Bullshit.

The U.S. has has total global supremacy, land, sea, air, space, ether, etc. The world is a very small place. We could still get him anywhere on the planet if he still existed.

[ddeclue]

9. I cant tell you if he's still alive or not but we have a lot less control over

Afghanistan and Pakistan than we do over the Indian Ocean.

Unless you just want to nuke them.

[arcadian]

15. We occupy, Afghanistan. Remember, you break it you bought it?

And we have bases in Pakistan.

[DonCoquixote]

17. BS

If you really think that any nation has total global supremacy, you are drawing your thoughts from the same well as the freepers. All the tech in the world will not substitute for Geographical protection, which is one thing OBL has, and the pirates did not (at least on the sea, if this had gotten to land, we could have seen a replay of Black Hawk Down.

[arcadian]

18. Black Hawk Down was a movie.

Try cracking a book once in a while :hi:

edit: Okay it was a book too, try reading that.

[DonCoquixote]

23. Ha ha

And somehow, your sarcasm undoes about 500O years of history that says that if you are up in the mountains, invaders have a hard time dealing with you, unless they can commit MASSIVE amounts of troops on the ground. Ask the Soviets.

[JTFrog]

27. It was a movie based on a book, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, which chronicled

the Battle of Mogadishu. Also referred to as The Battle of the Black Sea or, for Somalis, The Day of the Rangers.

:hi:

[Duke Newcombe]

19. One word: Somalia. One more: Iraq.

Two words: Blackhawk Down.


I don't quite agree with your evaluation of our supremacy.

[depakid]

7. The fact that he's not being towed behind a destroyer might also enter into the equation

;-)

[Gregorian]

6. Or Saddam. I thought Cheney had a hit squad.

I know this is OT. But I was doing a bit of extrapolating on this subject tonight. I tried to confine it to my own head until I saw your post. I'm not getting involved in the pirate discussion. I have nothing to say. There's no outrage.

But it does beg the question. It almost furthers my thoughts of why we had to create a kind of world war three just to take out Saddam. Anyways, it's not like we've beaten that one to death around here.


So have this in the meantime. It's like a good martini substitute-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhx44UGscn4

[robinlynne]

14. The answer is we didn't need a war to get Saddam or OBL. Bush wanted a war.

The neocons stole trillions of dollars through that war. in so many ways....

[Gregorian]

20. Exactly. This is what hurt us who knew, so much.

But this is all rhetorical. We just had to sit and watch.

The evidence surrounding it is overwhelming. Revealing Plame, lying to the UN, and on and on. The strength of the judicial system is also it's weakness. We here have connected the dots. But they just can't be connected in a court of law without the connecting evidence. What a shame. But there will be justice. I can't imagine there not being.

[Brooklyns_Finest]

8. OBL is dead

His second in command is still alive, but the border region of Pakistan is very hard to get to. Our best chance to get those guys were during the fight of Tora Bora. Unfortunately, we relied on Northern Alliance forces instead of US troops for the fight.

[Wiley50]

10. OBL stays out of little lifeboats drifting off of Somalia

But if they heard he was in that situation

I'm sure he would be dead meat

[sampsonblk]

22. You get the prize for Best Answer (nt)

[emilyg]

12. You got to find him first.

[notesdev]

13. First

they have to sneak him out of the complex beneath Virginia where he films the videos for election season.

[SammyWinstonJack]

30. .

:evilgrin:

[glowing]

16. Because OBL is either dead; or the man cannot be captured due to

relations with the Saudis and our ever loving need for oil. Look at what happened after 9/11, all the Saudi royalty bin Ladin's were wisked away on privatly arranged jets; while countless other American's around the nation were stuck--grounded from taking any flights and worried sick about another attack.

[old mark]

21. I understand the US military had OBL actually in gunsights

and did not get permission to shoot. I am not clear on the details, but there was a Special Forces mission after him and they actually had him, but were told to stop.

mark

[Are_grits_groceries]

37. Google "Tora Bora." nt

[truedelphi]

24. According to Bhutto, before she was assassinated,

OBL is dead. Probably has been for some time.

[MADem]

25. We need to know where he is, first. nt

[conspirator]

26. Because life is not a hollywood movie, and there are dumb terrorists and smart terrorists nt

[ThomWV]

28. Because we haven't had him surrounded by Destroyers and likely a sub lurking under him too.

[MadHound]

29. But if we did that, the US wouldn't have the chance to go into the area with overwhelming force

And dictate the placement of pipelines and other such matters under the guise of "fighting terror" We wouldn't have a chance to try out all our new toys, like the drones, we wouldn't have the chance to spend lots of money, thus enriching the merchants of death even more.

This is what should have been done from the beginning, small strike forces. This is what we should be doing now. But instead, our corporate masters want more money, which means more war, which means that we continue to try and use a sledgehammer to kill a fly.

[Juche]

34. That is my speculation too

Emphasis on speculation, but that is how I feel. If Delta Force had killed Bin Ladin then the rage we were feeling as a country over 9/11 would've been partly satiated and we would've been less likely to support a war in Iraq (which was packaged as revenge for 9/11 by the Bush admin). But the Bush admin wanted to invade Iraq and anyone who has paid any attention can see that the Bush admin only viewed us as a focus group to manipulate to get their own agenda done. So maybe (huge emphasis on maybe) Cheney or someone else blocked any serious attempt to kill Bin Ladin because they wanted to channel our rage as a nation into supporting a war in Iraq instead of watching it dissipate after Bin Ladin was killed.

Again, emphasis on speculation.

[spanone]

31. that's precisely how it SHOULD have been handled

[QueenOfCalifornia]

32. Because he isn't

sitting in a little boat, at sea, surrounded by war ships?

[Juche]

33. I really don't know what is going on

There are thousands of special forces soldiers in the US military in organizations like the berets, Rangers, Recon, AF commandos and SEALs, but the best soldiers from those organizations are picked to work for Seal team 6 and Delta force and those are the units that work with groups like the 160th helicopter pilots to go after Bin Ladin.

A guy under the pseudonym Dalton Fury is a Delta Force operative who claims we could've killed Bin Ladin back in 2002 but he got orders from above not to. I have not read his book, but it is something to look into. He has done TV interviews as well.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/02/60minutes/main4494937.shtml

http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Bin-Laden-Commanders-Account/dp/0312384394/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239630713&sr=1-1



There is also speculation, as some have said, that Bin Ladin died back in 2002.

http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.html

[NeedleCast]

35. Easier Said Than Done

Even if OBL is still alive, it's not like he's advertising his where abouts. He's hiding in some of the harshest terrain the world has to offer.

[Echo In Light]

38. Because there's no actual intere$t in "taking out" OBL, even if he's alive

[davepc]

39. Bush didn't let them.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/02/60minutes/main4494937.shtml

http://www.daltonfury.com/

[Pharlo]

40. Who can be certain we didn't.

This was a well publicized Special Forces Operation. The Elite Special Forces are trained for the NOT well publicized operations. Things most people will never know about - why do you think so many of them die in 'training accidents'? 'Training' is the official story.

[Taverner]

41. I thought the expression was "He became a signalman before he hit the ground"

But yes, you're right