The Force of the Deed

[FourScore]

Op-Ed Columnist
The Force of the Deed
By ROGER COHEN
Published: May 9, 2011

...The deed was that of the 79 U.S. commandos, who have met with their commander-in-chief, President Obama, and who are known to one another, but are unknown to us. For secrecy is their covenant.

Dispatched from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, at night, into a triangular compound in the Pakistani military town of Abbottabad, they contrived, in 38 minutes, and despite the loss of one helicopter, to kill the charismatic face of Al Qaeda and gather the largest intelligence cache on this murderous organization ever found. It was an extraordinary achievement that put to rest a gnawing American self-doubt.

I am so grateful that the achievement is not being dissected and adorned in a feeding frenzy of interviews with the Navy Seal forces; that the deed stands whole, not broken down into its component human parts — the work of a team, indivisible and invisible. An America too often blinded by ego and sensation has much to rediscover about teamwork and silent, smart, hard work.

So many times these past days, finding myself back in New York beneath skies of a 9/11 blue, I have heard an internal voice saying, “Oh, please.” It was responding to complaints from the chattering classes that this was “murder,” that there was no “justice,” that Bin Laden’s burial in the North Arabian Sea was “disrespectful.” As if turning four planes into missiles and killing almost 3,000 people were not an act of war...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/opinion/10iht-edcohen10.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. My internal voice usually says "WTF"

I can't wait to read this guy's Op-ed after the Cuban military sends in a squad to whack Luis Posada Carriles in south Florida.

While I am glad that Osama is no longer with us, the operation does bring other issues to the fore. Does every country have the right to pursue and kill people deemed as a "terrorist" by their judicial system or political leadership wherever on the planet they may reside or is America's "War on Terror" an "exceptional" case?

[damntexdem]

2. I say "yes" to both.