Monday, May 2, 2011

Osama bin Laden Dead


Better to have died in obscurity, I think, than with this as your signature achievement.

7 comments:

Damia said...

Why now? Revenge and democracy should not go together. I'm sorry it ended like this. Troubled times ahead.

Alexander Ac said...

Well, "fun" only begins...

Nick G said...

Damia,

Bin Laden's survival for 10 years was an extremely pointed statement about the weakness of the great powers against "asymmetric warfare".

Those powers were desperate to re-assert themselves.

If only those powers could see that the most effective and cheapest strategy is to become independent of ME oil, rather than trying to control the ME.

Unfortunately, the benefits of the status quo flow to one set of people, and the costs to another...

Glenn said...

Stu, Stu, Stu,

The whole thing was a put up job by the Bush Admin from the word go. Obama's just following the Imperial U.S. Prez script. Body dumped at sea to hide the freezer burns. Fatal U.S. asset that killed the old guy was the shagged out dialysis machine he was given on his last trip through Bethesda Naval Hospital... ;)

I'm only being partly cynical and partly engaging in black humour. I grew up with Ronald Reagan dismantling California. I came of age with Nixon's resignation. To say I've viewed politics and _everything_ polititians say with considerable jaundice every since is a monumental understatement.

The behavior of the U.S. since 05 August 1945 has been one long early warning.

Glenn

TiradeFaction said...

RIP Osama, World renowned hide and seek player. Undefeated from 2001-2011. Go gently into the night sweet prince...

fabio said...

Stuart,

I'm a reader from Brazil who's been following your blog for quite a while.

Thanks for your lucid, facts-based assessment of how the world is slowly but surely coming to terms with finite resources and infinite greed.

But I share Glenn's words, and have to say I'm a little disappointed with you on this one.
You must be a busy person, but I urge you (because your voice is becoming an important one on the web) to take 2 hours of your life to watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXw3jJ3021o with an unprejudiced mind, and come to your own conclusions.

Thanks
Fabio

bordoe said...

Take a gander at:

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/5/pakistani_military_faces_scrutiny_as_unfolding

GRAEME SMITH: This was a tantalizing lead that we got earlier in the week. A police official in Abbottabad told us that the compound, as he put it, belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen. Then that police official became abruptly unavailable when we tried to talk to him further about that. And police officials, of course, in Abbottabad have been instructed not to get into, you know, who owned the compound or who controlled it. So, it’s been rather difficult here, I have to say, researching the story, trying to get to the bottom of what was going on. The Pakistani military has now taken over the investigation and will presumably make their own inquiries.

Hizbul Mujahideen, by the way, if there was some link to them, it would be quite embarrassing to Pakistan, because Hizbul Mujahideen is one of these militant groups that has operated with some impunity in Pakistan for many years. It was originally set up to fight the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan and then morphed into a liberation movement in what Pakistanis call Azad Kashmir and in what they call Indian-occupied Kashmir. And so, that’s a group that has enjoyed a fair bit of freedom to act, and it has not really been—the members have not really been rounded up by the Pakistani security forces. And some analysts say that Hizbul Mujahideen has been, in fact, directly supported by the Pakistani state.

Take a listen to the full report and make up your own mind if what's being reported seems to comport with what the government is saying.

--

Also, I noticed the "Kent Brockman" moment; when the condition of "Osama's wife" was changed:

She was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. She was then taken to a better hospital where her condition was upgraded to "alive."

:-)

Dumped in the sea? No video? No release of photos?

Eh. Wasnt there. Cant say what happened is all I can say for sure.