Why should I celebrate? There will be another to take his place. Then again, maybe there won't and this terror trip the world is on, will end. That will be the time for celebration. I won't hold my breath. And why would it be interesting to you that someone would question this event, especially the way it was handled in the press.
Others can and will take OBL's place but they might or might not be as magnetic and heroic in the eyes of their supporters and sympathizers. War on terror is far from over. It would be a big mistake to declare an end. There are two ways of ending this war: a) by dialogue with AQ and Talibian b) attacking Pakistan and cleansing the cells and government strings that protect them. Option A is more possible but 'give and take' needed is not peanuts so not much barter will take place i.e. talks will fail without much benefits. Neither side wants to give in much. Option B is nearly impossible, given that Pak is a nuclear state with very bold and irrational actions in the past. Atleast they can start selling their merchandise to Iran, Syria etc. are put the world at a total nuclear blackmail. On the higher side, they might even go on to use their nukes via proxy i.e. give them to AQ and Talibian and these outfits go on the nonsense of extreme sorts. It was Ronald Reagan who winked at Paki nuke program in mid 80s and that wink is costing the US trillions in cash. Given the peak of cold war in mid 80s, that wink seemed somewhat a good tactical decision but the 'unpredictability' of geopolitics game came to hit back. Tough game this geopolitics is.
The whole thing is going to morph IMO into a PR disaster for the US and Obama. As always with the US government's claims of "victory" during this war on terror , first comes the excitement and the generalized gullibility , it takes a while for questions to be raised , and eventually the sh*t comes out and it's an embarrassment. The world already suspects that "americans are stupid"but this is showing the sheer stupidity of the Obama administration, worse than Dumya 's team ! The numerous inconsistencies that came out in the various officials ' accounts of the operation are starting to be examined and questioned. When the muslim world will be convinced that UBL was killed unarmed and not buried properly, the hatred of americans will reach new highs in that part of the world. This story is making new terrorists right now, the way it was disclosed to the public is a disaster. All the rejoicing isn't going to help either in the muslim world. The folks in the White House are idiots, they obviously didn't think this through before going in front of the camera. To me this is not a success, just another pathetic sequel to the "war on terror" disaster. A war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Irak. 3000 dead in WTC with no real proof of who did it , led to hundreds of thousands innocent dead in Irak and Afghanistan. UBL in the circumstances that have been described should have been captured alive , not summarily executed (then the executors called "heroes") , if it was actually the case, then obviously it should have been kept quiet. If the intent was to kill UBL anyway, it should have been done with drones, or snipers, so the fact that he was unarmed was irrelevant . Pictures of this operation should have been released (no wishy washy debating about whether to release them ) and a factual report of the actual events (with restrained expressions of celebration) should have been given to the media instead of a piece meal approach that smells cover up a mile away and will backfire on the US. I question the necessity to disclose his killing anyway, that wasn't necessary and could lead to retaliations ( it could have been done later, in more casual way for ex. by saying a year from now " we determined that we killed UBL in April 2011, during a routine operation ...."
How very circumspect and sober of you. And while it is true that the battle continues in full force, as the president himself said, I wonder if you would have been able to contain yourself quite as well had a Republican president been in office at the time that OBL was killed. I wonder if perhaps you might have even engaged in a subdued high five now that a key item had been checked off the to-do list after almost 10 years. The list remains, of course, but even so. Meanwhile, I wonder what your response was at the time of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" tour. Were you quite as reserved at that very moment as you were following the OBL mission? Not that President Obama is doing a victory lap now as Bush had done then.
The initial reaction with respect to the market was a temporary rise, but I considered this event a negative for the markets. I am also including the attempted assassination in Libya here as a combo event given their proximity. The reason, the US approach seems overly blood thirsty and aggressive. Many US haters ( including terrorists ) will be extremely unhappy, and the possibility of increasing world violence has grown. Retaliation threats are very real, I see the Taliban are already creating havoc in Afghanistan this weekend. George W. Bush flaunted world law for years. He was too stupid to know better, and growing up in an area of the US where executing people ( eye for an eye etc ) is the norm its not surprising. What the American people think is unclear, except the televised perception of celebrating a killing is barbaric. The fact George W. got elected twice was a testiment to the severe weaknesses in the American political system. At some point, Americans will realize they can't run around pissing everyone off all the time. There are better ways to do things, I have no idea if Bin Laden had to be killed or not but the appearances are he should have been captured not killed. The Libya situation is much worse, trying to take out a leader where there is no real mandate to do so. From a trading perspective, it all adds more uncertainty to the world. ps I'm Canadian and we abolished the death penalty many years ago.
The terror trip won't end until the Muslims are the only sect left on the planet.... unless the Chinese kill them all. Or, perhaps, "all but China" will become Muslim... as China will likely let it be known, "cross our borders and you'll be shot on sight".
After the cock-ups of recent years there isn't much credability left. As I suggested years ago the US is much better at other things than geopolitical manoeverings. Things like business or Hollywood come to mind. They would be better off hiring a foreigner with a bit of common sense even. Is it democracy that throws up the lowest common factor of people ? Quantity not quality. A sorta crapocracy of the herd ?
That's all well and groovy. But Obama promised from the get-go that he would strive to have OBL captured or killed. No one, NO ONE, seemed to take offense then. Certainly not anyone in the Western world or any thinking people in the Middle East. Where was your outrage then? Please refer to your posts of outrage at the time of his platform speeches.
It would not have made any difference, I would be as skeptical as I am now. And why do you try to pigeon-hole me into a Bush supporter just because I have conservative leanings? Until Obama came along, I felt W was the worst President in history. Obama will wind up taking that honor from Bush before it is all over. US has a leadership crisis. It is obvious.