Message #1356

[AndrewF]

Eli - 'that no matter how long it takes to avenge - even nearly 10 years - they won't escape justice!!'
Avenge or extract revenge? Vengeance (under either name) is not the same as justice.
The burial site is actually against Islamic law in that unless there is NO chance of burial on land he should not have been buried at sea.

PW - 'Pakistan is a sovereign nation but so what.' If you take this sort of attitude you are lowering yourself to the standard of the terrorists. It is only if we demonstrate in all our actions that we are better than them that we can make that claim. If the man was unarmed (as the US govt is currently admitting he was - though that has already changed once and could change again!) then he should not have been shot - even as an enemy combatant. Unless you uphold the law no matter how hard that is then you are no better than the terrorist.
 Pakistan may well have been harboring him - we will never know - but a better option would have been to have someone on the ground observing and to have informed their govt just before the choppers crossed into their airspace and got permission for the mission. - And don't try to tell me that there are no CIA agents in the area ho could be instructed to 'loiter' somewhere near that building!
If the Pakistani govt was truly opposing terrorism thy would have given permission for the raid, without informing BL.  Had they refused everyone would have known that they were harboring him, and the US would have been totally justified in ignoring their objections. If they had said yes, and informed BL the CIA agent could have dealt with him as he tried to escape. The law must be observed at all times in dealing with terrorists otherwise you will have more not fewer terrorist attacks.
Properly trained soldiers (if given the order to take alive if possible, but to shoot if necessary - as currently appears to have been the case in this operation) should have been able to see that he had no weapon and have not shot him up so badly that the pictures of his body were too 'gruesome' to be released!
'You know we have been with you in every war since our confederation and before.' yes... albeit rather belatedly in a couple of important cases!
'So all the soldiers in Afghanistan are asking for it?' Yes - since they volunteered for the army, they were 'de facto' asking for it.
'America took one of the soldiers of terror out and I thank the Lord for America.' It's not what you do it's the way that you do it..... The man should have been take alive and tried before a court, not shot to blazes when he was not even armed! There was enough manpower there to achieve this from what reports I have heard seem to imply. Take for example his wife - they shot her in the leg when she tried to com between them & BL.
NO- frankly the raid was a ****-up as a result of tiger-happy vengeful poorly trained soldiers.