It seems these government officials just can’t resist the urge to lie about military operations. Initially, we were told that Bin Laden took part in a firefight with the Navy Seals and that he used his wife as a “human shield”. The government now admits that never happened. Moreover, we are now told that Bin Laden was unarmed. If it is true that the Seals were to try take Bin Laden alive, then their killing him has to be considered a blunder.
Bin Laden was an evil man, and he caused nothing but suffering in the world. Some have pointed out that the U.S. military have killed more people than Bin Laden did. This is true, but it was Bin Laden who provided them with a convenient excuse to carry out their wars. Without the September 11th attacks, it would have been a lot harder for the U.S. government to persuade people to support the invasion of Iraq. Of course, that is what Bin Laden wanted: the U.S. sending its troops into Muslim countries. No doubt he derived satisfaction from this, though the only people who have benefited have been corporate CEO’s.
Will this change anything? The Arab revolutions have made Al Qaida largely irrelevant. With Bin Laden’s death, however, the emotional justification for the U.S.’s interventions in the Muslim world is gone. I have heard a number of people say that the U.S. should leave Afghanistan now. The Stratfor website has speculated that Obama may start pulling troops out of Afghanistan soon. I hope that they are right, though I fear that the government will find some other excuse to continue the occupation.
The Spanish Prisoner 
May 7, 2011 at 3:07 pm |
My hunch is that this will be used to bolster military spending in a time of cuts to entitlement programs. Some of the first thing I heard conservatives like Mark Levin talk about was the need for more R&D funding to carry out more stealth raids.
May 8, 2011 at 7:22 am |
I suspect you may be right.