[Unknown Target]

I would think the big question would be whether it really even matters...

I vote no.

[achtung]

NBC just compared today to VJ day.

It begins.

I would think the big question would be whether it really even matters...

Only sort-of.

[redsniper]

NBC just compared today to VJ day.

Ahahahaha, news.

[Unknown Target]

It's just another death in a long line of deaths.

One year from now, the media will have moved on to the next crisis, and the world will keep chugging along. This day will become nothing more than a point in history when some person of some significance to some large event at some time died because someone killed him.

[Nuclear1]

I would think the big question would be whether it really even matters...

I vote no.

It's a symbolic victory and probably a huge morale boost.

But from a strategic standpoint, not really a big deal.

[Mort]

Its a symbolic victory and thats all it is. That said, its a pretty big victory

[Polpolion]

NBC just compared today to VJ day.

ololololololololo

[NGTM-1R]

Its a symbolic victory and thats all it is. That said, its a pretty big victory

Again, it's going to have operational effects, if for no other reason then the fact that we managed to find him will result in a lot of effort to clean house and tighten up secrecy and the resulting mistakes.

[achtung]

I wonder what kind of commendations the soldier/squad that shot him will get.

[Jeryko]

We may never know, as that squad probably 'doesn't exist'.   They are almost certainly a tier 1 group.

[Nuke]

I wonder what kind of commendations the soldier/squad that shot him will get.

unlimited access to whores?

[Polpolion]

We may never know, as that squad probably 'doesn't exist'.   They are almost certainly a tier 1 group.

Not likely, given the fact that we know that something necessarily killed him, and given that the US has gone so far to announce that they killed him on several different channels on several different media...

Unless the way in which he was killed was "politically untoward" then there's no reason to even lie about how he was killed.

EDIT: Rather, it's possible that a tier I unit killed him, but I don't think there's a reason to think that the gov't would deny that a tier I unit killed him if such a unit were responsible.

[NGTM-1R]

I wonder what kind of commendations the soldier/squad that shot him will get.

Silver Star in the classified jacket. (Quite possibly less, as the operation itself doesn't appear to have been difficult.) They probably don't want to expose them to reprisal, so I doubt we'll learn their names for another fifteen years.

[mxlm]

[Rodo]

So the long dirty beard guy is dead?

Nice! and it only costed 130000000519816598198$$ + some average Joe's lives

[Nohiki]

Slippery ***** managed to run for 10 years, but obviously it's true - You can run, but you can't hide Kudos to your army and intelligence.

[IronBeer]

What I want to know is if we managed to snag his portable dialysis setup... seems good.

[Grizzly]

No Americans were harmed - Obama ordered the attack.

So Obama ordered an attack against a high value target and the forces under his command sustained no casualties. That is pretty impressive.

[Sushi]

So we can repeal the Patriot Act and disband the TSA now, right? Nope, now we get to raise the threat level even higher in anticipation of reprisals.


Also, this thread from reddit sums up my feelings nicely:

http://sl.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/h1ryi/osama_bin_laden_is_dead/c1ryqt7?context=1

In other words, I'm having a hard time being excited or cheered by the news.

[Unknown Target]

I wonder if he was tortured before they killed him.