Buzz kills and other people who otherwise spoil warm fuzzys are not favorites of mine by any means but I am going to have to play devil's advocate for a moment. While the idea of Osama feeding the fishes with a bullet in his head from a United States Navy Seal team does tickle my fancy many ways in the larger scope of things he had long since been relegated to small potatoes on the global stage.
Excuse me if I make a few points here:
The current hub of Al-Qaeda appears to be the strife torn country of Yemen, not Afghanistan or Iraq. Although both of those countries are still huge problems in their own right with billions of dollars disappearing inside them constantly.
It appears Osama was living quite well in a suburb of Islamabad, the capital of our "ally" Pakistan. Further worrisome is the fact that if reports are correct many retired Pakistani senior military officers also live in the same area. Even with a 18-foot wall surrounding his compound I find it strange that no one knew he was living amongst them. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention Pakistan has nuclear weapons and the ISI, their version of the CIA, is full of Osama sympathizers.
The death of Osama is a blow to terrorism for sure but like the mythical Hydra, cutting off one head will only cause more to take his place. Defeating terrorism will require some out of the box thinking like engagement and dialog in an attempt to cut the heart out of what motivates people to do insane things.
We are still spending billions on wars while cutting aid to poor people and having major politicians speak openly about giving even more tax cuts to the rich. All the while the federal government is running a massive deficit.
Finally, while we are enjoying a warm fuzzy of unity today millions of Americans are unemployed and millions more struggle with under-employment with jobs that do not pay the bills and offer no chance of advancement. Making this situation even worse both political parties appear to be their very best to ignore these people and the struggles they find themselves in daily.
21 comments:
All true Beach, The House of Saud is also still a big complication as they openly embrace fundamentalists.
-And still, the man's dead.
-SJ
Your analogy about cutting off one of Hydra's heads is what worries me to. :(
Ditto your observations. At this point killing bin Laden is purely symbolic, but damn, does it feel good!
S
I'm not dancing in the streets.
I'm not towering in fear any more than usual.
I was whistling a bit this morning before I turned on the news and learned what all the talking heqads thought.
That's "cowering" not towering. SMILE
Good Afternoon Bum ... on this cold and rain denched afternoon at that, feel's more like winter in Dallas!
I been trying to read up on this bloody thing to see wasssup, ton's of mainstrean news on this, basically like a big party of sort ... and I read a dozen or so blog's, but just had to tell ya this was a damn good read here on this (unique). As far as what happened so far ... frankly all I read on this, I dont even bloody know!(??) All I am seeing is press all saying "Well ... bin Laden is dead and buried, etc, etc" but really havent seen anything else that can show me anything, perhap's their waiting to like bring that out later I reckon, I mean, the only thing I can actually "go on" is simply blind faith frankly, I have read and viewed just about every major media and/ or major mouth piece's on this. :) So of course, I didnt even know how to do a bloody posting on this (kind of like reading about the execution of Christ in the Bible, but try to find any record's in the Roman Archive's or such, yes, they recorded execution's ... ya know what I mean?). But the point's you brought up here Bum are really to the point, no bullshit, Thanx Guy ....
Dont get me wrong Bum ... I am very pro defense/ veteran, etc ... you know that. But I wanted to credit the Navy SEAL's as well as far as doing a posting, cant do a bloody thing until I can read or see more of what exactly went down, etc
I agree with what you are saying. On the subject of Osama bin Laden there is an old Aussie saying many years old "Good Riddance To Bad Rubbish" which sums it up very nicely indeed :-).
SJ: I still say the best thing for Americans to do to largely free us from this region would be a crash project in energy independence. Of course that would require several segments as part of the answer that many would find uncomfortable.
Akelmalu: It is a possibility but Osama was a target that had to be taken out whenever he could be found.
LowandSlow: Hell Yes! Like I mentioned above no American president could just let him live as long as he stay hidden.
Charlene: For me this was good news but I'm not dancing in the streets streets either. We have far too many problems that need as much attention and money as hunting Osama.
Ranch: I understand completely, it would be nice to see a picture of the body.
Windsmoke: Absolutely! We now need to move on to other matters.
WHAT GOOD ARE JOBS IF YOUR KILED BY A TERRIST!
Randal: Good point, and for the most part the military is always hiring.
Beach, I think we are in agreement:
(1) It's a blessing the OBL was not permitted to die a natural death as a free man.
(2) Now that he's gone, Al Qaeda can wrestle with its own issues of succession.
(3) Now that he's gone, can we Americans spend more money rebuilding our social and physical infrastructure as opposed to Talebanistan's? At long last?
RW: Yeah, but I just don't see us turning our attention to other problems. Just like a science fiction story I read once no one wants to work to solve the problems we face, they are far happier bitching and moaning.
You're right, double b, that humongous compound was a tea leaf that the Pakistani authorities were simply unable (or unwilling) to read. Cooperation, my ass.
Important reminders. Smart people haven't had time to party over the Geronimo kill; we've been busy thinking about what happens next. We've got to get out of Afghanistan NOW! The job numbers and growth numbers here at home suck. Other countries are buying gold because they don't trust the dollar. And nobody has faith right now in our Congress...nobody.
Smart people are saying: Next!
Will: I do my best to give most everyone the benefit of the doubt but the Pakistani government is a joke. A joke that owns around one-hundred nuclear weapons.
Nance: That's my attitude, this country isn't ready for the 21st century, Hell we have actually gone backwards to a great extent.
"(3) Now that he's gone, can we Americans spend more money rebuilding our social and physical infrastructure as opposed to Talebanistan's? At long last?"
We spend more and more on it all the time, but thanks to curruption (including prevailing wage laws) they money is wasted. Perhaps if we sent in the Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild America's infrastructure we could bypass the theft and shoddy work of the union thugs.
Dmark: Well this is a day that I will have to remember because I never insult the people who take a time to comment.
If you would take a small portion of your time and research non-political websites and other sources that actually know what they are talking about, unlike the usual conservative moron, you would know the amount of money needed to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure is around 2.2 TRILLION dollars. And that's just to get it back to normal conditions.
I know you will not do it, since lemmings go with the crowd, but checked out the report card on America's infrastructure at the American Society of Civil Engineers website.
As for "union thugs" I'll take them far quicker than the corporate and banker shits who trashed the Americans economy, but you probably forgot about that with since people like you have a short attention span.
About the real thugs ruining our economy....
very well said on all points. very well said indeed and i couldn't agree more.
Vigil: Amen
Lime: I either need to run for political office or go into exile before the neo-nazis come for me. I'm leaning towards exile.
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