The Dean

FlirtyKnickers

Have they poked him with a stick to make sure?

Blue Cat

Millhouse

When I heard this on the radio this morning my heart sunk. This is not good news.

the troubadour

After all these years they finally caught up with him. He held out for a hell of a time considering the worlds greatest power had,we assume throwing a lot of energy and expense to arrive at this point.

Wonder what the Pakistani reaction will be to his death by US forces inside their territory?

Over the years he became a rather irrelivant figure.Imagine some folk around the world will be upset at his passing.

Millhouse

Exactly.

As a figurehead he is almost irrelevant nowadays - had we killed him early that would have acted as a strong signal of intent. This is way too late - he had almost been consigned himself to history; killing him in Pakistan will only stoke flames now.

alfrombarking

Couple of issues here:

-Bin Laden had become the symbol of al Qaeda and its affiliated groups even though the degree to which he commanded the organization was questionable.


-The symbolic value of his death is pretty much obvious. The US Govt can claim a great victory but Al Qaeda can proclaim his martyrdom.


- This permits permits the Obama administration to claim victory, at least partially, over al Qaeda and it also opens the door for the beginning of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, regardless of the practical impact of OBL’s death.



-The mission in Afghanistan was to defeat AQ, and with his death, a plausible claim can be made that the mission is complete. Again speculatively, it will be interesting to see how this affects U.S. strategy there.



-Equally possible is that this will trigger action by AQ in OBL's name. No one knows how viable al Qaeda is or how deeply compromised it was.(Im sure British experts's forum members of state security might bring more insight)


-It is clear that bin Laden’s cover had been sufficiently penetrated to kill him (and more likely by HUMINT) and If bin Laden’s cover was penetrated, then the question becomes how much of the rest of the organization’s cover was penetrated. It is unlikely, however, that al Qaeda is so compromised that it cannot take further action.

co durham boy

Maybe you've got a point but it's good news for the families of all those people who died in the atrocities that he masterminded.

I just caught Obama's speech on the way to work and it was pretty intense and impressive to say the least , yes it was scripted and so forth but still very good all the same.

The world shouldn't shed any tears for a murdering bas**rd like him , what will be will be in Pakistan in any case . The whole fabric and make up of that country is breaking down into anarchy and i don't believe it will make it any worse than it already is at the moment.

Millhouse

Don't get me wrong. If I'd lost someone in 9/11 I'm sure I'd want to see this day.

But I didn't, so I can look objectively at it.

Tit for Tat killing will just promote more. All those twats singing Kum ba yah and partying at the white house will just piss off anyone with any ounce of sympathy for Al Queda.

When we see images of parties in Pakistan celebrating US/UK deaths it annoys us right? Well, it has the same affect on them, only they tend to respond with nail bombs in pizza joints.

Let's see - I hope we look back on this day and say... 'great, well that ended it.' Just like the H bombs did in Japan. Somehow I suspect we won't.

the troubadour

As well as making him a hero like figure to certain impressionable,youngish Muslim folk.
A new Che for the Islamic world perhaps??

co durham boy

I agree that the childish flag waving outside the Whitehouse is uncalled for and juvenile , there's no difference between that and the mobs on the streets of Lahore burning effigies of Obama and Cameron and the hatred that is spewed from their actions.

The Yanks have sent a very strong message that if you attack us we will hunt you down and exterminate you.
I also agree with the feeling that Bin Laden was more of a figure head than the current mastermind of operations.

No , it will not stop it , only time will tell what relevance it will really have on the situation but the bad guy is dead and to me thats a good thing.

Blue Cat

couldn't agree more, whether it had been a week after 9/11 or ten years after I am glad he is dead

Millhouse

I think that it's time to buy shares in BAE Systems and QinetiQ.

ctfc

Good of them to wait until after the wedding (and I mean that sincerely, they clearly did)

The Dean

He died over a week ago..........