Regarding Osama Bin Laden's Killing by US Navy Seal Team

Like other Americans, I woke up to the wonderful news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed in an assault on his compound in Abbottabad by US Navy Seals late last night.

There as so many things one can express on the heels of this important event.

First, of course, as many others have said, it's notable to enemies of the US that we endured 10 years of sacrifice by our military and intelligence forces to find and kill this terrorist. Like the Soviet Union of old, perhaps, now, more countries will appropriately respect and fear attacking US non-combatants and or military personnel without a declaration of war.

Second, given his long-running opposition to the entire process of seeking retribution for the 9/11 attacks, I hope Wonderboy receives no credit for this. It was quite obviously the work of those lower-level, long-term personnel who are not part of his administration.

Never the less, hearing of the details of the planned strike, it's clear that the First Rookie saw this as just another early campaign event. No Predator strikes on this one. No, he wanted to claim a clear, identified kill to help his re-election campaign.

But if you listened to his 9 minute speech, he said some curious things, and omitted others. There was no sense of joy or triumph in his words. And he wrongly claimed that Bin Laden wasn't a Muslim, and that this had nothing to to with Muslim terrorism. Ever the Islamic apologist, his words actually made one wonder if Wonderboy isn't a closet Muslim who attends Christian services because he knew Illinois would never elect a Muslim Senator, and the US would never knowingly elect a Muslim president. I'm not saying it's a major concern of mine, but with all the lies this guy has told for years, and how cynically he's treated the American public, this would not surprise me if it were found to be true years after his exit from the Oval Office.

Remember, he's the guy who claimed that America is a Muslim nation. And wanted/wants to close Guantanamo Bay, the facility where, we have now learned, KSM gave up information under interrogation which led to yesterday's happy event.

Then there's Wonderboy's obvious contempt for our armed forces and his plans to energetically cut funding for them.

Instead, Wonderboy tried to simply characterize Bin Laden as a generic global terrorist. This is nonsense. Bin Laden always identified his brand of terrorism as religious and anti-American.

I think full credit goes to George W. Bush for having set in motion and presided over most of the era during which the US has been retaliating for the 9/11 attacks on our civilian population.

Additionally, those of us old enough to recall, as am I, the sad events at Desert One under our national embarrassment of a president, Jimmy Carter, can't help but thank Ronald Reagan's rebuilding of our military which led to a more capably-equipped and -led force like the Navy Seals who killed Bin Laden.

Because Bin Laden was an Islamic terrorist, not a uniformed military commander, I am somewhat at a loss as to why we treated him to an apparently Islamically-correct funeral.

Remember the video taped beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Perle? And other US citizens captured abroad?

Personally, I'm put in mind of the way the Russians reacted to the early 1970s kidnapping of one of their embassy personnel in either Pakistan or Afghanistan. I recall, around that time, the US lost either an ambassador or other senior embassy official, and we basically accepted it. The Soviets, instead, kidnapped and, I believe, let it be known that they tortured or would kill the member of the organization that kidnapped their guy, and several more, as well.

Their man was nearly-immediately released unharmed.

It would seem to me that we should have used Bin Laden's death and body to send a signal to other Islamic terrorists that we would and will do whatever is necessary to their corpses to defile them religiously in order to prevent their entry into a happy Islamic afterlife. Not that the US would do so to a uniformed member of the military forces of an Islamic enemy. But this guy was not an acknowledged member of any other nation.

I don't know precisely what that treatment would be, but it seems that there were a myriad of ways his corpse could have been treated, for a video record, to assure onlooking Islamist terrorists that we will give no quarter to them. I'm thinking something involving decapitation and disemboweling, for starters. Things that would horrify Islamic terrorists.

The British used to put the heads of traitors on pikes at Traitors Gate. It's an inspriring example for how to treat Bin Laden's body, is it not?

I will just bet you that the Seals who took him down enjoyed much such banter regarding how they would, if allowed, treat his corpse as a trophy. Things we'll never hear in public. In fact, we'll probably never learn the identity of the Seal who put Bin Laden to death until he, too, has died, in order to protect him and his family from reprisals.

All of that notwithstanding, the choice of a burial at sea, where no martyr-like ceremonies may be held by Bin Laden's followers is understandable.

Among the silly after events this morning were various Q&A's of people like Jack Welch and Warren Buffett regarding the effect of Bin Laden's death on the global or US economy, equity markets, etc.

That's just nonsense.

So is one person's comparison of Bin Laden's killing to Hitler's death. Hitler lead a legitimate country in a world war. He was a profoundly evil man, but the elected head of the German nation.

Bin Laden was a nation-less terrorist. His terror organization remains in existence, probably now planning reprisals to re-establish their relevance and capacity for danger.

Also inane was one anchor's question regarding the relationship between the recent Arab Spring and Bin Laden's killing. How in the hell could someone be so stupid as to see any relationship whatsoever between these? One is a multi-nation process of dictatorial overthrow with a melange of parties responsible in each country. The other is a surgical military operation to take out the world's leading (Islamic) terrorist.

Perhaps the most important aftermath is how our government handles issues with the Pakistan government.

After all, you'd have to be an idiot to not believe that they knew where Bin Laden was. The news stories this morning contain so many details that it is simply not credible that the world's leading terrorist was not living with the tacit approval and acquiescense of the Pakistani government.

For example, his million-dollar compound was within a few hundred yards of a major Pakistani military installation and retirement compound for officers. Abbottabad is on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. It's as if a major US terrorist was living in a multi-million dollar luxury compound in Alexandria, Virginia.

Furthermore, the compound had no telephone nor internet links, and, rather than put their garbage out like everybody else, burned it withing the compound.

One wonders how George Bush would be reacting, knowing that the Pakistanis basically were 'against' us on this one.

The one thing Jack Welch said that was worthwhile was to remind viewers that George H. Bush was defeated for re-election only a year after his successful military campaign to retake Kuwait. So it's quite reasonable that Wonderboy will receive no long term credit for this whatsoever.