re: #256 Killgore Trout

Heh.
I just though of a nice example that I think sums up the differences between Bush and Obama’s War on Terror.
KSM vs Bin Laden
Bush: KSM was arrested. They even published photos of him handcuffed in bed. They tuned him up at a secret site in Poland for a while and then shipped him off to Gitmo. He has a lawyer, visits from the Red Cross and he’ll get some sort of trial eventually. Meanwhile he’s fed, clothed, given books, watches movies, etc. I bet the weather in Cuba is nice this time of year.
Obama: Bin Laden was shot while unarmed in the middle of the night and his body was dumped at sea. I think his wives and children are still in pakistani custody, haven’t heard anything from them in a while. One of his sons who lived at the compound has gone “missing”. There were initial reports that one male captive was taken from the raid but there have been no updates. We may never hear from him again.

You find anything objectionable about killing OBL? Why give him any chance? Raids are iffy enough as it is. What if he had a bomb built into his hip? You try to carry him away, and blooey. Scratch one Seal Team. What if there had been more bodyguards on site? In principle, we might have lost the fight. He might have got away. In combat, and whether OBL himself was fighting is irrelevant, you just kill the target and that’s final. Losing the next roll of the dice can’t undo that.

In army vs. army combat, officers who are just walking around giving instructions to the grunts are absolutely fair game for snipers. Same principle. OBL was a combatant whether he was packing heat or not.

You find anything objectionable about just walking away and leaving the family to sort things out with the Pakistani authorities? Who, after all, is in charge of Pakistan? We didn’t have any reason to concern ourselves with the rest of the family. They’re noncombatants. Or, all but the one wife was, and we shot her in the leg and she’ll live.

The conduct of that raid was proper. Too bad we lost a copter, but that’s just the chances of war. (And it serves to make my point: you just never know. The only way to make sure OBL doesn’t somehow escape in the confusion is to kill him the first chance you get.)