Picture of the Day: Is this Usama bin Laden's funeral?
Oh, for just one hellfire missile...
By AcademicElephant Posted in War — Comments (29) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Rumors that Usama bin Laden has met his maker courtesy of Typhoid Mary are gaining strength. Oh the irony if he has indeed been felled by a disease that the west, which he wants to destroy, has conquered. If only he weren't living in a cave like a yak, he could have received routine treatment from the infidel and be right as rain by now.
What a pity.
When you've finished wiping your eyes, take a look at that picture. Joe Cella, who's away from his computer, emailed in to suggest that this unauthorized Army photograph leaked earlier this month might actually show UBL's funeral. Seems a drone snapped the pic, and the Army wanted to drop a bomb on the event. After all, top al Qaeda had conveniently assembled in a cemetary, and we could have helped out and dug the hole for them...but no. The "rules of engagement" prevent the Army from striking a graveyard, so the ceremony went on as originally planned.
I'm sure there are those who believe that our respect for the rules--indeed, our common decency--are in and of themselves a moral victory over the men assembled in that photograph. And then there are those who think such niceties could very well get us all killed. Count me in the later camp. Moral victories are all very fine and well, but I for one would have liked to chop off the head of the al Qaeda snake once and for all, and send UBL into eternity in the style he deserves. Oh well, woulda, coulda, shoulda--the important thing is to ascertain that he's really and truly completely dead this time.
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Picture of the Day: Is this Usama bin Laden's funeral? 29 Comments (0 topical, 29 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
and truly quite completely dead, and of typhoid from drinking from wells infested with Salmonella Typhi, or from washing his hands in dirt, as commanded.
And yes, we infidels have antibiotics for this kind of thing.
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Evil men hide from the truth, but good men stand upon it.
Reportedly started from the French Security Service (DGSE) and a supposedly reliable Saudi information source (isn't that an oxymoron?).
Anyway, apparently they are now investigating their own report. You have to love the French, everything they do is so, well, reliable.
I doubt they could keep this type of event from the normal "chatter" of which apparently there is none.
Personally, I will wait for the dental match.
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"
Maybe we could just have someone, oh, I don't know... go read the tombstone?
"Every time some nitwit college student burns a flag on camera, that's one less idiot who can ever run for public office." - Crank
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"Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face." - Ronald Reagan
No, I was thinking perhaps ground penetrating radar like they do with dinosaur bones. Maybe we can just let his death be a question forever like Elvis or Bigfoot.
Frankly, I would volunteer for the job and even though he's dead shoot him for all the people OBL has killed.
Sorry, that's just the way I feel.
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"
am I paranoid enough? Were I interested in influencing the outcome of the upcoming elections, I think I could go a long ways towards taking the GWOT off the table by coming up with "un-named, usually reliable sources" claiming that the Republican bete noir is now dead. I then follow with the assertion that since al-Qaeda is now dead, the war is over; time to come home and party with the cheerleaders.
My own belief is that he's been dead a long time; he's every bit as narcissitic as WJC, and we'd have seen his face at every opportunity were it not rotting under some mountain in Afghanistan. That said, were I GWB and had his head in a jar in my study, I would not let it be known. The war against Islamic extremism has been so personalized towards bin Laden, that his end would make it very, very difficult to continue that war.
In Vino Veritas
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"Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face." - Ronald Reagan
The entire Dem 'argument' in the GWOT has been "but you haven't gone after bin laden!" or "you are ignoring the real terrorist threat!" (scream that 2764 times while rending your clothes and pulling your hair). To them, Iraq was a complete diversion from the 'war on terror'. Thier problem, and that of the MSM,Academics and the Left in general is that they completely misunderstand the threat we face. To them it's just a bunch of thugs who hate us because we (insert your favorite liberal smear of America here). That they live in caves, we are so superior to them, they can never hurt us. We are using 'disproportionate force' (a new fav) in going after them. If we only guard the ports and air terminals and get out of Iraq they will leave us alone. See, it's all about us.
If OBL is dead, for them, it's over. Oh sure, we'll still have to mop a few loose ends, but we will have prevailed. The press and the dems will take this tact to bludgeon the administration mercileslly.
Frankly it will be partly the admin's fault. GWB continues to fail to make the case for the bigger picture of what we are fighting, although recently he has started to elaborate more (e.g Islamo-fascist term).
This is the same problem he had going into Iraq. I recall many reasons cited by the administration going into the war, all of them valid. In fact Charlie Rangle even said that they were using a 'reason-de-jour' approach. The WMD was only one of many reasons cited, but became the reason that caught the imagination of the media ('cuz ya know, nothing get by that groups of brain surgeons...).
Bottom line if OBL is indeed pinin' for the fjords, expect an almost hysterical screech for the Dems and MSM (I repeat myself) to 'get out now -we won!'. "Vote for us so we can now start to repair our image in the world" etc. etc.
Of course they will also bsame GWB for doing nothing to actaully win the war....
The President and his peeps have been trying to hammer this into the MSM consciousness for years, but they remain convinced that everything is about one man, one band, and the terrible events of one day.
I also think OBL has been dead for years, and I've seen no proof that there was one man who was Mullah Omar. But that's all for conjecture, and I can't prove a thing either way.
I've heard the conspiracy theory on the left (from the same people who say we aren't doing enough to capture him, oddly enough). If we did kill the guy, we would certainly let the world know. As far as the GWOT goes, terrorist attacks and failed plots would continue after he died. That should be enough to convince the convicable that the GWOT isn't a one man deal. The ones that can't be convinced, well, they are hopeless. They can go on with their talk of BushHitlerBurton and screenings of Loose Change.
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"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
it was true, that usually isn't an issue; I just said it would be their political position - no bin Laden, war over.
In Vino Veritas
But even with Bin Laden still around it is much of the left's position on the issue.
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"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
Is it possible that its Bin Laden's funeral? Sure. But it is just as possible it is an assembly of jihadists awaiting chow at the Kandahar Cafe. I would err on the side of caution and hold the speculation until we have confirmation. As successful as he has been at camouflaging his location his death would be much harder to conceal, at least for any long stretch. And personally I think it would have a much more positive than negative impact on our resolve in the GWOT. The futility that the death of Zarqawi helped to cut into would be diminished still further if Bin Laden was dead.
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"Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face." - Ronald Reagan
We owe Fred Nerks at Free Republic for this admittedly 'older' screengrab:
Drink Good Coffee. You can sleep when you're dead.
Cause I think I could do that job.
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"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
IF OBL is Dead or dieing it is possible that news brought about the possibility of the Pakistanis peace deal with pro-Taliban militants
Pakistan signs peace deal with pro-Taliban militants
Hmmmmmmm???????
Your Word is your Worth, your Worth is your Word
It's exhausting having rules that give more importance to inanimate geographical locations than actual people. I don't care if those 200 guys were standing around the Lincoln Memorial, if they are together, away from innocent people, you take the shot. I guarantee choices like that cost innocent people their lives in preference to some hallowed dirt.
I hope this is true. We couldn't ask for a better ending to the Legend of Osama bin Laden. Did he die in battle? Was he valiant to the end? Was he felled by the infidel's sword in an act of treachery? Did he go to heaven a martyr?
No, he was felled by disease while hiding like a scared dog.
Drink Good Coffee. You can sleep when you're dead.
The fact that we did not drop a B-52 full of cluster bombs on this gathering is absolutely nauseating.
Surely plenty of our soldiers over there agree which is why one of them risked his job to make sure this photo got out. Now we can have a public debate about the utter absurding of not bombing their funerals. They would giddily bomb an American pre-school full of 4 year olds.
Is actually of a recent funeral in Afghanistan, at which were a hundred or so Taleban. The rules of engagement prevented any attack, even though we knew where they were.
I say we do away with such rules. What good are they but to let the enemy get away? Why should a funeral for a religion that is evil be alowed to proceed?
...and how is that skin condition coming along, m'dear?
- anyway, while it's nice to see the mask slip from our Moby friends, I suggest that you take the religious bigotry to somewhere more congenial to it. Like, I don't know, Alternet.
Blam.
Moe
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
Since we're bombing graveyards out of respect for someone else's religions, let's just take the next possible step and keep a closer eyes on those that were at the crowd in the photo and make sure they can be "tagged" so that, if we know that they've crossed the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at some point in the future, we can have special ops intercept them and swat them like the flies they are. One shot, job done. Nobody gets their loincloths bound in a knot because the deceased were exploded in the midst of hallowed ground (that that person's religion, of course).
While we're on the subject of "hallowed ground", I've come to the conclusion that there really isn't so much of it any more. Whether you're dealing with some twit vandals trying to get their kicks knocking over gravestones in America or these rabid animals using gravestones as shields for their assaults against civilians and unwary soldiers, it doesn't seem to make sense any more to keep referring to a ROE when the opportunity to finally kill off the big snake presents itself. Likewise, I fully expect the Islamic fanatics to completely demolish every church, synagogue and school cafeteria when they make their next move on Israel, whenever that'll be.
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"Straight Talk Express"? My bum feet! -- Me, on Senator McCain and other "moderates"
...lets get out some shovels and find out.