Right, so Osama is dead, then, and we should all rejoice? Because, obviously, no-one will step into his shoes, everything nasty in the world will now end, and two wrongs do indeed make a right?
Or has the world's policeman taken the law into its own hands and decided to extra-judicially kill someone without giving them a proper and unbiased trial?
Neither. Until we know more about the operation - a lot more - we can't second-guess the troops on the ground who had to decide whether to fire or not (as dungeekin notes here and here). And I'm not impressed by the "Obama needs a poll boost and -oooh, look!" argument, either. Even if it is true, that's like criticising me for upping my work effort when the firm's billings are slack and we need the cash.
This is not good news, nor is it necessarily bad news. It's just, err, news. We will have to wait and see how it pans out.
It's just, err, news.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the news given by Fox News that it was in fact President Obama who was dead. Which wasn't news (despite being widely reported).
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100085899/osamaobama-fox-news-falls-into-the-ultimate-elephant-trap-and-its-not-the-only-one/
http://jonslattery.blogspot.com/2011/05/three-obama-fails-on-bin-laden-dead.html
We only know what they want us to know.
ReplyDelete"The mission was a total success"
::[cough]::
Collateral damage?
A helicopter down. A malfunction? Were there surface to air missiles?
At least the Americans have not been coy. There was no hesitation in killing Mr Bin Laden. This was a violation of his human rights, but weirdly I think it was justified. The evidence of his guilt is incontrovertible from both sides.
It is worth bearing in mind that the individual who killed Osama, the wife and possibly others is out there somewhere.
"A helicopter down. A malfunction? Were there surface to air missiles? "
ReplyDeleteThere's been a few stories on that - malfunction and small-arms fire have been blamed.