Seal Team Six, The Navy and the good ol' USA - has America regained its sense of pride from their amazing feat?

for a while, doesn’t take much to mess up a good thing. Already we see people questioning how this mission was accomplished, and whether or not it was actually the right thing to do. Can’t we just occasionally shut up and move forward instead of analyzing every past little detail?

It’s called “Sheeple.” I remember when 9/11 happened. ALMOST EVERYONE (at least in my area) were flying American Flags, and spreading that good ol’ southern hospitality that quite frankly should be more prominent throughout the rest of the US. Within less than a year, it was no longer so obvious.

The media injects whatever they want into society, and they just follow along.

I wish the sense of camaraderie we have now, and positivity, would last longer. But unfortunately, it will pass :(

How Obama as a WHOLE PRESIDENT, (i.e. not just commander in chief who made this specific decision) could have his approval effected SO MUCH by ONE event (although, I will agree a significant event for the US and world) shows how much the majority of the US population just goes with the tide. And IMO, it’s a huge part of what’s wrong with America today.

Yeah, Seal Team Six’s work is pretty all-american feel good comfort food.
But we can’t rest on our “laurels,” gotta be awesome in some non-military ways too.

Yeah….Obama done good. Palin can bitch and whine all she wants, but she would have NEVER had the guts to make that call and claim it as her own. One thing about Obama, he does what he thinks is right, and it usually is, and he doesn’t worry about what the naysayers have to say. And he takes full credit, or full blame. So totally unlike Bush.

—“America. Fuck, yeah.”—

I second what @tinyfaery said without actually saying it!!!!

@Dutchess_III did you watch the recent interview between former president Bush and Oprah? He took the blame, for most everything we gave him crap for.

I dont know what your talking about, America has always had its pride, this justice by hit squad took years of planning and we finally got him, patience pays off; even when were at a temporary low were still the people to be, I wouldnt want to be anything else but American; very proud of the Navy Seals!

Yes, now, when there are no repercussions Bush is willing to “take the blame.” But seriously…I don’t think he made one decision on his own, unlike Obama. From what I understand, OBama was advised not to take the chance because there was only about a 60% chance of Bin Laden being there. Obama thought about it, weighed it and said “Do it.” Bush would have said “Well, you guys are right. We won’t do it.”

@Dutchesslll Must give high respect to the President, its easy to pick apart a highly visible job such as his but put yourself in that hotseat, could you do any better with every one looking down the table at you for guidance and maybe you dont have an answer but you have to decide on something, thats why the presidents leave office looking very old, every one of them has been the bad guy because you cant please everyone all the time.

No – it will take a lot more than one bold act to restore America in my eyes or the eyes of the world. Let’s see how long the comity lasts.

I am nervous to admit in public that the celebration of bin Laden’s assasination makes me uncomfortable on many levels.
I’m not upset that he is dead. I’m just uncomfortable feeling that i have to apologize for not taking pleasure in it, and not experiencing a feeling of justice.
(Ducks under the bed and waits for the “unamerican” comments to fly.)

@tom_g I have similar feelings. It probably had to be done but it brings me no joy.

@tom_g I think it’s very human to not celebrate the death of specific individual, to me, celebrating an individuals death in such a manner has an air of decadence about it.

Well I thinks understandable to wait for the other shoe to drop, we got are justice but we should be smart about this and expect retaliation even though our perception is justice, radical muslims perception might be retaliation; we cut off the head of the snake but the snake might turn into a thousand scorpions like a greek trajedy

@thecaretaker it was never a snake to begin with, it has and always has been more like that of a hydra

I am actually proud that we used special forces in a targeted raid instead of bombing the house (or the neighborhood, or the city) from orbit.

I never liked the phrase “war on terror,” but if we’re going to be fighting this war, this is how it should be fought. Not by rolling tanks into neighborhoods and blowing up buildings, or with drones shooting hellfire missiles into weddings, or by dropping white phosphorus on Fallujah.

Obama deserves credit not just for this raid, but for shifting the way we fight in Afghanistan as well. Liberals don’t give him enough credit for reforming our ROE there; we now rely way more heavily on these kinds of SF raids instead of airstrikes and artillery, and it has drastically reduced the civilian casualties we’ve caused there.

I wasn’t aware that the USA had become an economic and global political joke. It certainly never was made such in Australia. Everywhere I have traveled I did encounter some anti-american sentiment but that is true of just about every country in the world, as Abe said, you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Anyhow if indeed it had plummeted to the depths, I am pleased to learn it has recovered because of killing OBL, cheers to the SEALs.

The United States’ self image may have been improved by capturing/killing/whatever the guy they allowed to slip away 10 years ago, but I don’t think it will have much effect on the rest of the world.

I think it was a job well done.
Since the cold war the U.S. has been the world’s whipping boy. It doesn’t seem to matter what we do, someone will turn it around and make us the bad guy. (I’m not saying that we haven’t done the wrong thing at times.) I hope we continue to try to do the right thing.
Thank you @rooeytoo, I agree.

It had to be done and Obama and the Seal Team deserve credit for their patience and professionalism, it was a superb operation we can feel proud of. On the other hand shooting a man in the head in front of his wife and daughter is something we shouldn’t feel good about. There is an evil there that shouldn’t be overlooked. And if torture provided the information that led to finding Bin Laden, which some have claimed, though it may not be true, then that would cast a pall over the entire operation in my estimation.

@flutherother, I’ve seen multiple sources saying that the intel gathered from waterboarding was at most marginally helpful, at worst counterproductive in this case. And even so, this entire argument presumes that the same intel couldn’t be gathered by normal methods—which is preposterous since most intelligence professionals say that torture is an ineffective way to get intel.

I don’t think the existence of torture-based intel reflects poorly on the mission, but I think the people who are using this successful mission to justify their support of torturing prisoners are absolutely fucking evil and the world would be better off if they didn’t exist.

@tom_g There is an Aesop’s fable – with many versions and interpretations – about a scorpion and a frog; the former asks the latter to ride across the stream on his back to get to the othe side, and the end of the story is well-known; he stings him mid-way – drowning both. Why? Because he’s a scorpion.

The bible says thou shalt not kill – but it also tells us to rise up and smite your enemy before he kills you.

BL (almost sounds like a type of burger) was a horrible, horrible snake – with plans for a very effective attack on the States for the next 9/11 aniversary.

I do not rejoice in the death of a person; I am glad the world has one less snake. The head has been removed, the thousands of victim’s families can sleep a little bit better – but not much. And to each his own, anyway.

Now for numbers two and three. Why? Because they have no land to fight for, no agenda, no purpose. It’s all in the name of Allah and Jihad. They have no real enemy – they have no side. They kill and hope to be killed – and get 72 virgins.

Why?

Because when God, any god, gave us the right to choose – they chose this path. It’s just different from “ours”.

Why do they kill aimlessly – blowing up planes in buildings – strapping c4 to their chests?

Why does the scorpion aimlessly, stupidly sting the frog – drowning himself in the act?

Because, as the scorpion told the frog: I’m a scorpion.

Thanks for your posts guys. Lurve ya.

ZEN OUT.

I just heard some liberal screaming that the Seals should have read Osama his Miranda Rights…

@King_Pariah Now that was funny.

@zen I like what you said but I see Osama as one of the heads of the many headed hydra known as Al Qaeda… just wanted to stick my input.

I, too, like mythology.

The idea that Al Qaeda kill purely for the sake of killing, because it’s what they do, with no political agenda, is total nonsense. Just because you don’t understand their aims and motives it doesn’t mean that they don’t have any. Just because their aims and motives are batshit crazy to most of us, it doesn’t mean that they don’t hold together in a coherent narrative for them.

@meiosis I would imagine that at least a decent portion of flutherites would grasp that without having to be told.

@meiosis 1. Go tell that to the families of the victims around the world and 2. Your point?

I’m sure many of the victims’ families are well aware that there is an ideology behind the savage murder of their loved ones. I can’t quite see that this knowledge makes their pain any worse than it already is.

@meiosis yes we are, many of us are aware that it is a group with it’s own agenda but we also are aware that there are many who also take pleasure from killing and see themselves as martyrs every time something they do pops up on the news, especially front page worthy stuff.

Zen….50 GA’s to you and the scorpion analogy…

I was there when he thought it up. I am that old.

As a former sailor, I don’t believe that the Navy has ever lost its sense of pride.
In regards to the Osama incident, it would have been much better if he was brought to trial and executed or even better served life imprisonment at a super-max facility. He would have been an example of what happens to idiot assassins than becoming a martyr.