# bin Laden is dead? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 2, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436 "2011-05-02T02:46:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/341 "2011-05-06T02:26:18Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Are you dumb enough to believe that is a fact? Our politicians have a terrible problem cutting expensive programs that nobody wants . > You learned everything you know by the first year of college, then spent the rest of your like defending the simple little truths you have accepted. > Did you ever hear of Jackson, Grant, Eisenhower,? Sure the civilians are in control. To be fair none of these guys drove the country towards a military dictatorship. IIRC Eisenhower warned us of the military industrial complex in his farewell speech, its where all the hippies picked up the term from. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/342 "2011-05-06T02:27:54Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Who claimed that? I thought you did: > [@](#): > > Obama was calling the shots and he could have bombed the compound like some people wanted, he could have said “lets go get him back” and he could have done all this back in AUGUST OF LAST YEAR when they found Osama. You remember last fall when it looked like the Republicans weren’t only going to take the house but might take the senate as well? I’m not saying that we should expect any less from our President but he could have ordered the assault last fall. But he didn’t order an immediate attack, he let the SEALs prepare for 8 months when most operations don’t have 8 weeks (and many don’t even have 8 days) to prepare. He let them build a replica of the compound and practice in that replica for months before the operation. At least part of the reason this operation is so encouraging is because NONE of the seals died and that’s not always the case and THAT is because Obama didn’t rush things. A lot of things could have gone wrong in those 8 months, there could have been a leak, Osama could have left, there could have been another terrorist attack, a LOT of things could have happened but Obama made the call that he did and things turned out about as well as they could have and I think Obama deserves more than a token amount of credit for how well things turned out. Seriously, my apologizes if I misunderstood. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/343 "2011-05-06T02:29:30Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > [List of presidents of the United States by military rank - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Presidents_by_military_rank) > We were all taught crap like that when we were young, but for most adults, when the evidence proves otherwise, we abandon our childhood beliefs and replace them with one that is responsive to the evidence. > Sure XT just like the "law of supply and demand’. You cling to these immature concepts and Peter Pan your way through life. I have generally found that Republicans with military backgrounds are more likely to put country before party than Republicans without military backgrounds. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/344 "2011-05-06T02:36:36Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Does the Air National Guard count as military experience? 🙂 I sense a “I hate Bush more than you do” debate coming on. So now apparently Bush feels snubbed by Obama in all this: > **[SEDUNIATOTO | Agen Toto Togel & Toto Slot Online Pasti Maxwin](https://www.aviationmatters.co/squawking-7700-in-aviation/)** > > SEDUNIATOTO menghadirkan situs toto togel dan toto slot gacor dijamin hoki selalu, mainkan di setiap saat dimanapun dan kapanpun kamu bisa bermain dengan berbagai pasaran dan provider terlengkap ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/345 "2011-05-06T02:49:16Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > I have generally found that Republicans with military backgrounds are more likely to put country before party than Republicans without military backgrounds. I think they all want to screw us and help the wealthy keep their money. I figure we’d probably be on the same side in a bar fight, though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/346 "2011-05-06T03:45:16Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/347 "2011-05-06T03:57:36Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > To be fair none of these guys drove the country towards a military dictatorship. IIRC Eisenhower warned us of the military industrial complex in his farewell speech, its where all the hippies picked up the term from. [Historycentral: History's Home on the Web](http://www.historycentral.com/wars.html) We have been at war non fucking stop. If you include incursions like Panama and many other, you see we never quit invading.. We have over 800 bases in over 120 different countries. The Military Industrial Complex is real. He was going to call it the Military, industrial and media complex, but was talked out of it. Ike would have been even more prophetic. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline\_of\_United\_States\_military\_operations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_military_operations) Here is a list that shows our interventions too, We have been very busy. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/348 "2011-05-06T18:11:40Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I thought you did: > > Seriously, my apologizes if I misunderstood. Yeah, you misunderstood. My point was that Obama had a laundry list of options and waiting 8 months so that we could be super-prepared for the sort of operation we ended up having was probably not at the top of the list of options being presented to Obama. We can monday morning quarterback him all day long. Some of my liberal friends think that he should have done this back in September or October with a couple of months of preparation (still a LOT of lead time as far as these things go). It would have affected the November elections AND we would probably have cut our troop presence in Afghanistan in half by now. I think he handled this pretty well, a lot of things could have gone wrong and I think Obama deserves more credit than “well he just happens to be the guy sitting in the white house when all this went down” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/349 "2011-05-06T18:16:15Z")
I hope he’s intelligent enough to listen to his military advisers and did what they suggested. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/350 "2011-05-06T18:20:04Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I hope he’s intelligent enough to listen to his military advisers and did what they suggested. > 🙂 And pick _good_military advisors rather than yes men who couldn’t or wouldn’t tell him the difference between fighting a war and rebuilding a country. (With the high-prices ‘services’ of his VP’s company jacking up the deficit.) ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/351 "2011-05-06T18:21:03Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I think they all want to screw us and help the wealthy keep their money. > > I figure we’d probably be on the same side in a bar fight, though. 🙂 Sure, Republicans are for smaller central government but there is a difference between having a difference of opinion on what is good for the country and being so fucking sure that your ideas are better than the other guy’s ideas that you have convinced yourself that getting and maintaining a majority is more important “for the country” than things that are really important to the country. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/352 "2011-05-06T18:24:07Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > [Historycentral: History's Home on the Web](http://www.historycentral.com/wars.html) We have been at war non fucking stop. If you include incursions like Panama and many other, you see we never quit invading.. We have over 800 bases in over 120 different countries. > > The Military Industrial Complex is real. He was going to call it the Military, industrial and media complex, but was talked out of it. Ike would have been even more prophetic. > > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline\_of\_United\_States\_military\_operations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_military_operations) Here is a list that shows our interventions too, We have been very busy. If your point is that we have a militaristic history, then I don’t think anyone can disagree with you. I thought you were saying that folks like Eisenhower were part of some concerted effort to maintain some sort of military government. I for one support having the largest military in the world. I do not support having a larger military than the rest of then world combined. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/353 "2011-05-06T18:38:25Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > If your point is that we have a militaristic history, then I don’t think anyone can disagree with you. I thought you were saying that folks like Eisenhower were part of some concerted effort to maintain some sort of military government. > > I for one support having the largest military in the world. I do not support having a larger military than the rest of then world combined. I for one don’t. If you build it you will use it. But then our military budget is larger than the rest of the world combined. Wouldn’t you agree we could cut back a little? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/354 "2011-05-06T20:26:36Z")
> [@margin](#): > > And pick _good_military advisors rather than yes men who couldn’t or wouldn’t tell him the difference between fighting a war and rebuilding a country. Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/355 "2011-05-06T20:27:36Z")
I can’t help thinking that OBL was basically a figurehead, and that there are plenty of people within al Qaeda equally if not _more_ capable of running it (assuming OBL was responsible for running it and not, as suggested, just a figurehead) That in mind, I can’t help thinking that his death makes NO positive short or long term change to the general safety of the world. And having said _that_, I equally don’t think the world is or was ever in much danger in the first place, statistically and relatively speaking. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/356 "2011-05-07T23:40:13Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > I can’t help thinking that OBL was basically a figurehead, and that there are plenty of people within al Qaeda equally if not _more_ capable of running it (assuming OBL was responsible for running it and not, as suggested, just a figurehead) > > That in mind, I can’t help thinking that his death makes NO positive short or long term change to the general safety of the world. > > And having said _that_, I equally don’t think the world is or was ever in much danger in the first place, statistically and relatively speaking. Why can’t you help thinking that? Sure, there’s probably other people that could do the job, but Osama has been recruiting and financing counterinsurgencies since the early 80’s. What makes you so easily say he’s probably not all that great at it? That he’s probably just a figurehead? Your last two points could be easily applied to almost any crime we stop or punish. So unless your point is that we shouldn’t bother enforcing any laws, I don’t see one. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/357 "2011-05-08T01:48:37Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > And having said _that_, I equally don’t think the world is or was ever in much danger in the first place, statistically and relatively speaking. You could say that about anything to do with safety, too. But then again the US’s role isn’t to protect the world, just its own citizens. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/358 "2011-05-08T09:02:44Z")
Wow, I just heard this news. Do you think he is really dead? It is weird, you would have thought something this big would have gotten more coverage. At least a mention or two on the news. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436/359 "2011-05-08T11:43:26Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Wow, I just heard this news. Do you think he is really dead? > > It is weird, you would have thought something this big would have gotten more coverage. At least a mention or two on the news. Nobody is being whooshed by that, Bub. :dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-is-dead/580436.md?page=17)