Quote:
Originally Posted by 1 Observer
Please explain ... "implications" which are ... what? (I ask at the risk of appearing entirely agnostic)... For sure we loose credebility if we DON'T "wack Waldo". I'm sure we are already being subjected to some rather raucous laughter.That being agreed upon...now further queries, in parts.
A) What happens if we DO, get the job done?
B) Who fills the void?
C) Where will the fight move? How much traction would we provide this anti west sentiment?
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Our credibility is at stake, here. We've sworn to destroy those that had a hand in this horrible act, and we are duty-bound to do so. To fail at that is to demonstrate lack of will or capability, and either of those damages us in the eyes of friends and foe alike. As Napoleon said, 'If you set out to take Vienna, TAKE VIENNA.'
Furthermore, I disagree that ObL is somehow 'unimportant', or that he's not a strategic target, an irreplaceable asset to our enemy. He's ALL of that, and as long as he's alive, he functions as a recruiter, a spiritual head, an example of unbroken resistance, and he's an affront to the people that act with us to defeat him.
Will he be replaced? OF COURSE, just like General Patton would've been had he been killed in WWII, or just as Cromwell would've been in the English Civil War. But they represented FAR more than just the heads of military forces in the field; they were symbolically the face of their sides in the conflict, and to have them replaced by some no-name, colorless and uninspiring commander sends a signal to their troops and ours: that figure that had grown so huge in your eyes, and that had embodied the Cause is DEAD, and our stock is lower today than it was when he was alive.
And lastly, the notion that ObL will prove more valuable to aQ dead than alive is on the face of it laughable. If we manage to 'martyr' Osama, I expect that he WILL become a legendary figure. But he's that NOW, and the fact that he's still 'in the field' and fighting, unbroken, and defiant of US efforts and might, has a BENEFIT to aQ that a dead Osama won't be able to provide.
And if we manage to kill him at long last, it also provides a tangible benefit to OUR people, too. That goes without explanation.