Posted on 05/02/2011 8:04:10 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Barack Obama vetoed a plan for stealth bombers to blow up Osama Bin Laden's compound in March so special forces could get DNA evidence to confirm he was dead.
The U.S. President gave the all clear for an air strike on the 54-year-old's hideaway - but backed out.
Military leaders were going to drop 2,000lb bombs from two B2 stealth bombers on the secure site yards from Pakistan's military academy, sources revealed.
But Obama told the military to hold off, and instead an elite team American forces killed the terrorist during a firefight.
The President vetoed the original plan so the U.S. could preserve the terror leader's remains and prove that he had been killed, ABC News reported.
DNA samples taken from the body showed the man killed was '99.9 per cent certain' to be Bin Laden.
Detailed photo analysis by the CIA, confirmation by other people at the raid site and matching physical features like bin Laden's height all helped confirmed the identification.
His body was swiftly dumped at sea so that his burial site did not become a shrine.
Destroying the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, from the air would have killed all 22 people inside - including women and children potentially sparking an angry backlash from the international community.
The daring mission to take out the world's most wanted man was finally given the go-ahead last Friday, according to the source.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Frankly.... it was better this way.
Yeah, but he’s fortunate no good guys
killed in this operation
without DNA proof it would have been years of speculation and conspiracy theories.... maybe we’ll have that anyway but let’s hope less of it.....
I agree. I’m not sure if Obama did it for the right reasons, but it was the right thing to do none the less.
Yes, how convenient.
Otherwise, we might have never known for sure. Also, we wouldn’t have the huge trove of computers, hard-drives, etc. that we picked up. Could very well be key to averting terrorist attacks that were in the works.
Agreed, and as much as it pains me to say it, there’s really no room to criticize him on this. If this exact same thing happened on May 1, 2008 Republicans and conservatives everywhere would be hailing Bush as the greatest thing ever and celebrating how he got Bin Laden. Or if it happened and McCain was President. Obama should get credit on this.
I also give him credit for ordering the raid in the first place. I don’t think Bill Clinton would have done such a thing(he’d have stuck with cruise missiles and likely not gotten him).
Politically this is obviously a huge win for Obama. There’s really nothing to say in opposition to it and it pretty much neutralizes any criticism of his foreign policy or security policy going forward. Imagine the 2012 debate when whoever the GOP nominee is brings up something security related and he just says “I’m sorry Mitt(or whoever), could you repeat that, I was just thinking about what happened when we killed Bin Laden and I missed what you said...”
Fortunately, this happened now and there’s still plenty of time until Nov 2012. Lots can happen, just ask W’s father.
But going forward it will likely rise and fall on the economy. If gas prices continue to rise and inflation grows he’ll be in trouble even with this.
For now, though, it’s a huge win, and it will likely last for some time.
How can we be sure they got the DNA sample from the body?
Sure is nice to have such a trustworthy guy in the white house, guided so clearly by traditional American morals.
/s
Wow, he used ‘common sense’ for the first time. Dead is not dead if there is no proof. Much better this way
Not one ounce of credit. Not one inch of credit to the Left.
I will not forget the past 10 years. Never.
Liberals did everything in their power to obstruct the prosecution of the war, to handicap and demonize our troops, to defund their operations, to cut budgets on intelligence, and where they didn’t cut it, to effectively hamstring it.
The Left took the side of the terrorists every chance they got. Liberals did their best to scream in one ear of our troops in the field and down in Gitmo while they tried to do their jobs, making it difficult and attempting to demoralize them. They tried to force civilian trials and grant the rights of citizenship to these scumbags who were responsible or complicit by ideology in the gruesome deaths of thousands of innocent Americans.
I WILL NOT FORGET WHAT THEY HAVE DONE. Never
I give all the credit to the US military and those intelligence agencies that have been able to continue functioning in spite of the left.
But I will NEVER give any credit to the Left in this. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER.
There are enough people calling BS now. Imagine if the place had been pancaked.
OK ...He has one up on Carter.
(I wanna see bin Laden's death certificate :))
President Obama handled this operation with near perfection.
Yes this is very good news
If so he made the right call. Credit where it’s due.
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